MacBook rattle - loose battery?

If I want to 'take a poll' on a public form, however, that's entirely my prerogative.

No, not in this forum, it's against your terms of use.

Just to add my opinion, if you've ever looked at the iFixit teardown of the new MacBook, you'll see that there are six separate battery packs, not one, and that they are so securely glued in place that its rated repairable index is very low. It's hard to imagine that any of them would loose enough to rattle. They literally have to be pried loose. It would seem an impossibility for any one one of them to slide from one side of the case to the other.

Jackson, yea I get the same problem too. I went to an apple store today and was told that this was normal and that this was common to the new rmbp 2015. They told me its the force touch trackpad. Can you describe the nature of the rattling more? I want to know if its similar to mine. Like you, I've learnt that opening the case and gripping it at the top, near the vents reveals the rattle most. The impact can clearly be felt near the vents. Whatever it is. its shifting laterally between the vents. Like you said, it seems like it could be the battery.

OK so like Carl suggested, I took my rMBP early-2015 (w/ force touch) to the genius bar. The tech told me he shook the laptop while holding different components down and isolated it to the force touch trackpad. He diffidently said, "it's actually normal" and "we get this all the time". I mean this is in the politest way possible: does he mean the shifting is normal because it was deliberate or does it mean the shifting is normal because this iteration of the mbp's are uniformly defective...

What I don't understand is that the "impacts" to the left and right of the case are felt in the upper half of the body

"Rattling" is also the wrong word for it. The shifting of weight is not chaotic. Its not like a screw rattling around in an enclosed space. Its kind of like something heavy is on tracks, shifting back and forth, clack(left) clack(right) clack(left) clack(right). Its kind of fascinating save for the my $2000-laptop-might-be-dying aspect of it.

If we accept the premise that problem lies with the trackpad, and Lanny's premise that the batteries cannot move, why would the impacts be felt in the upper half of the body (ie: in line with the keyboard)?

(Earlier I wrote that the impacts were felt in line with the vents, but I forgot the vents were actually in the bottom half of the body. sorry)

Yes, humor. There have been several threads regarding "loose" batteries, in different Apple products. If I was you, I'd make an appointment with an Apple Genius, and discuss the problem. Then, rather than simply taking a poll, you could provide advice to other. Similar to, "my MacBook battery rattled when I shook my computer vigorously, and the Apple Genius told me 'xxxxxxxxxxx'".

Mine same here. I'm from Malaysia. Got it a week ago and hinge producing ticking noise when openinng and closing and also loosen part clanking right and left while shake and tilting left and right. Mine is a customized unit not from the warehouse I believe And still the problem didn't being addressed. I called up the Apple Online Support for a replacement. Now it's in the processing stage. Hopefully the replacement unit will work out. At the meantime, I went to the nearest Apple Reseller to test out some demo units (3 MacBook Retina 12 inch Space Grey, Gold, and Silver) 3 out of 3 producing clicking noise on the hinge and 2 out of 3 having loosen part clanking left and right while tilting. I also went to another Apple Reseller which, only has 1 demo unit. Unfortunately, it still has the ticking noise but no loosen part Issue. I think ticking noise from hinge is more irritating, cause you often hear it when opening and closing the lid. Anybody has ticking noise or just any noise when opening and closing and tilting the lid??

My lid is fine. It doesn't make any noises or squad at all. The computer is great. I was just worried that something was loose inside. But from what I can conclude based off of everyones posts, I guess this is just part of the construction.

Hello,

Did you ever figure this out? My brand new Macbook Pro 13 inch Retina does this exact same thing you describe. To be honest, the sound is very subtle and not very loud. I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't so OCD about my stuff. Is this worth getting checked out? Or is it "Normal" as the apple rep told you?

No way, it's certainly abnormal. This is not what Apple hope to deliver to you. If you're not satisfy with your product, don't settle down. Replace it or fix it. If everyone simply settle down due to fear of hassle, Apple's quality control will not improve, cause no one bringing up issues.

So I took mine to the apple store today and the apple genius said that this was normal and all MacBooks pros do this. He said there needs to be some wiggle room within the computer. I tried it out on some of the MacBooks in the store and to my disbelief... they all did this to some degree. Some felt like they were making a larger knocking noise then others, but they all did it. Long story short, I think it's normal.

Lol. Okay~ cause I can't think of anything can be shifting inside the stupidly thin Retina MacBook 12-inch after watching the design video from Apple and also iFixit tear down page and some tear down videos on YouTube. I can't seems to think of the cause is from the battery, since they're glued. Even though the glue melt, they're tightly packed and each cell has it's own compartment. I'll let you know how's mine gonna work. I think it's on its way since Apple sent me an email stated Return Completed.

Ok, sure. I hope everyone's MacBook free of problem so we can enjoy using it all the time. By the way my Order Status now is Preparing To Ship, I think this week should be receiving it. Just try to check back this thread. Good day for you.