Desperate for advice. Antman destroyed my MBP 2017 13" LCD

[Fun.gus]

Hi All,

So to cut a long (and horrifying) story short. My MPB A1708 miraculously developed a pin point crack in the lower left screen and damaged the LCD. How this happened, I am unsure as I keep my MBP in a hardshell and in another neoprene case. Perhaps it was a grain of sand or Antman but both are unlikely because the point of damage is over my "esc" key. Either way, I'm almost sure Apple will classify this as accidental damage and it won't be covered by my warranty (we don't have AppleCare+ in South Africa).

What is weird is that if I leave my MBP turned off for a couple hours my screen turns on albeit there is a +- 3cm blacked out vertical line on the left side. I am happy to work this way for the next 20 years as I save to get it repaired but the issue is that when I turn it off again, the screen won't come on for hours. It does however, work well connected to a monitor. I have reset my SMC and PRAM etc. but that doesn't do it.

My desperate plea for advice is then two-fold. First, is there a way to determine how the MBP is booting my screen up even when slightly damaged and replicate that on demand? Perhaps via terminal? Second, I have not gone to Apple yet to see if they could cover it whilst I'm still within my first year of warranty. The MBP has not seen a second of misuse or impacts and is in brand new condition so its really frustrating that something could sneak past both my layers of protection and render my MBP useless. Do I have a shot talking to a genius? Any tips? Please help tech geniuses...

Thanks
Angus
[doublepost=1530189781][/doublepost]I will post images shortly.
[doublepost=1530189925][/doublepost]

 

[Ma2k5]

1) Did you say save for the next 20 years?! I'd be surprised if it lasted that long .
2) Doesn't hurt to take it to an Apple genius, who knows you may get a free repair, or at worst a quote!
3) It will be hard to diagnose why it works as it does without looking into it.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Agree with @Ma2k5: You need to know for certain what has actually happened - that is the only way you will be able to find out what you need to do - and the only way to do that is to have it inspected and diagnosed by an Apple specialist.

I'd recommend taking it to Apple - as it is still under the one year warranty, and see 1) what they tell you is wrong with your screen, and 2) whether they can repair it and to what extent the warranty might cover this.

 

[Fun.gus]

Haha @Ma2k5 perhaps I'll look into keeping it in a display vault for its foreseeable future. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to take it in this weekend, get it diagnosed and plead my case. I see from other threads that I am not alone so perhaps they'll be understanding. I will keep you updated. You'll notice in my picture that the keys are also wearing thin after a year of typing... its not looking good for this poor laptop. Hopefully they'll cave and at least fix that. Thanks again.
[doublepost=1530192372][/doublepost]Are there anyways perhaps to reset the display/drivers/hardware at boot up to try get it to force the display on?

 

[tubeexperience]

You can buy a new display assembly for ~$540 from eBay.

If you are willing to buy a used display assembly, you can get for cheaper than that.

 

[Nbd1790]

I can tell that your MacBook is well cared for - unfortunately, you can see the point of impact in the bottom left corner (not saying you necessarily dropped it or were aware of the problem when it happened). In my opinion, you were most likely using the laptop and at some point something small and hard like a pebble or something of the sort made its way onto your laptop near that part of the screen. Without being aware it was there, you closed the laptop lid and that generated the "point of impact" causing the screen to crack.

I used to deal with ADH cases when I was a technician, and the first thing we look for is the point of impact - which in your case is quite small. If I were you, I would go to an Apple genius and tell them thats how it happened or how you suspect it happened. It's quite unfortunate because it seems your not at fault here - but unfortunately, a repair tech is going to tell you that its a repair you need to pay for. Hopefully they at least give you a break on the price. Best of luck

 

[Fun.gus]

@Nbd1790 Thanks so much for your insight. That's exactly what I was thinking. In hindsight its definitely a good idea to get a screen protector for these retina models. I'm going to get a quote and chat to them hopefully tomorrow.

@tubeexperience I was having a look on ebay and a few sites we have here in South Africa. What makes the most sense for me might be trying to get a refurbished/new LCD off Alibaba/Aliexpress. I had a friend order something off there and it went well. Took a while but it got here. They are very well priced and I'm fairly comfortable opening PC's.

