MBP survives 6 story fall

[Guitar701]

This actually happened this past December, but I thought some of you might be interested.


I lived on the 6th floor of a building at the ski resort I previously worked at. I would regularly set my MBP in the window sill to get better building wifi signal. On this particular night the computer was open and basically touching the window screen. I fell asleep while watching some Arrested Development and awoke to the sight of an empty window and the terrible realisation that my computer had in fact not fallen to the floor but rather the ground 6 floors down. Obviously furious frustration ensued. I marched down the stairs to retrieve my new trash acquisition only to find that it turned on. Sure the screen was smashed but I had backlight, so I blindly logged in and used keyboard commands to play something from itunes. I had no way of hooking it up to an external monitor for about a month and also had to make a little modification so the mag safe would make contact and charge. When the time finally came I got it hooked up and and currently still using the setup pictured in the attached file.

MBP from 6 stories up through a window screen.

I post this only for your entertainment and maybe some ideas for modification. Not to ask how much or where the best place to get a new screen and all new aluminum. Google already told me it would be tons of cash to fix it. Maybe a future media center.

A shame really. I had only owned it for about 7 months. At least it isn't completely wasted.

The Apple MacBook Pro
Defying Newton's Law

 

[Tobias Funke]

Maybe explaining what the second picture is might help your story ?!

 

[sweetbrat]

Maybe explaining what the second picture is might help your story ?!

Looks like shingles, so I'm guessing it's part of the roof and the ground (with snow on it). So it would appear to be the view from the window it fell out of.

OP,that's a very mangled machine. Must be that the screen took most of the force of the fall. Glad to hear that it still works, even though it's not pretty.

 

[Xcallibur]

Pretty impressive that it still works after a fall like that! It must have took all the impact on the left corner of the screen, I think the second picture may be the building from which it dropped?

 

[Astroboy907]

Sorry to say this OP. check on eBay for a new display assembly for your model. Got one here for $80

 

[dusk007]

How does the rest of the unibody look.
It seems like the rest still sort of works.
You could also either sell it on ebay and get some bucks.
Or but another dead MBP form ebay that still has a working unibody and screen.
Replace parts and if may work again.
7months quite young. So a fix might be worth it. If you can fix it for 500 bucks.

 

[Jessica Lares]

The MacBooks have a sensor in them that automatically prompts the hard drive to shut off if they're hit against the wall or dropped down stairs/a building like yours was to avoid data loss. I accidentally let that happen with my other MBP once when I dropped it from a chair - So it's pretty good at short distances even.

I think you'll find that some people like taking the display off completely and somehow getting an external wired into it. I don't know how that works, and if it's still doable with unibody models, but it's pretty cool and you don't have to arch over to look at the screen.

Oh, and I got a keyboard replacement for like $40 here, so just be on the lookout really.

 

[Guitar701]

Yes that is the view from the window. Sorry about that.

I had looked on ebay but it seems hit or miss. I have had good luck and bad luck buying iPhone screens and replacing them from ebay or ebay sellers disguised as amazon merchants.

Unibody is mangled enough on the corner with the mag safe connector that i don't think it would close properly if i just bought a new display assembly. I'm thinking I need a whole new unibody. There is no real damage inside, I've only taken the bottom cover off once.

As far as how it landed and what took the fall, all I can say is that physics is a strange subject. That's why I went to school for Music.

 

[Sid-R]

Today on Macrumors

Irony...

 

[Guitar701]

Also, I am using an external keyboard/mouse setup with the mangled machine out of the way. Using the built in keyboard got a little old.

Also I haven't posted on MR since I got my first iMac in 05. As you may be able to tell by that terribly out dated signature.

 

[biohead]

Not pretty, but not a massacre either. Glad to hear it at least partially works!

 

[Adam552]

Wow can't believe it survived! My old external hard drive died after a <2ft fall.

It actually looks like it's sitting in hospital, wired upto a life support system.

 

[calibrationx]

If you bought an LCD assembly and replaced it yourself, it'd probably be much less than taking it to the Apple Store.

 

[Marrakas]

This is where Gandalf would join in and say: "Fool of a Took, throw yourself in next time."

lol