macbook air cracked screen

Your experience doesn't surprise me. My screen cracked when something struck it. I feel it was only light impact... But broken is broken. I still have my 4 year old Dell which is working just fine. The at prefers the blow torch like fan output. The Mac air just when a little to thin the screen... Probably trying to meet stringent goals. It's a shame.

I have an ITouch, Ipad, Iphone, and a Macbook Air. My Macbook Air apparently cracked behind the screen and I have no idea what caused it. Not surprisingly, I come on here to find out that it is a common problem. Apple will do nothing. I like Apple products but I never had to experience their customer service before. Through attrition, I will be buying non-Apple products from now on. BTW, my wife has a dell laptop going on 5 years and guess what, no problems. I rather have a fuctional computer than a "sexy" one.

HI dank dank, I took the shop where I bought the computer to small claims and the judge decided to favor the Apple retail, because their engineers managed to back them up saying I had damaged the screen. The judge asked me if I had seeked the report of an independent engineer to say I had not caused the screen crack., I told them I was not aware where to find such a service and wasn't sure how much it would have caused me. So the judge awarded the apple retail store the case.

The replacement fee that Apple wanted from me was SGD 1197. My best advise is, sometimes life isn't fair and ppl take advantage of us , but we learn never to let the same people take advantage of us again. How, never buy the same products again from the same company that ripped us off. So when my times is up for a new lap top, I"ll go ANDROID all the way for the rest of my life. The only justice I can get is to keep telling my friends to get ANDROID and to keep telling my experience.

Hey, I feel the same. I went to small claims and the judge favored apple retail store because they had their apple engineers to say that I had caused the screen crack. This is a total rip off. Anyhow yes, let's never buy Apple again.

"I rather have a fuctional computer than a "sexy" one."

I'm going with "functional".

People who take care of their machines do not have problems with them. Take care of your things ill buy your MacBook Air and fix it myself it's not that hard. You don't get the quality feel with the dell or OS X.

rabbitjetta You seem to have the same simplistic attitude as Apple, (i.e. the MBA screen will crack if you drop something on it, therefore any cracked screen must have had something dropped on it). The problem is some people do look after their MBAs and still get cracked screens despite never dropping anything on them and no, they are not all lying. Mine cracked whilst typing on the keypad, nothing fell on it and nothing touched the screen. All of a sudden a couple of bright vertical and horizontal lines just appeared on the screen and over the next few minutes (without touching it) expanded into multiple vertical and horizontal lines that all intersected about 1 inch in and 1 inch down from the top right corner. I find it revealing that cracked screens on Apple computers are a much more common problem with the MBA than for any other model. My suspicion is that opening or adjusting the screens by holding one of the top corners unwittingly puts a small twisting stress diagonally across the screen. The front of these screens are made of thin flexible plastic and they offer little resistance to deformation and any stress goes dirctly onto the thin glass LCD panel. Eventually fatigue becomes an issue and a small crack develops. These ultra thin retina displays are so extremely fragile that MBA owners can not "look after" them they way they would with a normal laptop. They have to be ultra, ultra cautious. Mine has now become a desk top computer attached to an external monitor as having paid a fortune for the replacement screen I will not risk it breaking a second time. I have gone back to my old MacBook Pro as my laptop. My advice is don't even consider a MBA unless you have very deep pockets. The standard MacBook Pro (non retina display) is a much better computer with far superior build quality.

MARKH356

I agree with you 100%. No point arguing with hardcore apple fans about this. Anyhow when my screen cracked I also feel I have been ripped off by the company. Small claims court didn't help. They wanted me to have an independent report from another engineer to rebutt Apple's engineer's claim that I caused the screen crack.

Of course I lost the case because I didn't get such an engineer to write me a report, even if I wanted and found one, it doesn't mean that my engineer's report will be favored over the apple engineering team and then I would have incurred more loss.

Like I keep crossing my finger and hoping that the judge and the retail manager at small claims who fought for the SGD 1197 repair fee will one day experience loss of income the way I experienced with the macbook air screen.

Anyhow the world is flawed as we already know and sometimes situations may be unjust.

My MBA screen cracked as well. I went to Apple but they said it was my fault. I later found that it was because I was leaving it by a window with a draft and my roomie turning the heat up in my room it cracked since the same thing happened to hers. Thankfully its not in an obvious part of the screen.

Another to add. One minute I was using MacBook Air next to me as I lay in bed, I went to switch sides in bed (as you do), moved the laptop to the other side of me, holding it by it's base, as I always do. I know never to hold the unit by its screen etc. Went to continue using the computer when I noticed a symmetrical spider shaped crack coming from the EXACT CENTRE of the screen. I'm talking exact, I've measured it. It is centred in the exact middle of the apple logo at the rear. This whole thing happened sometime in the transition between me turning from one side of the bed to the other. Now if this is 'accidental', then why is the crack so exactly in the centre. And how could it have happened within the 30 seconds of me turning over in bed. Not happy. Sort it out Apple, or at least make the repair cost more barable. I'm finding myself losing faith in the quality of your products, having been a faithful mac user since the original iMac.

Sounds like you held the unit by its screen.

I wonder if this might be a heat issue with the screens. Perhaps they are even more fragile when hot ?

Cracked screen on MacBook Air: $595 quoted to repair

**note this crack was in centre, at bottom of screen**

Date purchased: April 2012

Amount spent on Apple 'Insurance': $300

Time spent on phone to Apple Care quoting ACL and ACCC codes: 2 hours

Time spent in store: 1 hour

Total turn around time on repair: 3 hours [I think they just found me new computer]

Don't let them call it accidental damage if it wasn't! Buy plastic covers for the laptop so it always looks in pristine cnodition. take photos as soon as you notice a change or damage.

And when in doubt, turn to the Australian Consumer Law (or equivalent in your country). Apple generally has to abide by the local laws.

http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/content/Content.aspx?doc=home.htm

add mine to the list as well....

I have had my mac book air for a year and a half now and it is in pristine condition with the exception of the two recent cracks in my screen. I have never dropped my computer, never "stabbed my screen with a pen", never dropped anything on my computer, and two days ago I opened up my computer and voila, two cracks in my sceen on the right hand side in the middle about two inches apart. I took it into apple today and apparently there is no way to determine whether I dropped something on it or somehow "put too much pressure" on my screen, ergo it is not covered by the $300+ applecare I purchased. After reading this board, I am clearly not alone. Never again will I purchase the MacBook Air because I'd take a funcitonal screen over the lightweight computer any day.