MacBook Air 13" mid 2012 weak hinge

As per Apple.com, the video above doesnt fall within this parameter:

Learn what you can do if you experience one or more of these issues with the hinges on your MacBook Air.

• Unable to close lid completely.
• Broken or cracked plastic near one or both of the hinges.
• More than one inch (2.54cm) of free play while opening or closing the lid.
• Lid falls freely into closed position from a 30-degree open position. (From a closed position, open the lid approximately 30 degrees and let go.)

END from Apple.com

The hinge (pictured below) is the macbook AIR hinge, a friction hinge.

Due to the thin nature of the LCD backlit LED monitor on the Air, you would NOT WANT a very tight hinge.

Why? Excessive hinge resistance would cause the screen to BOW (and possibly crack), especially on a longer fulcrum from the hinge in the case of the 13" screen...... Ergo it is designed logically to be “looser than” a traditional macbook Pro's hinges for a very good reason.

Friction Hinge: A device with torque between two parts on a common axis.

A friction hinge is also commonly known as a:
Constant Torque Hinge, Position Hinge, Clutch, Torque Hinge, or Detent Hinge.

Common Applications include:
Laptop computers; lids, doors and enclosures; positioning device for controls, monitors, arms, seat rests

Hope that helps some people understand the mechanics of it better. 😉

macbook AIR hinge:

Mine operates identically to your MBA, as did my previous generation. There's no way for the user to safely tighten the hinge on the MacBook Air. If the machine is less than two weeks old (which I suspect it is) you can return it, exchange it for another or use it as is. That's about it for your options.

Same here...the exact same problem with loose hinge. Just got my MBA 13" five days ago. Called Apple support today and they are sending a new unit to replace my current one. Hopefully the new one would be better.

Have you tried to get yours replaced?

I had the same problem with my mid-2012 13'' MBA. The hinge was so weak in the opening direction that the lid would move just by the force of gravity like in the video.

The same model of a colleague of mine has a firmer hinge, its lid did not move by gravity.

I took my MBA to the genius bar. They agreed that the hinge was too weak and I had the display exchanged by one with a firmer hinge under warranty.

Otherwise the display change would have set me back € 361.

Now the hinge is firm enough to not let the lid move by gravity, but just barely. If I shake the MBA a bit while holding the lid parallel to the ground, it does move.

So the new hinge is somewhat firmer, but I still wished it was even more firm.

When moving the MBA with the lid open, the lid angle still may change.

And the vibrations in a car or bumpy flight will still cause the lid to move to the most open position.

I'm afraid that all one can expect from a repair is that the hinge is somewhat firmer but not so much that it makes a huge difference. The lid-opens-by-gravity test is just a test and not a real problem.

OTH, the whole display is exchanged during the "repair". Thus if you're happy with the display you have, e.g. because it's a Samsung, has zero pixel faults and has homogeneous luminance even at the edges, you may not want to take the risk of having it replaced with an inferior one.

BTW: Air humidity and temperature are known to have an impact on static friction. I'm just speculating here, but this might be enough to make the lid pass or fail the gravity test depending on environmental conditions.

I just got my new MBA 2012 13" last week, and I immediately noticed that the screen hinge was not like my previous MBA 2011 13". Not only that but I have keyboard keys that seem to stick a little while typing.

I tried to deal with it, but I am getting tired of everytime I get up the weight and gravity pulls my screen to full open. Its very annoying. I never had that the whole year I had my previous MBA. I am calling tomorrow for an exchange. My opinion don't accept it. Its not normal.

Good Luck!:)

Well La30retrop you are telling the exact same problems I was experiencing. That's weird. I had to replace the tab key three times and tried to fix it on my own. Now it isn't as bad as before but sometimes the key gets stuck anyways and as you know from my previous post the hinge is bad as well..It's so annoying. Wish you good luck with replacing

Execute the following line in Terminal:

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

If the result starts with LT it's a Samsung display, if it starts with LH it's an LG.

Bought my MBA last week Nov12 and right out of the box had a loose hinge. My Dell XPS 12 Ultrabook from work doesnt do that. Annoyed with Apple. The "genius" was arrogant and compared with floor models and compared my hardly used home MBA with floor model 100s of people use every day. They actually denied repairs. Now the screen just falls even when I move the laptop on a desk. Not happy.

Please do not let Apple get away with that loose hinge. Try to escalate. Apple charged big bucks for a high quality product and is bound to deliver. You deserve to be happy with the quality. By not giving in, you strengthen the position of all of us who expect 100% quality from Apple. And, you strengthen the position of all departments within Apple who try to deliver 100% quality.

I know it takes some extra effort and determination to deal with this kind of problem, but doing so will make you and all of us feel better. To my experience it is worth it.

BTW: If you're afraid of killing Apple's business by insiting on that hinge problem to be solved, keep in mind that Apple is sitting on a property worth a magnitude of about 100 billion dollars.

I had exactly the same issue. And now my "W" key has gone out of its way - broken clip!

I'm going to check with the local apple store and try to ask for a free key replacement (less than 1 year old).

WIll come back with results.

Same problem MacBook Air 13" 2013

with SeeThru Hard shell protection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4KMksmtwo

without hardsell protection:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxZmsTGUN2YwOXg3cUVwSE5kU1k/edit?usp=sharing

Awol_CZ

I have exactly the same problem like the guy on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3vEfZznH18

There is no problem indicated in that video whatsoever.

All those in this thread indicating that the VIDEO above is any "problem" you are incorrect. Ive owned 4, and currently 2, they all act the SAME WAY.

Apple itself advertises open and close of the Macbook AIR with "very slight single finger"

If you are used to a tighter hinge for movement on the macbook Pro, you might very well incorrectly assume the Air to have JUST AS tight of monitor hinger, but that is NOT the design, and not the case.

Of the 100 or so macbook Air that have passed thru my hands, they all act the same way.

Are there Air models with a variance of tighter or looser hinges? YES. All laptops are like this without question whatsoever. Is that video indicative of a problem? Absolutely NOT. Perfectly normal.

This is exactly like a model X car (I wont list name), in which the door hinge design was very different, instead of a lot of pressure in open and closing it like the other older model, this ones doors opened and closed at the touch of a childs push. Resultantly many people reported a "flaw / problem" where none existed. 😊

I have the same issue, i have returned mine twice esp the 13 one and in mine it goes 160 deg from 90 deg with mild movement or by gravity which is very infuriating but i am having to live with it, it sounds like its a very intensive operation to get to the hinges

when i copy that line in it just says this:

Agreeing to the Xcode/iOS license requires admin privileges, please re-run as root via sudo.

I'm not sure what display I've got on my macbook pro retina but id like to check 🙂 also my macbook pro hinges are very tight (which i like). and the macbook airs hinges need to be loose otherwise you'd put too much strain on the very thin screen every time you open it, over time maybe distorting the shape of the screen.... whereas macbook pro has thicker screen, stronger :]

Bump