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MBP has a Magnet inside the screen

L

lauph

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2007
178
0
30 mins from Cupertino
I dont know if this has been posted, but i found the location of a magnet in the MacBook Pro's screen, and found out its use.

After reading alot about MacBook's screen having magnets around the edges for its magnetic latch system, and the MacBok Pros having none due to its mechanical latch, i kinda accepted that.

Today i was playing around with a magnet and sweeping it along the MBP(yes i know it is very dangerous for the components inside blablabla) and it suddenly went to sleep! i sweeped the area again, and it woke up!

that area is:
61uoll2.jpg

just below the grilles, at the right edge.
sweep it with a not too strong magnet and try it out.
Disclaimer: Try at your own risk, If any internal components die due to the magnetism, do not blame me.

And i got a metal wire and put it on the screen, the part that will be closest to the sensitive spot when the lid is closed, and the wire is attracted to the screen.
4znpnnr.jpg

So there is a magnet in the MBP screen.

So the sleep mechanism in the MBP lid closing is a magnetic switch, and not some sensor in the hinge.

This answers my questions about the "what to do when i click the sleep button" in power settings when i use bootcamp XP, as all other PCs i have used only have "what to do when i "close the lid" and "press the sleep button"", and a "sleep button" is something i have never seen before(i have seen sleep buttons on keyboards, but not on the casings/laptops)


I tried putting the apple remote there, but the magnet was too weak and could not hold the remote.
 
interesting

nice...that is interesting. i never put much thought into it but i was curious about what the actual mechanism was that put it to sleep upon closing it.
 
I'll have to give this a whirl on my PowerBook. I'm sure it's the same. Cool find!
 
I thought that's what that magnet was for! When i replaced my LCD on my MBP a little while back there was this tiny magnet right on the side of the frame that i had to be careful not to lose... had a feeling it was part of the sleep sensor...
 
Very common to use a magnet and a reed switch to detect closing screens. Almost all flip phones I imagine employ this method as well to detect when the phone is closed.
 
I did this with my MacBook too, except the magnet on the screen corners is strong enough to hold up the remote if you put it in the right spot. :D

Heck, my old Dell clunker "laptop" even had magnets in it so it knew if it was closed.
 
Been knowing it since the iBook/powerbook =S Just didn't think it was worthy enough to justify a thread about it. Figured it was common knowledge that the macbook's/mbps use the same method to detect when the screen was closed.
 
I would consider this worthy of a new thread... i don't think that many ppl are aware of this. Anyway, here's a picture of where the magnet is located on the macbook for anybody who doesn't want to find it on their own.
 

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well, like i have said all other threads seem to say that there are lots of magnets(left side, top, right side) on the MB's screen, and can hold the remote, and that the MBP had NONE because its mechanical latch is enough, and thus it holds no remote.

This thread is just to prove there IS a magnet in the screen, though somehwat weaker than the MB's ones thats all.
 
i can feel my magnet slowly getting weaker and weaker. from all the tiny bumps and what not. when i used to press the button to pop open my mbp it used to turn on straight away the computer woke up straight away. but now i have to lift it up another 0.5cm's or so for it to recognise.
 
Marley said:
I would consider this worthy of a new thread... i don't think that many ppl are aware of this. Anyway, here's a picture of where the magnet is located on the macbook for anybody who doesn't want to find it on their own.
Click to expand...

Wow. You have alot of similar pencils!
 
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