Saturday, April 12, 2008

Extreme Annoyance MacBook Cracks



Have any guesses as to what this is? Yep it is a big old crack on the palm rest/edge of my Apple MacBook. The thing that has pushed this into Extreme Annoyance is this is really the third problem I've had with cracks, dents and such on the MacBook. First there was the crack on the hinge for the screen and then the micro cracks around where the hinge attaches. When I had it in for repair there were also dents forming on the front of the palm rest from where the screen closes. Now I have this big old crack in the palm rest where the screen closes and micro cracks along the front of the machine. These are all parts that were replaced during the first go around with cracks less than a year ago.

Just to head off some thoughts you might be having right now. First Google cracks macbook and see what comes up. This is a laptop, a device designed to be "portable" so I take it pretty much every where with me. Inside a nice "incase" designed specifically for this particular laptop. So yeah it does not set full time on a desk it gets used like a laptop is meant to be used. I have an iMac to set on the desk.

I have the suspicion that the magnets designed to keep the lid closed, cause the lid to slam down to hard every time I close the laptop. This is starting to really annoy me.

Otherwise I really like the OS X operating system. I like the technical performance on my MacBook and the price was in the park with a similar Dell but the build quality is really lacking. Or perhaps it is a design flaw in using the magnets.

I suspect this will be covered under Apple Care but I'm hoping the parts hold up a bit better this time around. Oh and I will be back to using my old Dell for the week the apple store will want to keep it. ICK.

One other thing, the dark spots on the palm rest seem to be more of a stain or discoloration since everything I've tried well not clean it. And the Apple Store said they would clean that up when I took it in for a non-ejecting Super Drive. And guess what, it came back with the discoloration still there. There is also some discoloration around the apple logo on top as well.

Oh did I forget to mention that the power cord burned through the insulation right where it connects to the little power brick.

Great laptop from an Operating System and performance standpoint but not put together very well.

Update:
The MacBook will be out for repair for about a week. They were sort of like oh yeah crack on palm rest and cracks in bottom case. Fill this out, have you backed up your data. Should have it back in a week.

Update2:
Macbook is back appears to be repaired. I think the area impacted is a different plastic.

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