Does dropping your MacBook Air void the warranty?

[bartman-chinese]

Hi All,

I dropped my MacBook Air (a few times ) and now it can't seem to detect the sound board/chip (i.e. no sound devices show up in system profiler) which AFAIK is not because of the drops. Is my warranty voided by the drops even though it has nothing to do with my problem? Also, what sort of repairs would they have to do to fix the sound?

Thanks in advance,
Bart

 

[gog]

Hi All,

I dropped my MacBook Air (a few times ) and now it can't seem to detect the sound board/chip (i.e. no sound devices show up in system profiler) which AFAIK is not because of the drops. Is my warranty voided by the drops even though it has nothing to do with my problem? Also, what sort of repairs would they have to do to fix the sound?

Thanks in advance,
Bart

Dropping it does void your warranty i think... but only if they find out it was dropped. Unless its obvious, eg big dents like mine , my advice would be not let on it was dropped and then act surprised if they tell you it seems to have been dropped and see what happens. Then fall back on insurance if necessary (?).

 

[dukebound85]

Hi All,

I dropped my MacBook Air (a few times ) and now it can't seem to detect the sound board/chip (i.e. no sound devices show up in system profiler) which AFAIK is not because of the drops. Is my warranty voided by the drops even though it has nothing to do with my problem? Also, what sort of repairs would they have to do to fix the sound?

Thanks in advance,
Bart

how do you know the drops didnt cause the problem?

applecare doesnt cover problems due to accidents

sadly, they will most likely attribute it to the drops if you bring it in and they can see its been dropped

 

[Adokimus]

how do you know the drops didnt cause the problem?

applecare doesnt cover problems due to accidents

sadly, they will most likely attribute it to the drops if you bring it in and they can see its been dropped

x2. They won't cover cosmetic repair or any damage they deem to be caused by the drop (which will likely be everything), but the drop itself doesn't automatically void your warranty. I'm sure a small ding wouldn't mean that they wouldn't fix a faulty logic board two years later...

 

[rdowns]

So, you drop your MBA a few times and you think your problems are unrelated. Thanks, I needed a chuckle this morning.

You'll probably need a new logic board and it will not be covered under warranty if it is obvious you dropped it. Something tells me that the drops likely caused some denting.

 

[n0de]

Thinking that dropping any laptop will not cause damage is unbelievably absurd.

Having said that, it is well documented that if they can blame a problem on the owner they will. If there are any dents on it at all you better have a pretty good story to go along with them.

 

[MH01]

Dropping it and telling apple you dropped it will void your warranty.

Just take it in and say that the sound is not working and see how you go.

Hopefully when you dropped it, it did not dent.

After you dropped it the second time, was the Audio still working? If not, the dropped caused it. If yes, then it may not have been related.

 

[MH01]

Thinking that dropping any laptop will not cause damage is unbelievably absurd.

Having said that, it is well documented that if they can blame a problem on the owner they will. If there are any dents on it at all you better have a pretty good story to go along with them.

Unbelievably absurd? I have dropped many laptops in my time, to date they all worked fine afterwards, the worst they got cosmetic damage. I do admit i have been lucky in this regard. The number 1 killer is liquids

 

[Old Muley]

It's not the drop that's the problem...it's the landing! Why not take it in and just see what they find?

 

[kastenbrust]

I wonder if the free fall sensor (accelerometer) records information on when the computers been in free fall, i.e. been dropped, and Apple look at this to see if it caused the problem. For example you take your laptop in and you tell them mysteriously the speakers arnt working, they check the chip and see it was dropped right before the computer stopped detecting the speakers and then void your warranty, its only a guess because otherwise why would they put expensive accelerometer chips on the logic boards? its not like they push and advertise the fact it helps save your hard drive data when the computers being dropped. Just a thought, i wonder if anyone works for Apple Service Dept here and can tell us

 

[McGilli]

There is no accelerometer chip on a MBA.

 

[html]

Um, yes.....

Yes. It would void your warranty.

 

[kellen]

Most likely the coverage comes down to if the outside looks like it has been dropped.

If it looks fine, then you are probably ok.

If it has some dents on corners or places where it looks like it was dropped, be prepared to put up a fight for applecare coverage.

 

[justit]

There is no accelerometer chip on a MBA.

Rewind to Steve's Keynote Jan 08, though I'm sure he was referring to only the HDD having it.

 

[kloan]

The sudden motion sensor... no idea if it records drops. All I know it's function is to shut down the hdd to prevent damage to data if it detects a fall.

 

[bartman-chinese]

Took it in today. The audio going bad is completely unrelated to the drops (dropped it like 6 months ago, some bad dents but otherwise ok. Sound went dead this week). The guy took one look at the giant dent and asked me what happened to it. I said it fell out of the overhead on a plane (true) and bounced off a chair armrest (also true). He chuckled and said they'd have to see what they can do. He says it's gonna take about a week for them to order the parts from Singapore and install them.

Dropping it and telling apple you dropped it will void your warranty.

Just take it in and say that the sound is not working and see how you go.

Hopefully when you dropped it, it did not dent.

After you dropped it the second time, was the Audio still working? If not, the dropped caused it. If yes, then it may not have been related.

 

[dlblarg]

Took it in today. The audio going bad is completely unrelated to the drops (dropped it like 6 months ago, some bad dents but otherwise ok. Sound went dead this week). The guy took one look at the giant dent and asked me what happened to it. I said it fell out of the overhead on a plane (true) and bounced off a chair armrest (also true). He chuckled and said they'd have to see what they can do. He says it's gonna take about a week for them to order the parts from Singapore and install them.

Watch your Genius bar karma on the dropped mba; you could also drop it on the other side and see if that helps.

 

[hodgeheg]

No it doesn't... according to Apple Store today

Alas I dropped my week old Air today. It was in its case, and fell about 1.5 feet - slipped out of my hand as I was putting it into my bag (((((

£342.70 worth of damage. nice.

it mangled the top left of the lid. The screen is still perfect but they can only replace the whole unit so I get to pay for a screen in order to get a piece of metal.

Obviously this isn't covered on AppleCare, but I asked explicitly what the warranty situation would be. I was told that it was clear what was damaged, and that the screen at this moment were it to stop working wouldn't be covered under warranty but that it wouldn't affect anything else. I was also specifically told that once I've had the screen replaced it will be back good-as-new in warranty terms, i.e. that the repair will be covered for three years by my existing applecare.


Now to find out whether my insurance will cover this, darned insurance company not open saturdays!

Felt so sick when it happened. I never drop laptops, but the moment I get an aluminium one that will dent horribly, I suddenly do. :'(

Thankfully it still actually works perfectly in the meantime.

I also voiced my concern that if the screen were replaced with an inferior one with dead pixels or the lines issue that I would not be happy and they said they would replace it again if necessary, so fingers crossed that's not necessary but it's good news and service I can't complain about, unlike the 57 minute phone queue to get cut off, by which time I'd walked to the store.