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MacBook Air 13" mid 2012 weak hinge

Hi everybody,


just received my new MBA 13" mid 2012 model few days ago and I'm a bit annoyed with the lid hinge. It feels kind of weak to me (in opening direction). When mb is on the desk, screen stays in its angle but it requires only a little preasure to change the angle of the screen. When I open the lid approximately 100 degrees and put the mb in position where screen is parallel to the ground and base is perpendicular to the ground (lid is on top) the lid stays in its position. But when I rotate the mb so as the lid is on the bottom and base on top then lid opens itself by gravity to maximum angle. I have exactly the same problem like the guy on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3vEfZznH18


Is this something to worry about or this was some intention by Apple? Unfortunately there is no local Apple Store in the Czech Republic, only Apple Online store, and everything is shipped here from the Netherlands. I guess there is no way how to tighten the hinge.


Thanks in advance,

Lukas

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 23, 2012 12:42 AM

Reply
27 replies

Sep 2, 2012 8:10 AM in response to Awol_CZ

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.

Sep 7, 2012 1:09 AM in response to Awol_CZ

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!:)

Sep 7, 2012 5:46 AM in response to Awol_CZ

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

MacBook Air 13" mid 2012 weak hinge

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