Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Dropped rMBP on tile floor

T

tryrtryrtryrt

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 10, 2016
288
114
Hi everyone,

I've dropped my opened Macbook Pro 15" late 2013 from almost one meter height on tile floor. It seems it landed on the bottom right back side of the display (it got heavily bent) and then damped on the Logitech Unifying receiver in the USB port on the right side which lost its plastic cap but it seems saved the bottom case and its contents from any damage.

I've checked all the ports - they work. Charging works, battery works. Keyboard works. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, speakers work. All in all everything except the display seems to be working and not touched at all. Apple Diagnostics says no problems found.

Now the display. It faints (can't think of a better word) every 3-5 seconds. It faints even before OS boots up (it faints on boot drive selection screen fired with Alt, it faints on Apple Diagnostics fired with D, it faints on black screen with Apple logo while booting). It faints all the same no matter if I force iGPU or dGPU with gfxCardStatus. If I connect external display both via HDMI or MDP, the external display works flawlessly, but internal still faints. Fainting seems to not affect performance (I do not see any CPU or energy intensive processes in System Monitoring). When it faints, moving mouse or video progression actually happens but you can't see it on the internal display until it stops fainting for several seconds when you see the situation as if there was no fainting (i. e. it seems GPU still calculates the image to be displayed even during fainting but internal display just doesn't display it).

Bent display open and closed. Fainting video 1 (beware, traffic!) and 2 (beware, traffic!).

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Am I mostly right in my assumption that only the display is to be replaced? I'm going to ask service centre to diagnose the rMBP just to be sure but I'm not going to repair it officially since Apple charges 800 $ per such a repair, it's too much. Has anyone bought a replacement display from Amazon like this one? It says it's new but I'm skeptical since the price is so small...

What happens if such a replaced display feels staingate? Will Apple replace it for free then or they'll say it's not an original part of that specific laptop and refuse a repair? If so I'd better buy an replacement display with a warranty...

Has anyone tried flat rate repair at Apple Store in such circumstances? I wonder what tier will this problem fall into?

Please share your experience and thoughts on the matter.

Thank you for the help!
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Your display is doomed. It needs replacing. The video card may be damaged in all likeliness. You will need to contact Apple for your other questions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tryrtryrtryrt
Relentless Power said:
We already know The display may be damaged. But the fact the display is fading is possible evidence the video card may be damaged. I have seen this many times before.
Click to expand...
Could it be of any sign GPU is OK that I stressed the CPU and dGPU for hours with Prime95 running in 7 threads and GpuTest running FurMark in 2880x1880 with 8xAA on the external monitor and it showed no problems so far?
[doublepost=1473588190][/doublepost]Guys, is there a way to know flat rate repair tier and estimated price for such an accidental damage assuming only display is broken? I've contacted Apple USA chat and so far they've been only able to help me reset SMC and NVRAM and could not advise me on price estimation.

The situation I'm in is that flat rate repair is not offered in my country and display repair is 800+ $ but I'm going for a week travel to the USA (New York to be specific) soon so I was thinking if they'd be able to offer 300-500 flat rate repair and fix it in a week instead of buying display replacement from the market. Is this a good idea or am I risking to not get my laptop back before I have to head out of the country? Customer support in chat said it's OK to repair MacBook in the USA which has not been bought in the USA.
 
Last edited:
maflynn said:
You're assuming that Apple will fix the laptop in a week. I've seen them typically give estimates for repairs for the 10 day to 2 week time frame.
Click to expand...
Will they state maximum repair period on the spot or it can vary thereafter? I. e. can I go to Geniuses, ask how long will it take to fix it, they say for example 4-6 days - can I be sure it will not take more than 6 days? Or this is a bad idea to use the length they say as a strict constraint?
 
tryrtryrtryrt said:
Will they state maximum repair period on the spot or it can vary thereafter?
Click to expand...
Its an estimate, and if it requires any major repair type of work, they'll be sending it out to Apple for the work. Unless things have changed, I believe Geniuses don't do much repairs. Replacing the display and/or logic board seem like that might fall out of the scope of what they do and so it would get shipped to Apple. It then waits in the queue waiting for its turn.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tryrtryrtryrt
I won't be able to prolong the trip so if the period is longer than 7 days or if you cannot be sure you can trust the period they say I think it's a bad idea to try this.
[doublepost=1473592897][/doublepost]
maflynn said:
Its an estimate, and if it requires any major repair type of work, they'll be sending it out to Apple for the work. Unless things have changed, I believe Geniuses don't do much repairs. Replacing the display and/or logic board seem like that might fall out of the scope of what they do and so it would get shipped to Apple. It then waits in the queue waiting for its turn.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry for following up your answer with a question once again. :) Let's assume they say they can fix it on the spot and we agree on the price, they replace the display and it still fails... Will I be able to reject it being sent out to service centre and just take it home on the spot? Will they charge for this replacement? Or is this purely on a case-by-case basis?
 
Last edited:
tryrtryrtryrt said:
they replace the display and it still fails.
Click to expand...
They won't hand it back to you if it's not working, If they uncover other damage, they'll contact you and give you the details, i.e., what's wrong, how to fix it, how long it might take now, etc etc.

If it fails after you received it, then it will be covered under the repair warranty and you'll have to take it back and have it repaired. I highly doubt your country's apple authorized dealers will honor that repair warranty, so if you've already returned home, and it fails you'll end up spending more money on the repair. So consider your choices and risks of those choices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jerryk and tryrtryrtryrt
I could just be a display cable issue if it's fading, warped connector or just slightly unseated from the fall.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
I could just be a display cable issue if it's fading, warped connector or just slightly unseated from the fall.
Click to expand...
Hope so. I'm backing it up now (yeah-yeah, I know, one must backup regularly :)), didn't have where to back up 512 GB of data previously. Then I'll tear it down and see how bad it is inside.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back