Third-party LCD, Apple refuses to fix computer

[fnncld]

In August I left my MacBook in a foreign airport. Fortunately my friend was in the same city and picked it up from the lost and found there. When I got it back a few weeks later the LCD screen was massively cracked such that the bottom two-thirds of the screen was black. My friend swore he hadn't dropped it, but he hadn't opened it up to check if the screen had already been broken. Of course I wasn't going to pay the ridiculous amount Apple charges for replacing LCD screens so I ordered a new one online for about $100 and did it myself.

About a month later I began experiencing serious kernel panic issues to the point that it was occurring twice a day at least. I called Apple but none of the solutions they proposed, short of wiping the drive, worked. Finally about two weeks ago the computer started refusing to start up, displaying a progress bar on the gray start-up screen that never moved and then disappeared, leaving it to just hang interminably. Fortunately I had a backup from a few days before, so when I took it to the "Genius" Bar and the employee recommended that I do a fresh reinstall I used Time Machine to restore most of my files. Unfortunately the kernel panics came back immediately and two days after that the progress bar of doom returned.

I took it back to the Apple store and they shipped it off to some repair depot yesterday, saying that the problem was likely with the hard drive or RAM. Today I get a call saying that my third-party LCD screen was "failing to pass their tests" because it wasn't Apple-sanctioned (??) and I would have to pay the full $755 for the whole Apple song and dance to get a new LCD before they could address the issue of my computer not starting. This seems to me to be nothing more than an attempt to wring me of as much money as possible from this ordeal. Any suggestions, please?

 

[l.a.rossmann]

What model did you put in?

NOT the model you ordered, the model that was actually on the sticker of the screen installed, or on its PCB. They're never the same.

There are no third party LCDs. It's not like knockoff handbags. It could have been a different revision or a different model.

 

[rdowns]

So your laptop turns up with a severely damaged screen and problems start happening shortly thereafter. Completely unrelated, huh?

 

[Richard1028]

Do what everyone else does it seems around here...

Piss and moan until somebody at Apple gets tired of you pissing and moaning. Then wait for Jobs to hand deliver a new MB.

Really though, I can't imagine a "stock" MB screen working correctly AND failing a LCD test.

 

[gnasher729]

I took it back to the Apple store and they shipped it off to some repair depot yesterday, saying that the problem was likely with the hard drive or RAM. Today I get a call saying that my third-party LCD screen was "failing to pass their tests" because it wasn't Apple-sanctioned (??) and I would have to pay the full $755 for the whole Apple song and dance to get a new LCD before they could address the issue of my computer not starting. This seems to me to be nothing more than an attempt to wring me of as much money as possible from this ordeal. Any suggestions, please?

Well, it wasn't Apple causing the damage, it was whoever damaged the screen. So I very much doubt that they will fix it - an LCD screen that isn't hundred percent compatible could cause all kinds of problems. To fix your situation:

There seem to be three possible culprits: LCD screen, RAM, hard drive. Let's assume it's RAM or hard drive, because they are cheapest. Since your MacBook was treated very rough at some point, it could easily be that RAM was just unseated. And it could be that the hard drive is damaged. They don't last forever, and a defective hard drive can cause kernel panics.

Get a cheap external hard drive, copy your whole system over, and try booting from that. Might work. Otherwise, open the MacBook, remove the RAM and put one chip only back in (1. Chance the the RAM was just loose. 2. 50% chance that one chip is defective and you put the one back in that works), if it doesn't work try the other chip.

 

[ZebOfMac]

Ask the technician to run "ASD" and disable LCD testing. This will go past the LCD portion of ASD.

I just love how Apple claims they can do more than the average user. I suggest getting the ASD software so you can test your machine before taking it into the store or sending it in.

Also learning how to read the control logs will help in the future.