Cracking noise when closing the lid of my Macbook

I was wondering if this is normal (it sure doesnt sound normal though).
Whenever i try closing the lid of my unibody Macbook a loud cracking sound is heard and it appears that its coming from the hinge on the lefthand side that connects the screen with the laptop body. Nothing is broken as far as i can tell but i am not sure if this will cause me any problems in the future.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? Any tips/advices would be much appreciated

MacBook 13-inch Aluminum (Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 16, 2009 4:45 AM

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9 replies

Apr 29, 2009 3:41 AM in response to christophorosp

*UPDATE 2:* The Macbook was sent for repair. This means taking out the display and hinges and replacing it with another one. On a side note, i was told by the Apple Genious that the hinges were plastic!!! (i certainly didnt expect this considering how sturdy the Macbook aluminium looks and feels)
I had to book an appointment with another Apple store since the first one i went to had a huge backlog of pending repairs and would take 2+ weeks to get it fixed. On the second Apple store, the repair time would be 3-5 days so i left it there. Will keep you guys updated if it is of anyone's interest

Apr 17, 2009 1:40 PM in response to christophorosp

Hi,

I also have the same problem with my unibody MacBook -- a horrible cracking and creaking noise when I shut the lid. Mine is coming from the right-hand side of the hinge. I have never dropped my laptop or anything, it's in perfect condition and very well looked after. I've had it since last October and it's either sat on my desk or my lap, or it's packed away in a protective bag.

Have you spoken to Apple about this or visited a store? I spoke to Apple on the phone -- they advised me to take it to a store, however I haven't had chance yet. Please let me know if you have a solution.

I don't think it will cause any harm. However you don't expect a £950 laptop to have this issue.

Apr 18, 2009 8:05 AM in response to carl wolf

Hi Carl,

Thanks for your advice. I will take it in straight away then as I'd hate for the hinge to break!

I also have a problem with the CD drive. (8 times out of 10, it will fail to burn a disc, and sometimes won't even read a perfectly good CD/DVD). Do you think there's a chance they might replace the machine? If there is I'd like to know so I can backup my hard drive.

Thanks again.

Aug 5, 2009 7:05 PM in response to christophorosp

I've had the same problem since about a month after purchasing my 13" aluminum MacBook in November, 2008. The cracking noise seems to get worse when the machine gets warm. The first time I took my machine to the Apple store for this problem, they replaced the entire display. Everything was good for about 2 months after that, but then the hinge became loose. So I had to take it back to Apple a second time. So then they "fixed" the loose hinge, and it seemed fine again, for awhile. Now it is cracking real bad again, just like when it was new. So I'm back to square one! My fear is that over time, some serious damage to the display might occur, so I'm probably going to take it back a third time, but now I want a whole new machine. I'm pretty ticked-off at this point. Apple got a lot of money from me when I bought this thing. I was expecting top-of-the-line quality in return, but instead I've got a poorly engineered lemon.

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Cracking noise when closing the lid of my Macbook

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