You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Apple macbook air hinge defect -closing lid is considered accidental damage

Hi Apple

Is closing the screen normal operations of the macbook air?

my apple air has a defect with the hinge. could apple please change your policy to accept hinge as warrant on apple air models

purchased my air 28/2/2008 from Sydney Broadway apple shop. I think this was the first day they got delivery in Sydney.

Last week when closing the screen, it was about half way down, it made a crack noise, and the hinge moved. (see photo from link below)

I have been to two apple care centres in Saigon, Vietnam this week. Spoke to apple in singapore and usa. They all told me i broke it and the damage is accidental. Offically on paper it was "it might be accidental damage, warranty repair declined"

Many people have had this problem, mostly in USA.

Below is the link to a post i made on the problem. It has a photo of my laptop hinge, it is not as bad as others, because i stopped using the air as soon as it happened

http://www.crashzone.com.au/2009/02/04/apple-macbook-air-has-a-defect-hinge-prob lem/

some more links to more of the same problem

http://mindspacemind.blogspot.com/2008/06/macbook-air-damaged-hinges-little-too. html
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=495259&page=3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7uEMfJVm4U&feature=related
http://flickr.com/photos/landung2008/3247328478/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKJLUMBCF98&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Siq84YBlv7E&feature=related

Regards Christiaan Hunter

PS. Apple Air is the BEST laptop yet for me personally. light, 13" screen, full size keyboard, multitouch huge touch pad, nice casing, no dvd player and osx
I have owned these laptops:
compact portable iii
dell latitude d600
toshiba portege 3500 tablet
fujitsu lifebook p7010
motion ls800 tablet
apple macbook air

Macbook Air, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Feb 3, 2009 11:19 PM

190 replies

kimiecat

Level 1

0 points

May 14, 2010 9:37 PM in response to Christiaan Hunter

Hi everyone,

My first gen mac air left hinge just broke. My Dad purchased the laptop for me as a gift and I asked him to get the applecare too, but now as I'm going through old boxes of stuff I don't see any documentation that I have applecare. The support site is currently down too, what bad luck. 😟 Anyway, I have researched this hinge issue and my story is the same as everyone else's, the **** thing just made a huge CRACK and broke one day from normal usage. So disappointed and do not have and extra $800.00 bucks to pay at all!! This is clearly a design defect and Apple is lucky it hasn't yet come to a recall.

I live in Tokyo, so will really be putting the international part of the repair service to test, I will let you know what happens.

Axxxel

Level 1

0 points

Jun 4, 2010 4:50 AM in response to Christiaan Hunter

I have a MBA first version with broken hinges. MBA last version ( the one with the 9400m video) , the hinges from it are compatible with first version?
Hinges from last rev MBA Compatible with hinges from 1st rev MBA?

Jun 6, 2010 5:24 AM in response to Christiaan Hunter

I have a Mid 2009 $1,800 MBA and just last night when I was shutting down I was closing the lid and I feel resistance... when I saw what it was!!! I said Not Me!!! because i read this problem a long time ago...

What Apple will do with this?

chris630

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2010 7:20 AM in response to stevenbrown

Hi,

I got similar problem, and I was rejected by local Apple service center since they said it was damage due to improper use. I did nothing but using the PC on my laptop, and all of sudden, the screen shot itself due to a broken hinge (left-hand side). Then, the screen dim to the darkest (I can see it barely from certain angle). I have it hooked up to an external LCD screen to write this feedback.

I'm totally surprise when this happened, and very angry with the way Apple handled it.

Please count me in if you guys are going to take class-action.

Thanks.

Chris

Jun 6, 2010 8:36 AM in response to Christiaan Hunter

Mine broke too. Contemplating what the best course of action would be... Genius bar or call customer care?

gidiav__

Level 1

4 points

Jun 12, 2010 8:06 AM in response to Christiaan Hunter

Same story.

First, here are some pictures of the broken hinges on my MacBook Air:

http://tinyurl.com/brokenair1
http://tinyurl.com/brokenair2
http://tinyurl.com/brokenair3

I took it to the "genius bar" at the New York Upper West Side store. They immediately said they'll fix it free of charge -- ordered the part and said they'll call in 3-5 days. In fact they called the next day, we made an appointment, and they replaced the whole lid (not just the hinges). So, other than having to make two appointments and go to the store twice, it was pretty painless.

Message was edited by: gidiav__

Jun 13, 2010 6:17 PM in response to gidiav__

I cannot believe it, now this also happened to my MBA. Here is the list of my problems

Persistent overheating -- the kernel task problem.
Fan broke, replaced.
Battery broke, replaced.
Harddisk crashed, couldn't boot, had to reinstall OS X.
hinge defect.

