Macbook Palm Rest Crack Woes

[waynechriss]

So its been a week since my one year warranty expired and i have a cracked palm rest that stretches alongside the entire left hand side of the trackpad on the macbook. It looks really bad. I've gone through two case replacements and even saved the receipts and this will have to be the third time. Few questions:

1. Will Apple replace the case out of warranty, especially if i show proof i've had to repair it several times.
2. Does Apple do anything after multiple cracked cases? (i.e trade in for new macbook anything of that sort?).
3. Is there a way to prevent future cracked palm rests.

 

[koco]

I think they will fix it for you. I doubt they will just give you a new macbook.

 

[briansolomon]

I had problems with a cracking palm rest, too, among many other problems with my first gen Macbook. It was so bad they replaced the entire machine. Since then I've been careful to use this screen protector and I've gone two years and the palmrest looks good. Just a couple very small rub marks. It's a screen protector but I swear it protects the keyboard rest as much if not more than the screen. Gotta use it everytime you shut your machine. Sometimes hard to keep up with.

http://www.shaggymac.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_4&products_id=80

 

[Fast/Furious]

1. Will Apple replace the case out of warranty, especially if i show proof i've had to repair it several times.
2. Does Apple do anything after multiple cracked cases? (i.e trade in for new macbook anything of that sort?).
3. Is there a way to prevent future cracked palm rests.

1. They usually will. Where I live, your MacBook has to be under 36 months old. Mine was 37 months old when the Genius Bar replaced it, Apple generally is very lenient with recalls and defects so you shouldn't worry

2. No. They have absolutely zero obligation to give you a new MacBook, and certainly not a brand-new one especially since you're out of warranty. Maybe if you have a really nice Genius they will give you a refurbished unibody MacBook, but as far as I know this is very very very rare.

3. Not without being OCD.. what I could recommend is putting white foam on the two ------ ------- (sorry, only way I could explain it) that sit on top of the display. What I notice is that the closing action and the force of the magnet pushes these pieces against the palmrest, causing cracks in the long run especially since the plastic gets relatively hot during normal use.

 

[chrissgs]

I do think mine was out of warranty when they gave me a top case. I guess it just depends who you talk to about it, because 2 people said they could not replace it, but then the genius replaced it and I went back for it in about 2 hrs. It is worth asking multiple people if you get the chance

 

[Resist]

Decided to take the better half's 3 year old (out of warranty) white Macbook with the same palm rest cracking issue, to our local Apple store after reading about it on this forum and sure enough they fixed it for free. They also replaced the screen bezel. This computer even had an Apple Care extended warranty that was never used and had expired, (big waste of money).

Clearly the screen bezel tabs are the cause of the palm rest cracks, as the cracking is directly under those two points. The newer white Macbooks don't have those two tabs on the bezel, so there won't be those two pressure points on the palm rest to cause this issue.

I am very pleased Apple fixed the computer for free, but wish they had replaced the screen bezel with the newer version, that uses a full lip. I'm sure this tab version will just crack again down the road, hopefully not before it's time to upgrade to a new Macbook.