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Dropped my macbook...
- Thread starter tyedebbie
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Your HD probably died in the impact. You may need to replace it. You could try Applecare but don't tell em you dropped it.
tsk tsk...bad bad advice...that's called fraud, especially since the OP admitted he dropped it.
You know, stunts like this make a product more expensive (like Apple stuff isn't expensive enough). What Apple doesn't know won't hurt them, but it may certainly hurt the next guy who wants a return/fix and they clamp down on returns, making it difficult to remedy legit issues. If you total a car and lie about it to gain insurance money, you go to jail if you're caught. If you don't, SOMEONE is paying for your gain and it is the other consumers of the product.
I hope there is a dent in the Macbook that prevents him from abusing the system of warranty. I sympathize with the situation but to just tell him to hide the fact that he was at fault is blatantly fraudulent.
Sudden Motion Sensor....
MBs have a buit in memory that stores all sudden motion sensor data (basically its an accelerometer) so that apple can see if you dropped it.
It's the same think as the spill damage stickers...
MBs have a buit in memory that stores all sudden motion sensor data (basically its an accelerometer) so that apple can see if you dropped it.
It's the same think as the spill damage stickers...
OP, don't listen to those who say lie to Apple. Just buy a new HDD, they are $90 for the 5400rpm 320GB at newegg. BTW, thats the Western Digital HDD.
Don't worry OP, as long as its only your HDD, then you can replace it for less than $100.
For all of those who suggested "lie to Apple" shame on you...
Don't worry OP, as long as its only your HDD, then you can replace it for less than $100.
For all of those who suggested "lie to Apple" shame on you...
They'll know it was dropped. That's just plain stupid to say. Fraud or not, to think that you couldn't tell that the machine was dropped is silly. Sure, you can tell them that the HDD just died, but when they get the machine (you can't just send your HDD in) they'll know and charge you accordingly.
Give it a shot
I've been working on Macs for too long and even worked as a Mac Genius at one point, I can tell you that none of the Apple Stores will or even have the equipment to check the motion sensors built into the drive. People drop them all the time and specifically with a macbook, it's pretty easy to make it appear as though it was never dropped. Are we suspicious when you bring in a dead hard drive? God no. Pretty much all of the first and second revision macbook hard drives have a failure rate of about 85% (guess, but I'm sure I'm not far off) and the later revisions sit somewhere around 40%.
If you're using a drive that has Firmware version 7.01 get rid of it. It will just crap out on you one day. The read/write arm will just stop working making it impossible to economically recover the information from the drive.
With that said... I'll hold true to saying that you don't know if the drop caused your drive to fail. You don't even know if your drive has truly failed. 60% of the time, you could fix an issue with your symptoms by running a program called disk warrior. That other 40% is a drive issue forcing you to replace it.
Take it to the Apple Store and don't tell them you dropped it. You don't know that the drop caused the issue. It could easily be unfortunate timing. No one else here can be certain that the drop caused your issue either. They're just pretending that they know what they're talking about.
I've been working on Macs for too long and even worked as a Mac Genius at one point, I can tell you that none of the Apple Stores will or even have the equipment to check the motion sensors built into the drive. People drop them all the time and specifically with a macbook, it's pretty easy to make it appear as though it was never dropped. Are we suspicious when you bring in a dead hard drive? God no. Pretty much all of the first and second revision macbook hard drives have a failure rate of about 85% (guess, but I'm sure I'm not far off) and the later revisions sit somewhere around 40%.
If you're using a drive that has Firmware version 7.01 get rid of it. It will just crap out on you one day. The read/write arm will just stop working making it impossible to economically recover the information from the drive.
With that said... I'll hold true to saying that you don't know if the drop caused your drive to fail. You don't even know if your drive has truly failed. 60% of the time, you could fix an issue with your symptoms by running a program called disk warrior. That other 40% is a drive issue forcing you to replace it.
Take it to the Apple Store and don't tell them you dropped it. You don't know that the drop caused the issue. It could easily be unfortunate timing. No one else here can be certain that the drop caused your issue either. They're just pretending that they know what they're talking about.
There are ways (without having Mac Genius experience) of telling if the issue is a bad drive. I had a bad drive last year. I tested (applied basic A+ knowledge) and researched and when I took the drive to a Genius, guess what...the drive was toast. It shouldn't take a Genius to figure this out.
If the issue isn't HD-related, I'd be surprised, especially since the problems didn't start happening until after the drop. All of this still doesn't make a fraudulent report right. You guys must have left your morals at the pawn shop for $20.
I'm not saying I don't think it's a drive problem. There's just no real way to know whether or not the drop caused the problem. I would still say that there's a 50% chance diskwarrior could fix the issue... especially if it's getting to the apple logo. If the drive were truly dead, the machine would be showing you a flashing folder with a question mark inside upon boot.
Given the fact that most stock macbook hard drives are crap to begin with. I have no problem telling the OP to go the Apple Store and have the Genius take a look at it. They probably won't realize the drive has been dropped and the OP will get a good drive that should've come with the machine to begin with. If more people knew about the issues with the stock apple hard drives, we wouldn't even be having this argument.
You would've thought that by now they would have implemented that feature that locks the hard drive when it senses the laptop being dropped. What point is the accelerometer in that laptop if it doesn't have a major safety feature like that. I know those Hp Pavilion notebooks have that feature that saves the hard drive when it sense it being dropped, not sure why Apple hasn't done this yet.
I'm fairly certain that the Apple hard drives have this feature as well... it's just not a fool-proof technology. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no way that an accelerometer would be able to measure the drop motion every time. If it did, I think we would end up with a hard drive that is too sensitive and our machines would shut down on us all the time.
I could easily go from standing to sitting with my macbook at nearly the same speed as a "drop." That would then shut off my drive. So there must be some sort of drop speed that has to be achieved before the sensor is triggered... thus why some drive could get damaged.
umm, think you'll find this is exactly what the sudden motion sensor in the macbook is for.
although i dropped mine last year and the hard drive platter must have got scratched or something, needed a new drive.
So it should have locked the hard drive from spinning when it fell, and protected it. I wonder why it's having problems right after the drop then if the hard drive was locked.
go pick up a new HD
i ordered a SEAGATE Momentus 5400.4 ST9250827AS 250GB SATA 5400 RPM, for $74 shipped.
i ordered a SEAGATE Momentus 5400.4 ST9250827AS 250GB SATA 5400 RPM, for $74 shipped.
yea well done, i said thats what its for but not that it actually works, which is why i said it didnt save mine when i dropped it last year.
thats why i quoted the other guy because he said apple hasnt implemented it.
So not true and do not listen to this.
The macs have an accelerometer inside them. They are designed to detect a fast change in velocity and it is suppose to release the HD if it is dropped. A genius could look this up and see if engaged. I guess in the OPs case it was a really bad drop.