This is pretty much the worst quality laptop I have ever owned. The only good point is, with AppleCare, the service is good. Probably I can get the hinge defect replaced under AppleCare. But the issue is, I just cannot trust this computer. The last two problems happened while traveling for business, where I really need the computer, and cannot take it for repair.

mhnmhn

Level 1

0 points

Jun 15, 2010 11:19 PM in response to Christiaan Hunter

My hinge popped and cracked two weeks ago as I was closing it. It still worked fine but the hinge was messed up. I was planning on taking it into apple this week and tonight it just died on me! It froze so i turned it off and on, and the screen is stuck on the white apple loading page. Any advice? I'm a recent college graduate and cannot afford to pay $800 to fix this and definitely cannot afford to replace it!!! All i did was shut my lap top like a normal person would, while it was sitting on a desk!! Nothing out of the ordinary! And it hadn't been loose or anything -- no warning AT ALL!

Jun 20, 2010 6:56 AM in response to Christiaan Hunter

I have a MBA that is less than a year old. The wiggle started a few months ago and continues to get worse. I have apple care. I am just weighing in here. This is clearly not my fault. This is my second MBA. I had the same issues with the last one, and instead of paying to get the thing fixed, I bought this one. This one I am gonna raise **** about.

Count me in for class action!

Jun 21, 2010 10:25 AM in response to Christiaan Hunter

Gday mate from Canada
I too have a MacBook Air and had the same problem, but this is under a recall, I believe this is the name for it, the hinges are cracked in ,this is a warranty issue, don't let them fool you. Mine cracked under normal usage. Take it to a Macstore, and talk to the techy. This was an article under an rss feed from apple, but now it is removed, wonder why? The hinges are faulty, to cheap, Apple knows about this, but are trying to male it go away by letting the warranty expire. Take it back for service, I did and got it free. Use my Name and email to prove this..

Good luck

Neilr R. Mc Neill

1MRVP

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2010 8:05 AM in response to DeidreW

Same problem here..left hinge snapped,so,went to the iStore yesterday,where they quoted Rs 10,000/- to replace the hinge.They seem to ignore the Apple Article TS2948..Unfortunately,today,I was faced with a grey screen & in spite of much effort,wouldn't revive..took the MBA to the iStore,where they confirm it is a Logic Board failure..Am yet to get an estimate on the cost of repair..will update on hearing from them. BTW,it was bought in March 2008 at NYC,& is out of warranty.

Jul 1, 2010 7:59 PM in response to 1MRVP

Just wanted to let everyone know Apple replaced the hinges, antenna, and clutch on my MBA free of charge. I made an appointment with the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store and they sent it for replacement no questions asked. I took a copy of the apple discussion article, a printout of the forum, and a few other articles from various websites. As long as you keep your cool and don't condescend the Genius they will fix it. Good Luck...

Aila

Level 1

0 points

Aug 5, 2010 1:25 PM in response to Christiaan Hunter

Another broken hinge. I called to apple care and they told me to take it to the Mac Store and they made an appointment for me. They will replace the screen for free and fix a logic card or something that did not pass whatever test they made.
It was all good, they have not got the part yet it seems, so I am still waiting, but the fact that they will just wait for your computer to break is ludicrous. I am just about to move to another country and I want to take my work computer with me, so I am to buy my laptop to take it with me. Had this happened one month later I would be in South America with a broken computer, being very upset because they knew it would happen! Something needs to be done!

fersol

Level 1

0 points

Aug 23, 2010 2:40 PM in response to Christiaan Hunter

Hi everyone: past week I had a broken hinge on my macbook air and now apple apply a full warranty and change for free a new screen. Thanks apple for your full support. You are the best.

Aug 24, 2010 10:32 AM in response to fersol

I have the same problem...took my MBA in to the Genius Bar and was told it qualified for the repair. Then I got a call from Apple today, saying that display is also messed up and that repair cost will actually be $755. When I called them to find out more information, they said there is a "dent" in the front corner of my laptop and that therefore everything was caused by accidental damage.

So apparently they're still giving people trouble over this, which is beyond frustrating. Not only have I never noticed any "dent," but I've never even dropped my computer!! Furthermore, the Genius looked it over quite closely in the store and didn't notice anything. The invoice says "minor scratches," and when I brought this to the person's attention they stated that I should have been told that it would not be covered.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'll try one more time, but honestly don't feel like fighting over this forever. A brand new Lenovo with more processing power costs about the same as the repair on my two year old MBA would be, so I may just switch brands for a while.

Apple macbook air hinge defect -closing lid is considered accidental damage