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White 9 Month old Macbook Magnetic Cracks

D

daryliow

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 24, 2007
133
0
Hi,

Firstly i apologize if this has been mentioned before, i did a search and couldn't find the answers i need.

Now my problem:

I have a 9 month old white Macbook which is great. But I've just noticed that there are two cracks along the part in which the magnetic strips are ie: to the left and right of the trackpad.

Is this supposed to happen? ( i hope not ) and will apple do anything about it?

I live in the UK if this makes any difference.

Thanks in advance.
 
daryliow said:
Hi,

Firstly i apologize if this has been mentioned before, i did a search and couldn't find the answers i need.

Now my problem:

I have a 9 month old white Macbook which is great. But I've just noticed that there are two cracks along the part in which the magnetic strips are ie: to the left and right of the trackpad.

Is this supposed to happen? ( i hope not ) and will apple do anything about it?

I live in the UK if this makes any difference.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is a major problem with macbooks:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/298735/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/330237/
http://img140.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picturedm5.jpg

etc....

Take it/send it in to be repaired.
 
Apple will almost certainly fix it (under warranty)

I took my laptop in to have the screen fixed (it had developed a fault where there were coloured lines down a strip an inch or two wide slightly to the left of the centre of the screen). When the Apple Genius saw the crack on the case (which I hadn't even got around to mentioning) he said straight away "and we'll swap the top plastic for you" :)

Alec
 
AlecEdworthy said:
I took my laptop in to have the screen fixed (it had developed a fault where there were coloured lines down a strip an inch or two wide slightly to the left of the centre of the screen). When the Apple Genius saw the crack on the case (which I hadn't even got around to mentioning) he said straight away "and we'll swap the top plastic for you" :)

Alec
Click to expand...

mine said the same thing talking about a different subject
 
cracked, fixed, cracked again

bought macbook in Sept. 2007

first cracks in case appeared about 6 weeks later

80 miles to applestore, so didn't get it fixed until march 2008

They assured me that replacement case was different material.

Replacement case cracked in same place about 2 weeks ago.

I'm sure they'll continue to replace the case until my warranty runs out

in 3 months.

They mentioned that I should purchase $250 warranty extension!!

Gee... thanks!
 
Apple has no quality control to speak of. If yours cracks out of warranty, you can either get a better laptop, pay someone to replace the case, do it yourself, or just keep using the computer. When it happens to me (because it will happen to every Macbook user eventually), I'll probably try to cobble something together with duct tape and superglue.
 
I've a rev A (week 24 of the year 2006) macbook.

I keep hearing of these cracks. What the hell are you guys doing to get these cracks?? I have NO HINT of cracks anywhere, and certainly not around the "palm rest" area.
 
I have a Macbook from May 2006, purchased in Thailand. I just got a free replacement top due to the cracks. I didn't have Applecare or anything....I brought it in due to crazy battery behavior, and pointed out the crack. They replaced the top, which includes the keyboard and trackpad cover, for free.

The computer looks so much newer now! without applecare too....pretty good service...the key is to be polite and nice...people like this will trigger superior customer service everywhere....


unixfool -the cracks show up directly opposite to the protruding lines above the screen...
heatmiser- don't be so negative...can you spell troll?
 
Coprolite said:
unixfool -the cracks show up directly opposite to the protruding lines above the screen...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know where the cracks are showing. I don't have any concern about the cracks. I'm just stating that if this was a design flaw akin to the cracking magsafe base or the yellow staining below the keyboard area, I'd probably have experienced it already...I've no cracks at all in that area and I doubt I will. It's obvious that where the cracking is happening, there may be an inordinate amount of stress being applied to certain macbooks. Are you guys slamming the lid or squeezing your macbooks in a full backpack? Something has to be causing these cracks that is PEBKAC-related.
 
unixfool said:
Yeah, I know where the cracks are showing. I don't have any concern about the cracks. I'm just stating that if this was a design flaw akin to the cracking magsafe base or the yellow staining below the keyboard area, I'd probably have experienced it already...I've no cracks at all in that area and I doubt I will. It's obvious that where the cracking is happening, there may be an inordinate amount of stress being applied to certain macbooks. Are you guys slamming the lid or squeezing your macbooks in a full backpack? Something has to be causing these cracks that is PEBKAC-related.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you. It must have been a "squishing" issue. This is my wife's macbook and it took a long time for the crack to show up. I bet it was one time where it got mashed, as it showed up quite suddenly...around 22 months in age. I treat my hardware like priceless china, so breaking it is completely new to me.....

