Broken LCD Monitor on 2007 MBP

[aleflamedyud]

Yeah, my Mac's got its LCD broken. Some kind of pressure pushed straight through the Apple logo on the back and cracked the LCD. As a result, I now have entire veins of dead pixels running through the thing from the center out.

The tech support guy said that he had to diagnose the problem as "accidental damage", which apparently my AppleCare plan doesn't cover. He told me that if he shipped the machine to the depot for repair they would most likely keep that diagnosis and charge me about $1200 to replace the LCD screen. Fuck that. I asked what my other options are. I can ship it to them myself and they'll make their own diagnosis that could fall in my favor, or they could still decide to charge me $1200. If they decide to charge me, I plan on telling them to send me my machine *unrepaired* so I can transfer all my data onto a Dell or Lenovo that won't break.

The guy gave me a shipping box and the number to call and arrange the shipping.

Personally, I think that Apple has produced a POS monitor. I've never dropped this computer and I always carry it in a (albeit non-padded) carrying bag. To repay my kindness it has its case warped in several places and a cracked screen.

I'm a college student and can't afford a $2000 laptop that fucking breaks on me! When I got it the Magsafe adapter broke after about two months and I couldn't get it to hold a charge of more than 1:30 running time until Apple replaced that for me.

Any advice on getting this machine fixed?

[miles01110]

It doesn't sound like a situation in which you're going to be able to get it fixed for little or no cost- but then again it doesn't sound like the type of damage that's Apple's fault (and therefore covered under AppleCare).

That being said, I think your best option is to send it to them yourself to let them make their own diagnosis of whether or not it is "accidental damage" or an actual defective machine. Before you do that, make sure you can get your computer back if they decide to replace the monitor at cost and back up your essential files before sending it.

[x-Swamp]

The screen itself (backlight + assembly) goes for around $400 in places i have seen it. Maybe you can supply your own to cut costs, or maybe you can do it yourself.

If you need to get data off it, i suggest using a firewire cable and target mode (hold t on boot until a double chime).

[MoonBuggy]

If you haven't heard of them already, you might want to take a look at ifixit, their guides are as good as the official Apple service manuals and they sell the parts for fairly reasonable prices (not usually as cheap as eBay, though). Looks like about $300 for a new LCD from them if your machine is a 15". It also looks like the actual procedure is not too bad - seems to be just a matter of removing lots of screws, which I can tell you is a breeze compared to trying to dismantle something like a recent model iMac.

All that said, I'm sure you'd rather not spend the money if you don't feel that it was your fault. Check up on your consumer protection laws, you might be surprised how much responsibility the supplier has for the quality of their products. When you phone Apple, ignore what they tell you about their policy - they do have the power to make exceptions if you speak to the right person. Last time I had to deal with them I ended up going through the whole hierarchy of tech guys telling me that there was nothing they could do (they were being honest, I think - it seems that the technical staff really don't have the authority) before getting transferred to a customer service supervisor who sorted it out for me in five minutes as a 'goodwill gesture' (because I made it very clear that he was obliged to do so under UK law).