My MacBook screen has been melted-help!

NicsM

My stupid boyfriend left my MacBook open over a lit candle and now the outer shell has melted in one spot and damaged the screen. Is there any hope it can be fixed? I really can't afford a new laptop. Can authorized repair centres replace the hood/screen? And how much should it cost? Sorry for all the questions, panic stations!

was.deevey

Yikes a replacement sounds like its needed, ebay is probably your best bet. I managed to smash my screen within 2 days of buying my macbook and picked up an LCD from there.... BUT its not going to be cheap.

You're probably looking at around 150 - 200 euro second hand from ebay + the cost of getting it fitted (tricky)

If a dealer is to do the job I'm guessing around the $350-500 mark.

If your house happens to have accidental damage cover on the insurance it'd be worth getting a quote from Mactivate or someone like that and see if they'll pay the cost of repair (depending on the age and how worthwhile the machine is they may pay 80% the new cost!)

... I'm guessing they'd replace the unit, you may be able to have the quoters stick in their "opinion" on worthiness of replace vs repair (Buy from them if the quote comes through!) A friend of mine managed to swing it a few years back and got 80% the ORIGINAL cost of a 4 yr old 12' powerbook (the Alu Macbook had just come out :P) he was left with spare change.

NicsM

Cheers, from what I've read replacing the screen is straightforward enough but removing the hood is way more tricky. I'm trying to decide if I can put up with one blotch in the screen and and big melted dent in the outer casing...considering I bought it less than a year ago with a loan I might just have to If Mactivate would accept a boyfriend in addition to the MacBook I might consider trading in....

was.deevey

Cheers, from what I've read replacing the screen is straightforward enough but removing the hood is way more tricky.

You can generally buy the entire hood/screen section as one unit S/H.... its not "that" difficult to replace if you are nifty with a screwdriver... guessing its the white unibody variety.

I'd check the insurance route first mind you :cool:

NicsM

was.deevey wrote: »

You can generally buy the entire hood/screen section as one unit S/H.... its not "that" difficult to replace if you are nifty with a screwdriver... guessing its the white unibody variety.

I'd check the insurance route first mind you :cool:

I'm not sure if the insurance will cover it, it happened in his rented house. It is a white unibody. Waiting to hear back from Mactivate now-one of my friends said removing the lid affects the internal hardware so I'm definitely leaving this one up to the experts!

Dublin_Gunner

Ninaluna wrote: »

I'm not sure if the insurance will cover it, it happened in his rented house. It is a white unibody. Waiting to hear back from Mactivate now-one of my friends said removing the lid affects the internal hardware so I'm definitely leaving this one up to the experts!

Does he not have contents insurance??? :eek:

Replacing a screen is actually fairly easy once you know what you're doing, but (as seems to be intimated here) actually opening the casing can be the tricky part.

Could you post up a pic of the damage? If you can get the new screen on its own, I'd be confident you'd find someone here on boards willing to do the replacement for you.

In the 'PC Building and upgrading' section, there is a thread here people will build others PC's for them. As a Macbook is basically a laptop, you should be able to find someone that can do it.

NicsM

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Does he not have contents insurance??? :eek:

Replacing a screen is actually fairly easy once you know what you're doing, but (as seems to be intimated here) actually opening the casing can be the tricky part.

Could you post up a pic of the damage? If you can get the new screen on its own, I'd be confident you'd find someone here on boards willing to do the replacement for you.

In the 'PC Building and upgrading' section, there is a thread here people will build others PC's for them. As a Macbook is basically a laptop, you should be able to find someone that can do it.

This is terrible but I'm not sure he does-it's a houseshare.... That's actually a really good idea, once I get home this evening I'll put up a picture, the damage looks merely cosmetic on the outer lid but I'm worried the screen will deteriorate further

Dublin_Gunner

Ninaluna wrote: »

This is terrible but I'm not sure he does-it's a houseshare.... That's actually a really good idea, once I get home this evening I'll put up a picture, the damage looks merely cosmetic on the outer lid but I'm worried the screen will deteriorate further

The screen probably won't 'degrade' any further than it already has, but you would still most likely need it replaced.

If you can live with the melted bit on the case, that might save you a few quid too.

The melted part on the case doesn't affect the operation of the lid or anything does it? (i.e merely superficial)

NicsM

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

The screen probably won't 'degrade' any further than it already has, but you would still most likely need it replaced.

If you can live with the melted bit on the case, that might save you a few quid too.

The melted part on the case doesn't affect the operation of the lid or anything does it? (i.e merely superficial)

No it still works fine, I had a few issues with it not waking from sleep a while ago but sorted them myself. The melted spot is adjacent to the Apple logo. i got a quote from a repair service which actually wasn't too steep (less than half what I was expecting) but as it's not urgent I'm going to explore all the options.

was.deevey

one of my friends said removing the lid affects the internal hardware

No it doesn't affect the internal hardware, but the webcam cable is located on the underside of the motherboard as is the LCD power connector so you do need to go "that deep" .. the motherboard is actually extremely easy to take out though (compared with damn HP and Dell laptops), I think its about 9 screws... I have stripped mine down to replace a keyboard before and got everything back in place in under a half hour, but I have done it a few times.

actually opening the casing can be the tricky part.