What's very interesting is I can get my screen to boot up as long as I use the keyboard shortcut to force sleep my device and then close the lid. I guess its then in some sort of sleep that doesn't trigger my display staying off for hours.

 

[tubeexperience]

@tubeexperience I was having a look on ebay and a few sites we have here in South Africa. What makes the most sense for me might be trying to get a refurbished/new LCD off Alibaba/Aliexpress. I had a friend order something off there and it went well. Took a while but it got here. They are very well priced and I'm fairly comfortable opening PC's.

I've know about Alibaba.

I am just not sure I would trust a Chinese commence site.

 

[Fun.gus]

Hi All,

So a quick update. I spent a while on the phone to a great Apple support lady and explained the situation (placement of the damage, state of my keyboard etc.) and she told me to take in store because these new butterfly clips now have a recall.

My entire top row of keys used intermittently stick at times and became impossible to press and even got stuck sticking out at weird angles. Including the escape key which just so happens to be above the damage. I just got back from the MyIstore (its our authorised reseller here in SA) and showed it to the tech guys there. They agree with the Apple support lady as there is no evidence of anything sharp getting trapped under my display as it would have left at least a mark on the body/keys.

They've sent it away to apple to get repaired under warranty but the Genius left me unsure about where I now stand. @Nbd1790 perhaps you wouldn't mind shedding some light? If the genius says its 'all good' and it doesn't look like accidental damage and is a hardware error can that change when it gets to the technician? I'm worried that I'm getting my hopes up and then in 7-10 working days I get a call requesting thousands to repair the screen because the technician thinks differently? You see, the whole happening comes with my account of what happened and what I heard which I'm not sure will come across to the technician.

Does anybody know how the Apple chain works from store to off site technician? I would really appreciate some insight.

 

[Nbd1790]

Typically, the in store tech lets you know prior to sending a device out whether or not you might be looking at a charge. Regardless, there is a recall on the keyboard itself. There's a few different ways this can play out.

1 - They give you the benefit of the doubt, replace the screen as well as the keyboard at no cost to the user.

2- They replace JUST the keyboard and claim that the screen crack is "accidental damage from handling" and ask you to pay for it (highly unlikely because of outcome below)

3- They claim that the damage to the screen is user inflicted, will not replace the keyboard under warranty / recall because it can make the damage to the screen worse which is already cracking - in which case, they'll be wanting you to pay the repair cost of the screen (perhaps they might not charge you labor and just the cost of the screen because its under warranty)

Pray for option number 1 - but in the worst case scenario, I believe even if you decline the repair cost (if there is one) you can still get the computer back and might just incur return shipping charges.

Most likely, when an Apple Genius doesn't give a quote, you have a good chance at having a no cost repair (at least here in NY)

 

[Fun.gus]

@Nbd1790 thank you so much. I had a great chat to an online Apple support agent in the USA who was very helpful and understanding. I’m holding thumbs for option 1.

 

[Fun.gus]

@Nbd1790 So this is a bit late but they ended up replacing my LCD and keyboard free and under warranty. It took about a week or so to be shipped and was returned with a whole new top and bottom case, including battery.

The keys feel exactly the same as the previous keys so I'm not holding thumbs that they haven't just put in the exact same 2017 board.

 

[Rafterman]

Call Nick Fury?

 

[mr.anthonyramos]

@Nbd1790 So this is a bit late but they ended up replacing my LCD and keyboard free and under warranty. It took about a week or so to be shipped and was returned with a whole new top and bottom case, including battery.

The keys fee exactly the same as the previous keys so I'm not holding thumbs that they haven't just put in the exact same 2017 board.

Congrats! Similar thing happened with my old 2014 MacBook Pro and they too replaced it for free. They said this happens once in a while because the screens are so thin.

 

[Fun.gus]

@Rafterman good one

@mr.anthonyramos Thanks, the damage to your screen looks rather similar. You hear of some horror stories and quite a bit of hate for Apple on the forums but I had a really pleasant experience. It went through an authorised reseller and still only took 5 working days and I was kept in the loop the whole time.