Resolved 2019 16" Macbook Pro Damaged (by desk lamp leak?)

[Diego Lopez]

I'd been using a trusty Intel 16" Macbook Pro until I got a smaller M1 a few months ago and kept the 16" as backup. Every now and then I got it out of its zippered sleeve, turned it on and updated software and files that I'd wanted to keep synced on both machines. Last time I used the 16" was about 3 weeks ago, then I turned it off and inserted it into its sleeve for storage.

Sadly, this morning I took it out and found it to be terminally damaged. There is a hole in the aluminum chasis just above the touchbar, and the screen appears to be somewhat melted right where that hole would line up when closed. This is the strangest and saddest thing I've ever had happen to a laptop. The unit will turn on but hangs halfway, and only a small stripe of the screen works, the rest of the image is garbled. I believe internals are damaged as well.

What I think happened, is that either it failed to turn off last time I closed it and got stuck in some loop, or it spontaneously turned on while inside the sleeve and failed to sleep. Thing is whatever happened, the unit heated up continuously inside the sleeve to a point where components melted, including the chasis and screen. It could have even been a potential fire risk.

Anyway losing a perfectly fine 16" MBP like this is heartbreaking, and more so under such odd circumstances.

I post this here in a sort of letting off some steam mode, but also in case anyone needs to be careful when storing laptops in the same manner I did. I still don't think I made a mistake, as Macs have energy settings and closed lid detection - my issue was probably accidental because of some software hang that prevented the unit from turning off or sleeping.

RIP - it was a great machine and served very well while it did.

 

[cryptocat]

I don't know what happened here, but let me say this:

It is pretty much physically impossible for the laptop to become hot enough to melt any aluminium alloy. As in: not enough energy stored in the battery to reach that level of HOTTTT. Also, the small mark indicates this is either mechanical or chemical damage.

I don't think it would reach 1300°F and higher (melting point of most alu alloys) and look like this. The touch bar display and the plastic bezel right next to it would have melted (or at the very least: their glue, because the display itself and the touchbar is fitted into the case by glue, a lot of glue), the damage would most likely not be a little mark like this, etc. etc.

Your small picture doesn't really give away much, show us the entire laptop, maybe?

Must be something external. No way in hell did the enclosure melt due to heat, when the rest of the laptop is fine. A burning battery...maybe. But your laptop would look burnt. Burnt as in: black as coal, easy to tell it had burnt.

What's that residue where the screen bezel and the display glass connect?

 

[Diego Lopez]

I'll take some more pics and post them. The rest of the laptop looks fine! There was some oily residue on the chasis, perhaps something that leaked from the display? I smeared it off with my finger and then washed it off, only to come back and smear some more, perhaps some of the liquid in the photo is from my moist hands after cleaning the oily residue. Is it possible that the spillage from the screen damaged the alloy? Dunno. Have to say tho, that I always put a thin protective cloth between the screen and the keyboard when I close the laptop. I've done this with all my laptops to protect the screen from those marks that are left by the keys. After this incident, this cloth shows some signs of having endured high heat, as the texture is hardened on that edge that lined up with the screens seams.

 

[cryptocat]

If you can rule out any external factors messing with the laptop while it was put away, this is still very strange.


Are you certain this came from the display and the display only?

Was the laptop stored with the display facing upwards? It would make sense for it to accumulate on this spot if it came out of the bezel region.

Did any extreme conditions occur while storing it? Heat, cold, humidity?


Definitely take it to apple before you tamper with anything.

This is unacceptable.

Batterys can bloat or even leak. Bad quality, but it's considered normal wear. A display leaking and killing the computer in the process?

I've never had any display leak, even 20 year old ones (Game Boy, early computer TFTs) still work fine, if the glass panel hasn't been crushed.

Take it to apple, be polite, explain that you are dead certain this isn't due to any physical damage that you have inflicted on it. Tell them it was your backup machine, rarely used in the last few months. They need to replace this. Escalate if you have to. Suggest to apple that you will take legal action if they still won't repair it.

Even if this is caused by a software bug that lead to high CPU load AND prevented sleep/shutdown, this still should not happen. If cooling is insufficient (like if you put it in a bag like you did), the CPU will throttle down, it will go up to 100°C but not higher.

People use their Macbooks in clamshell mode without damaging its display. I can imagine it'd get pretty hot with airflow obstructed inside a bag, but it needs to have some kind of hardware failsafe to just shut down if it reaches dangerous temperatures.

What about people stressing these machines for hours while in clamshell mode, in summer heat? Surely the heat generated would have caused more displays to leak.

 

[Diego Lopez]

After giving much thought to this situation, I went back to the crime scene and searched for all possible explanations. The only thing that seems possible besides the overheating assumption is this: The laptop was inside a zippered sleeve, with hard case protectors on, but close to a Himalayan Salt Lamp that creates a bit of moisture on its base. Somehow, this moisture (which is just some small droplets on its metal base and didn't seem worth worrying about) might have been absorbed by the protective sleeve and filtered into the chassis inside, in just the right amount and place to do some kind of damage. Seems far off, but as Spock said: "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth". Now the question is, if a bit of moisture and salty residue can penetrate fabric with enough salty concentration remaining to do this kind of damage. Perhaps the salt lamp draws ambient moisture to whatever stuff is near it, and the fabric just happened to retain it very well, enough to create buildup in its own and filter it into the laptop... If the salt lamp in any way happened to be the culprit, I am sorry to have jumped to a different conclusion in the first place, and to have posted it here without any proof. At least I was clear that it was mere speculation. @cryptocat , thanks for pitching in.

 

[cryptocat]

What about your environment?

Is it hot and humid?

Temperature fluctuating much in the room where your Macbook was stored?


If it's in very close proximity to a block of salt that is constantly wet from the salt raising the dew point... seems like the most probable cause here. The air close to the block of salt might have been saturated and the salty dew could have gotten soaked up by the sleeve. Seems like the most probable cause to me.

Salt is a killer. I stop riding my nicer road bikes once the streets are covered in it. The beater bike that I use in winter is showing lots of corrosion.

Here in Stuttgart, Germany, you can sometimes see classic cars in US-spec. (different headlights)

Why? Collectors are paying extra for cars that have never been exposed to salted roads! Cars from (e.g.) Nevada are basically rust-free. The german spec car from the same model year might even have been scrapped by now from too many winters in salt. You can even get license plates just for the summer, if people have a collectible car, they won't drive it in winter.