Macbook 14" cracked display - user error?

[Joesg]

My 14" Macbook screen suddenly cracked, extending from the top edge while I was merely tilting the display, causing a large black line to appear which then gradually spread and now the whole display is black and dead.

The Apple store genius said that this was accidental damage and not covered under warranty. I explained there was no damage other than tilting the display as with normal use, but he said this is Apple's policy on cracked screens like this. I agreed to have it sent in to be "judged" if it will really be covered under warranty or not but I will probably agree to pay the £600 ($750).

Assuming Apple is correct and it is indeed somehow my fault, what was it I could be doing wrong? How can I prevent it in the future?

The genius couldn't come up with an explanation how it might have happened but recommended buying a screen protector. Is this good advice? I've heard bad things about screen protectors potentially causing damage on their own.

 

[wordsworth]

I believe there have been other users experiencing similar problems. Maybe check the forums here for what others have posted about this subject.

I certainly wouldn't be at all happy if my new MacBook's screen did this. This seems to be happening to other current-range Mac laptop users, too, and may well end up ultimately as a 'Screengate' issue and law suit at Apple's expense. That would be in the future however. For now, Apple ought to find in your favour but in the meantime do you have household insurance that would cover such damage? That may be of use depending on what Apple 'judges'. Did you pay for the MacBook by credit card? If so it may be covered by your credit card company, as yet another option.

Personally, the various PowerBooks, MacBooks, and MacBook Airs that I have used in the past and currently did/do not have screen real estate that was so delicate and fragile that merely closing the lid was an issue and fraught with peril. It seems that buying Apple products these days is something of a lottery and despite Apple's eye-watering profits it's time they got a grip on the essentials, across-the-board (no pun intended) reliability being one of them.

 

[hoo-man-b-ing]

While I don’t know anyone who has had a similar experience, I’m sorry that yours cracked like this.

I’m not a mechanical engineer, but my best guess is that something contributed to the cracking before you tilted the display. Things that could:
- storing your laptop in a compressed area (eg in a backpack chock full of books) or under pressure (eg under a stack of books)
- extreme sudden change in temperature (eg you had been walking around in freezing temperatures and then brought it to a toasty location and/or caused the screen to suddenly heat by cranking up the brightness, especially using non-official software)
- a hard particulate (eg sand) was caught between the palm rest and screen the last time you closed your laptop and was under enough pressure to create a hairline fracture.

But these are all fairly unlikely scenarios. For reference, I used a 14” MacBook Pro for about 8 months and took it everywhere without being especially protective of it and never had any issues.

I do enjoy and recommend a GhostBlanket for keeping the screen clear of keyboard impressions, but it also adds a modicum of absorption for some of the pressurized scenarios above. Might be something to consider if you think it would help.

 

[ctjack]

Might be the case if you used only one side of a screen to close it - either left or right. The best way to close the lid is by the center.

 

[Joesg]

Might be the case if you used only one side of a screen to close it - either left or right. The best way to close the lid is by the center.

I have a habit of only using the right upper corner to close it, maybe this was contributing.

 

[Joesg]

While I don’t know anyone who has had a similar experience, I’m sorry that yours cracked like this.

I’m not a mechanical engineer, but my best guess is that something contributed to the cracking before you tilted the display. Things that could:
- storing your laptop in a compressed area (eg in a backpack chock full of books) or under pressure (eg under a stack of books)
- extreme sudden change in temperature (eg you had been walking around in freezing temperatures and then brought it to a toasty location and/or caused the screen to suddenly heat by cranking up the brightness, especially using non-official software)
- a hard particulate (eg sand) was caught between the palm rest and screen the last time you closed your laptop and was under enough pressure to create a hairline fracture.

But these are all fairly unlikely scenarios. For reference, I used a 14” MacBook Pro for about 8 months and took it everywhere without being especially protective of it and never had any issues.

I do enjoy and recommend a GhostBlanket for keeping the screen clear of keyboard impressions, but it also adds a modicum of absorption for some of the pressurized scenarios above. Might be something to consider if you think it would help.

Thanks for the possible explanations and the recommendation.

The only possibility that fits is a grain or something. But I can't imagine a little grain of sand could cause so much damage!

The Ghostblanket might be useful in such scenarios but it doesn't appear to go to the very edges so I think a screen protector would be a bit better.

 

[ctjack]

I have a habit of only using the right upper corner to close it, maybe this was contributing.

I am sorry that it happened to you. We all close by the side but the thing that worked million times might not work that one time.
The newest generation of Apple laptops have decreased the thickness of the lid (that is why we have no more Apple logo with illumination) which increased the surface tension. Thus, closing the lid from the corner increases the strain on the display.
I also suspect there was a debris caught up before which created a dot crack on the display before, which "gave up" during the regular lid closure.

The same happened when I was a kid. My dad asked to wash his car as i always did before. It was a very hot summer afternoon. I usually presoak the car by dropping buckets of water on it. Bucket is filled straight from the garden hose which is a cold water.
Now imagine, I splash the water from the bucket onto the windshield - my face changed when the water created the biggest crack on the windshield from top to bottom which was spotless before the splash.
I thought i would be disowned the same moment and father would be mad. But he was chill... because he said he knew he had a small crack on it which he didn't have time to fix - so when I splashed ice cold water onto the very hot windshield it made a crack to become worse. This way it went from invisible dot scratch/crack to the 3 feet grand canyon on the glass.