On a unibody its only 8 screws on the bottom to open the case, easier than pretty much every Mac Laptop before them (apart from the Lombard/Pismo)

Regards the Insurance, Didn't this happen in his mothers house

NicsM

was.deevey wrote: »

Regards the Insurance, Didn't this happen in his mothers house

If only.... I've got two quotes now, one for 499 including vat and labour from a well known authorised repair centre and one for approx 200 from a centre which says it has Certified Mac Technicians They said they would use a second hand lid which doesn't really bother me. Forgot to take pics of the damage last night!

was.deevey

200 sounds like a good deal TBH, you'll end up paying that for the screen and case alone once you factor in import duty (if you get hit) if you decided to Ebay it.

Losty Dublin

Ninaluna wrote: »

If only.... I've got two quotes now, one for 499 including vat and labour from a well known authorised repair centre and one for approx 200 from a centre which says it has Certified Mac Technicians They said they would use a second hand lid which doesn't really bother me. Forgot to take pics of the damage last night!

Nina, if the machine is still well inside it's warranty you will void what's left of the it taking it to an unauthorized agent. There are only a few Apple trained service centres and techies in the city though I have noticed a lot of spurious ones crop up in the last year or so and TBH I'd doubt some of their credentials. Bondi are apple certed for repairs and very very good and honest, give them a call.

What is the name of the other place you got quoted, can I ask?

NicsM

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Nina, if the machine is still well inside it's warranty you will void what's left of the it taking it to an unauthorized agent. There are only a few Apple trained service centres and techies in the city though I have noticed a lot of spurious ones crop up in the last year or so and TBH I'd doubt some of their credentials. Bondi are apple certed for repairs and very very good and honest, give them a call.

What is the name of the other place you got quoted, can I ask?

There are about 5 weeks left on the warranty so I'm not too worried about voiding it tbh.

Mods, feel free to edit in case this isn't allowed but the second place was repairmymac.ie. They said they would use a second hand lid and new LCD, whereas the first place I got a qoute from would be sourcing the parts directly from Apple themselves. I'm happy enough either way, I just don't want to pay over the odds or have a botched screen for good.

This morning I noticed the lid now isn't closing properly

Losty Dublin

Ninaluna wrote: »

There are about 5 weeks left on the warranty so I'm not too worried about voiding it tbh.

Mods, feel free to edit in case this isn't allowed but the second place was repairmymac.ie. They said they would use a second hand lid and new LCD, whereas the first place I got a qoute from would be sourcing the parts directly from Apple themselves. I'm happy enough either way, I just don't want to pay over the odds or have a botched screen for good.

This morning I noticed the lid now isn't closing properly

Never heard of them, sorry:)

I'm guessing the first place was Mactivate. They are pricy but they are about the best in town. Plus they are Apple specialists so Apple will have a log of the repair work done to your machine; this will stand to you if the repair needs to be followed on or if there ever is a call back on your Macbook. I would probably opt for the new parts and piece of mind but €300 is a big difference. Do try www.bondigroup.ie first though, he should be a bit cheaper than Mactivate.

NicsM

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Never heard of them, sorry:)

I'm guessing the first place was Mactivate. They are pricy but they are about the best in town. Plus they are Apple specialists so Apple will have a log of the repair work done to your machine; this will stand to you if the repair needs to be followed on or if there ever is a call back on your Macbook. I would probably opt for the new parts and piece of mind but €300 is a big difference. Do try www.bondigroup.ie first though, he should be a bit cheaper than Mactivate.

You're right and I've used Mactivate before when the logic board went on my iBook, Apple covered the repair because it was faulty but Mactivate were brilliant. I've just emailed Bondi requesting a quote so fingers crossed they get back to me soon.

Either way I'll have to wait until closer to pay day to do anything, my boyfriend is covering the cost of the repair but not until the end of the month...

was.deevey

Nina, if the machine is still well inside it's warranty you will void what's left of the it taking it to an unauthorized agent. There are only a few Apple trained service centres and techies in the city though I have noticed a lot of spurious ones crop up in the last year or so and TBH I'd doubt some of their credentials. Bondi are apple certed for repairs and very very good and honest, give them a call.

Not quite true, I had to replace my screen within a week of getting my macbook (dropped it while it was open). I bought a S/H screen from the US from ebay and replaced it myself.

I later had to get the keyboard area replaced under warranty, white model with the cracking issue.

I was simply told that if I had any issues with what I'd replaced or related to what I had done it would not be covered under warranty, anything "normal" e.g motherboard, DVD drive, Battery etc would be covered normally, that seems to be the trend globally with apple repair too.

That was with www.typetech.ie BTW ... really great guys to deal with in there, but any authorized mac repair shops as far as i'm aware MUST use NEW parts only which will increase the cost substantially (I think a screen @ cost price to the dealer alone was over $200 at the time).

Losty Dublin

was.deevey wrote: »

Not quite true, I had to replace my screen within a week of getting my macbook (dropped it while it was open). I bought a S/H screen from the US from ebay and replaced it myself.

I later had to get the keyboard area replaced under warranty, white model with the cracking issue.

I was simply told that if I had any issues with what I'd replaced or related to what I had done it would not be covered under warranty, anything "normal" e.g motherboard, DVD drive, Battery etc would be covered normally, that seems to be the trend globally with apple repair too. .

Sorry about that, should have clarified it better

spannerotoole

Can you use a standard monitor in the interim? Some Macbooks have a vga port. You might just need a lead, if you're really lucky and have a hdmi port you can plug it into a television to get video and sound from the tv.