Crushed Superdrive Opening

[Richdmoore]

My superdrive has a U shaped bend that is preventing a DVD from being put into the computer. I haven't put a dvd into the drive for about a week, and I have carried it on the road for a week, so I have no idea when the damage happened.

I already talked it over with the Genus, he said it was from carrying my computer open and holding it in the middle (near the DVD drive.) He said if you carry the computer open you should hold the palm rest only.

I'm getting the bottom case replaced, I have applecare but it doen't cover this kind of damage. The guy did cut me a break however, he is still charging me the $100 for a new bottom case, but is giving me the $80 labor for free.

My question is has anyone else heard about this issue with how you carry the macbook? From now on I'm going to always close the lid before I carry it anywhere, but I was just curious if this was a common thing.

 

[logana]

Hi - do you mean that the opening for the superdrive has become "tight" in the middle of the letterbox opening - then yes, this is quite common on MacBooks - the only way to fix it to take the topcase off, take out the optical drive and finally the metal letterbox thing. It will be crushed in the middle of the opening but can be opened up again with a large screwdriver wrapped in tape. It is fairly soft metal (alloy,aluminium maybe). Will take about an hour (less if you have done it before).

Most MacBooks end up being dropped or pushed about in that area so sooner or later you might have to do it again.

 

[Richdmoore]

Hi - do you mean that the opening for the superdrive has become "tight" in the middle of the letterbox opening - then yes, this is quite common on MacBooks - the only way to fix it to take the topcase off, take out the optical drive and finally the metal letterbox thing. It will be crushed in the middle of the opening but can be opened up again with a large screwdriver wrapped in tape. It is fairly soft metal (alloy,aluminium maybe). Will take about an hour (less if you have done it before).

Most MacBooks end up being dropped or pushed about in that area so sooner or later you might have to do it again.

Yep, that's the situation exactly. The genius had a special tool he put into the drive to try and fix the bar, but it still rubbed a test dvd so he said the whole bottom case has to be replaced.

If I had no warranty left, then I would maybe try to open the case myself, but I have 2 more years of applecare, and it isn't worth it to attempt it myself when apple is only charging me $100. Taking all that stuff off sounds pretty hard also, I don't want to ruin the computer by during the disassembly.

 

[vniow]

My question is has anyone else heard about this issue with how you carry the macbook? From now on I'm going to always close the lid before I carry it anywhere, but I was just curious if this was a common thing.

I've seen the problem, but only on Macbooks which have been dropped. The piece of metal that was bent is pretty fragile, but not to the point where you can squeeze it by holding the laptop by its side. Apple sillyness.

Seems silly that they'd replace the entire bottom case for that one part, the metal bit is removable but Apple does silly things. That thing is actually pretty susceptible to bending it back, get a thick enough putty knife, stick it in the slot and twist has done the trick with no damage a number of times.

 

[logana]

Seems silly that they'd replace the entire bottom case for that one part, the metal bit is removable but Apple does silly things. That thing is actually pretty susceptible to bending it back, get a thick enough putty knife, stick it in the slot and twist has done the trick with no damage a number of times.

I agree totally - but most MacBooks do end up getting dropped, bumped or squeezed in that area - eventually. The metal straightens up even if severely squeezed so replacing the bottom case is not necessary really.

No doubt other MacBook owners will read this post in the future and benefit from our collective "knowledge".