New bug in M1 Air

[EuroChilli]

Literally. How the hell it got in I have no idea, but it is there. It was still moving when I noticed it about 2 hours ago, so I was hoping it would see itself out, but it's now dead, almost in the middle of my screen. I bought this machine online in Belgium on April 13, 2021. I just contacted the seller website via facebook chat, and it is under a 2 year guarantee, but they said I better initiate an official return/repair, although the person I was just chatting to had no idea if I was actually eligible for anything.

So what do ya'll think? Am I?

Failing a replacement/removal of the bug, my missus has very kindly offered to swap laptops. She has the exact same one bought a few months later. But, I really don't want to do that, this is my problem. So either the bug goes away, or I learn to live with it.

 

[no_more]

You are.
I had a similar issue back in 2009 or when: after 6 months of using, there were some dust particles under display. They changed the lid.
The display should be sealed properly, otherwise it's a defect.

 

[EuroChilli]

No, really, it is! Here's hoping it leaves, or dies in the bezel.

 

[EuroChilli]

Dead under the bezel, I made sure of that. I really don't feel like the process of returning the laptop to an online shop, even if I'm eligible. The end.

 

[theorist9]

Yeah, packing it up for shipping is a pain. What about asking the seller if you can have them cover the costs of a repair at a local authorized Apple repair shop? Alternately, you might try makng a Genius Bar appt. at a local Apple Store, and seeing if Apple will cover it as a manufacturing defect, even if it's outside Apple's warranty (sometimes they will do that as a courtesy).

 

[EuroChilli]

Yeah, packing it up for shipping is a pain. What about asking the seller if you can have them cover the costs of a repair at a local authorized Apple repair shop? Alternately, you might try makng a Genius Bar appt. at a local Apple Store, and seeing if Apple will cover it as a manufacturing defect, even if it's outside Apple's warranty (sometimes they will do that as a courtesy).

I should have said "dead under the bezel, where I can't see it anymore. I made sure of that by gently pushing the area directly over where it crawled, thereby killing it and keeping it stuck under there, out of sight".

Sending it back now would be completely pointless as there is frankly nothing wrong with it anymore, although I do now have a permanent bug in my precioussss laptop that only I know about. No one else will be able to find it. The nearest Apple Store is 100km away, and running around looking for a closer authorised repair centre that can help me debug my laptop isn't really an option with the price of gas in Europe at the moment. Public transport would take even longer.

So yea, I think I'm all good now. Binging 'Manifest' on Netflix. Life goes on.

 

[Slartibart]

The nearest Apple Store is 100km away, and running around looking for a closer authorised repair centre that can help me debug my laptop isn't really an option with the price of gas in Europe at the moment. Public transport would take even longer.

non sequitur ??? »time« of public transport… seriously? 😎 - and gasoline prices?!?! a 200 km journey, 10l per 100km, even at 3€ per liter will cost you 60€ - not worth preventing the relatives of the bug you burried in the display to visit its sepulcher in the future? If it was Drosophila, well, good luck! 🤓

EDIT: looks like a member of Thysanoptera - keep your fingers crossed and hope for the arrival of autumn/winter. 🤜🤛💪

 

[thadoggfather]

I’m glad the m2 air ironed this issue out

 

[EuroChilli]

I’m glad the m2 air ironed this issue out

You hope it has…

 

[orionquest]

Wow you found a Apple easter egg... glad they still do this once and a while. It's nice they still do fun stuff like this.

 

[mr_roboto]

Literally. How the hell it got in I have no idea, but it is there. It was still moving when I noticed it about 2 hours ago, so I was hoping it would see itself out, but it's now dead, almost in the middle of my screen.

Glad it's a resolved problem, but it's not really possible for a bug to be stuck inside your display. That was almost certainly something sticking to the outside.

It was possible back in the day. Apple used to put a sheet of plain glass in front of the LCD panel as an outer protective cover. If you disassembled one of those displays to the point where you removed the LCD panel, then reassembled, you could easily trap dust (or a bug) between the cover glass and LCD.

These days, Apple doesn't construct displays like that. The outer surface is either the LCD's glass (no extra cover glass), or the cover glass is bonded with an optically clear glue to the LCD glass, making them inseparable and leaving no space for a bug to exist. On Macs, I think this practice generally started with Retina displays.

(Bugs can't get behind the LCD panel's frontmost glass sheet; LCD panel assemblies are permanently sealed since they have to hold in a liquid crystal polymer material and protect it from contamination. That's where the "LC" in "LCD" comes from.)

 

[EuroChilli]

Glad it's a resolved problem, but it's not really possible for a bug to be stuck inside your display. That was almost certainly something sticking to the outside.

It was possible back in the day. Apple used to put a sheet of plain glass in front of the LCD panel as an outer protective cover. If you disassembled one of those displays to the point where you removed the LCD panel, then reassembled, you could easily trap dust (or a bug) between the cover glass and LCD.

These days, Apple doesn't construct displays like that. The outer surface is either the LCD's glass (no extra cover glass), or the cover glass is bonded with an optically clear glue to the LCD glass, making them inseparable and leaving no space for a bug to exist. On Macs, I think this practice generally started with Retina displays.

(Bugs can't get behind the LCD panel's frontmost glass sheet; LCD panel assemblies are permanently sealed since they have to hold in a liquid crystal polymer material and protect it from contamination. That's where the "LC" in "LCD" comes from.)

Trust me, there was a bug underneath my outer screen glass. Just Google it. While rare, it has happened before. Screenshots wouldn't prove anything, so I took photos with my phone. But why would I make something like this up? Yes, I did try to flick the bug off the screen, but when my finger did nothing I realised the bug was under the glass, at which point I went cold, realising I could have crushed the bug under the glass right in the middle of the screen.

I have to ask; do you work for Apple in their screen design department? Do you know exactly how the screen on a 2020 M1 Air is made?