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Damaged Retina Macbook Pro - what to do?

A

applepie555

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 7, 2012
114
0
My retina macbook pro (15" 2012) fell off my bed and the chassis became dented on the right side. Fortunately it is working fine and the screen was closed so that was not damaged (as far as i can tell). In addition I also discovered that the screw on the bottom of the right side is missing, and the screw directly to the left of it is in place but appears not to be actually holding the bottom plate in place.

Here is the damage.
a33RAM.jpg

ICU9FL.jpg

ADoI4o.jpg


I'm have apple care 3 year warranty but I assume this would not be covered, so is there anything I can do to fix the damage (and is it even worth worrying about)? And where can I get a new screw?
 
Learn to live with it, or get a new machine.

Screws, case bottom, case top are available from ifixit, but you won't like the prices.
 
Unfortunately replacing the bottom chassi would involve a complete rebuild motherboard and everything else.. you could however check the holding tabs of the screws by removing the bottom panel and see if you can bend the tabs enough to make them align with the screws if the tabs are not stripped.
 
Bummers man - but as others stated. Your best bet is to live with it. The cost of repairing it is going to be hefty.

It must have taken quite a hit, to knock out a screw, or was it already loose?
 
Does anything rattle or sound loose? I would guess that if one screw is missing and another appears not to be retaining anything the fittings that the screws attach to have broken off the motherboard.
 
Bring it to Apple and ask how much to fix it? Maybe they can make a good offer?

If not, I would in any case remove the bottom plate to check if there are any loose parts flying around and remove these before screwing it back together as well as possible.
 
ask for battery replacement, they will change whole chassis, because battery is glued to it and in official service manual for battery replacement in retina macbook pro is that they have to change whole chassis
 
Cibike said:
ask for battery replacement, they will change whole chassis, because battery is glued to it and in official service manual for battery replacement in retina macbook pro is that they have to change whole chassis
Click to expand...

I would think they will charge him above and beyond what a battery replacement will cost because the chassis is damaged.
 
You now have a new Mac Mini. Get another one and use this as your Apple TV, or desktop. Main lesson here, is if you are using it on the TV, it pays to at the very least use Romote Pro, or get wireless BT keyboard and trackpad. Also, keep it on a flat sturdy surface if it's connected to an external monitor. Get a good case. Believe it or not, they will reduce the damage. Last, buy an old used Macbook that you can be careless with, cause that one looks beat.

Sorry to say you're just going to have to deal with it. Whatever the cost, learning something is priceless. Good luck.
 
Thank you everyone for all the input.

Since it seems that replacement would be very expensive, I have tried to fix the damage on my own. Using a little physical force (and clamps), I was able to somewhat counter some of the dent and bend the chassis back into it's original shape. It's not perfect, but it looks a lot better and is enough where I feel that replacement is not really necessary, and I'm not going to do any more work on it as I feel like it could potentially cause more harm than good.

The remaining issue is the screws. Since the two rightmost screws either are missing or not actually holding the bottom plate to the rest of the computer, there is a very small gap between the two plates when the computer is not on something.

The second rightmost screw is still there, but it seems like the part of the bottom board that the screw holds down it is missing, so the screw doesn't seem to do anything. Would there be any way to fix this except replacing the bottom plate?

If I can't fix that screw hole I'm thinking of moving that screw to the rightmost hole that is missing a screw, but I am unsure if the screws are the same size.

maflynn said:
Bummers man - but as others stated. Your best bet is to live with it. The cost of repairing it is going to be hefty.

It must have taken quite a hit, to knock out a screw, or was it already loose?
Click to expand...

I think the screw may have already been loose but I'm not sure. It may have been missing before the fall but I think that is unlikely, however I could not find the missing screw anywhere near where the computer fell.
 
applepie555 said:
The second rightmost screw is still there, but it seems like the part of the bottom board that the screw holds down it is missing, so the screw doesn't seem to do anything. Would there be any way to fix this except replacing the bottom plate?