--Just noticed that you have 768mb RAM---are you happy with that? 2 GB seems just about equal to my iMac g5.....
 
Coprolite said:
heatmiser- don't be so negative...can you spell troll?
Click to expand...

No troll; just frustrated. This has been a problem with the Macbooks for two years now, and Apple still hasn't bothered to fix it. When you buy a $1300 computer, you shouldn't live in fear of it falling apart within the year due to a structural flaw the manufacturers refuse to address.

It's telling when your case cracks, you get it fixed, and it cracks again a few weeks later. And when you go to get it fixed again, they tell you to buy the warranty because they know it's just going to crack again. Obviously Apple is aware of the problem, yet they continue to replace flawed cases with flawed cases instead of spending the money to design and manufacture non-defective cases.
 
heatmiser said:
No troll; just frustrated. This has been a problem with the Macbooks for two years now, and Apple still hasn't bothered to fix it. When you buy a $1300 computer, you shouldn't live in fear of it falling apart within the year due to a structural flaw the manufacturers refuse to address.

It's telling when your case cracks, you get it fixed, and it cracks again a few weeks later. And when you go to get it fixed again, they tell you to buy the warranty because they know it's just going to crack again. Obviously Apple is aware of the problem, yet they continue to replace flawed cases with flawed cases instead of spending the money to design and manufacture non-defective cases.
Click to expand...


Sorry to hear about your pain. It took a long time for mine to crack and I think it will be a long time before it happens again. However, I completely understand where you are coming from. The last post just seemed so negative. Thanks for clarifying. :)
 
I'm planning on getting a MacBook soon, and I'm wondering, would being more careful with the MacBook reduce the chance of cracking? I rarely take my laptop out, it's mostly for home use, so it's almost never in bag, meaning that there is never any stress on the top of the laptop "squeezing" it together, which seems to be one cause of the cracks. So if I close the lid carefully, am I significantly reducing my chance of it cracking? Everything I've researched, this is the only thing turning me off a MacBook. I don't want to know that something I buy will be broken in a year and I can't do anything to protect it from happening.
 
sportsfrk214 said:
I'm planning on getting a MacBook soon, and I'm wondering, would being more careful with the MacBook reduce the chance of cracking? I rarely take my laptop out, it's mostly for home use, so it's almost never in bag, meaning that there is never any stress on the top of the laptop "squeezing" it together, which seems to be one cause of the cracks. So if I close the lid carefully, am I significantly reducing my chance of it cracking? Everything I've researched, this is the only thing turning me off a MacBook. I don't want to know that something I buy will be broken in a year and I can't do anything to protect it from happening.
Click to expand...

4 months in, no cracks :D
I travel with it BUT i do baby it so maybe thats why. Though i do know some who have babied there MacBook and still had there MacBook crack. Guess you gotta get lucky. 70 percent of people do (maybe 80)
 
sportsfrk214 said:
I'm planning on getting a MacBook soon, and I'm wondering, would being more careful with the MacBook reduce the chance of cracking? I rarely take my laptop out, it's mostly for home use, so it's almost never in bag, meaning that there is never any stress on the top of the laptop "squeezing" it together, which seems to be one cause of the cracks. So if I close the lid carefully, am I significantly reducing my chance of it cracking?
Click to expand...

I suspect that if you are careful with the MacBook, and in particular if you aren't opening and closing it very often and not squashing it in a bag then you will not suffer from the cracking as quickly, if at all. If you think about it, if you are not putting pressure on the areas then the plastic is highly unlikely to spontaneously crack. I use my laptop every day, carrying it to and from work in a neoprene slipcase and opening and closing it on quite a regular basis. I suspect that this is behind the cracking that I have experienced.

Alec
 
The Samurai said:
Are the cracks not covered by Apple Care?
Click to expand...

Yes, but I use mine heavily and the cracks appeared at about 11 or 12 months in - this would normally put them very close to the end of or outside of the 12 month standard Applecare warranty (which I presume the purchaser would be subject to), and as the poster of the question I was replying to is likely to do little to cause the cracking, any cracks he does get are likely to take longer than this to occur. Fortunately I bought mine through the UK educational channel (one of the perks of working in academia) and so have a three year hardware warranty as standard and so got my cracks fixed for free :)

Alec
 
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