If I can't fix that screw hole I'm thinking of moving that screw to the rightmost hole that is missing a screw, but I am unsure if the screws are the same size.

8 X 3.0 mm screws - 2X 2.3mm screws (two by the hinge center, all the rest are 3.0mm.

The bottom plate is just a drilled plate/cover. The chassi has molded tabs with threaded screw holes. You just need to try and align the screws so that they actually thread into the tabs of the chassi. Since the screws are very short, you may have to find equivalent screws but longer if the warpage will not allow you to screw in the short screws that won't reach the chassi tabs?.
Click to expand...
 
OP, ask to see how much they will charge to get the battery replaced. Like someone here said, when u want to change out the battery, a whole new lower chassis will be needed.

They charge $199 to replace battery and I'm not sure when they see the damage, they'll charge u more.
 
Last edited:
rgarjr said:
They charge $199 to replace battery and I'm not sure when they see the damage, they'll charge u more.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure apple will, it can't hurt to ask, but Apple is not stupid and they'll see that a chassis replacement is needed and tack that on to the cost.
 
but if he say that he want only battery replacement and don't give a **** about chassis, glued battery and other apple bright ideas, they can't charge him for chassis replacement too, he doesn't want to repair chassis, he want just new battery... sure, they will replaced chassis too, but they will do this anyway, no matter if is chassis like new or damaged like this one
 
Last edited:
thewap said:
8 X 3.0 mm screws - 2X 2.3mm screws (two by the hinge center, all the rest are 3.0mm.

The bottom plate is just a drilled plate/cover. The chassi has molded tabs with threaded screw holes. You just need to try and align the screws so that they actually thread into the tabs of the chassi. Since the screws are very short, you may have to find equivalent screws but longer if the warpage will not allow you to screw in the short screws that won't reach the chassi tabs?.
Click to expand...

Okay so it sounds like I can't use the screw from the hinge center on the outside since that is only 2.3 m, so where can I get a new 3.0mm screw? The screw set from iFixit is way too expensive and has way too many screws.

Also it's not that the other screw doesn't reach the chassis tabs, the tabs on the bottom plate are missing in that screw hole so there is no way the screw can hold the bottom plate in place.

Cibike said:
but if he say that he want only battery replacement and don't give a **** about chassis, glued battery and other apple bright ideas, they can't charge him for chassis replacement too, he doesn't want to repair chassis, he want just new battery... sure, they will replaced chassis too, but they will do this anyway, no matter if is chassis like new or damaged like this one
Click to expand...
Regardless, now that I have managed to counter some of the damage I don't think I'm willing to pay $200 to fix it since it really isn't even that bad anymore. And the battery is fine 88-90% original capacity, 218 cycles. If the battery was also in poor conditions, maybe that would have helped justify some of the cost but that is not the case.
 
BoneDaddy said:
You now have a new Mac Mini. Get another one and use this as your Apple TV, or desktop. Main lesson here, is if you are using it on the TV, it pays to at the very least use Romote Pro, or get wireless BT keyboard and trackpad. Also, keep it on a flat sturdy surface if it's connected to an external monitor. Get a good case. Believe it or not, they will reduce the damage. Last, buy an old used Macbook that you can be careless with, cause that one looks beat.

Sorry to say you're just going to have to deal with it. Whatever the cost, learning something is priceless. Good luck.
Click to expand...

This guy knows how to turn lemons in to lemonade! :cool:
 
applepie555 said:
Okay so it sounds like I can't use the screw from the hinge center on the outside since that is only 2.3 m, so where can I get a new 3.0mm screw? The screw set from iFixit is way too expensive and has way too many screws.

Also it's not that the other screw doesn't reach the chassis tabs, the tabs on the bottom plate are missing in that screw hole so there is no way the screw can hold the bottom plate in place.
Click to expand...

You could try ordering a screw set from Apple (they are good at screwing people lately).

If the plate is stripped , a makeshift washer? (or a new back cover)
 
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