MacBook Air developing "play" or "slop" in hinge

[designed]

I just watched the video on the first page of the thread to see what you were talking about. I've always regarded that sort of play as a... feature or character of the Airbook's hinge design. Not that it would be better if there wasn't any play but it's certainly not the first hinge in my world to behave like that.

The reason I checked out this thread was to see if the sloppiness becomes a bad issue with age, my pre-order MBA has somewhat more playful hinges (opening, closing, carrying the computer around when it's on) than it used to, but looks like I'm still cool.

 

[Revtop22]

I just wanted to add my two cents since I've got experience with these stupid hinges. These are possibly the worst hinges ever created. There is a bar that is gripped by a row of very tiny C-shaped clamps....it cannot be tightened for any reason. And for good measure, Apple purposely hid them behind the screen bezel (which is attached using the strongest adhesive known to man).

So to remove them, of course you have to heat and pry the super thin aluminum bezel which is adhered to both the screen and a metal frame. Then and only then can you remove them.

That isn't the big issue though. The big issue is these hinges are made to fail. They are not meant with reliability in mind. There are two parts to each hinge where as the old Macbook Pros and even the unibody's are made with one-piece design. There is even a small amount of grease applied to each of the bars so they will not squeal when the lid is opened. How quickly will that wear away? One year?

If anyone wants a course on how to build a lemon of a laptop, this is it. To top it all off, Apple doesn't even sell the hinges to ANYONE (even resellers) since they are all part of the display. And of course they want $600-900 for the display. They even require resellers to send the displays in to be warrantied. You know your design stinks when your average Mac tech can't properly install the only moving part on the laptop.

At some point in the future I might just as well CNC my own hinge/bezel design and sell them on ebay for a few bucks. I know I'm not alone here.

 

[editonmac]

I Wonder

I was thinking about getting a Rev. B MacBook Air as a secondary computer to surf the net, email, IM, etc. This is because, who seriousley likes carrying a santa rosa 17" MacBook Pro everywhere? I think it's good for Final Cut, but now I am beginning to reconsider.

Is anybody who has a Rev. B MacBook Air having the hinge problem?

 

[mikey28]

I have both Rev A 1.6/80 AND Rev B 1.8/128SSD.

Rev A has quite a bit of slop. I think that it has always had it, it didn't develop over time. But it IS stable, meaning the the screen is not so loose that it slides around or wobbles when I type.

The Rev B is tight as a drum. And I am watching it carefully to see if it does develop slop.

 

[asoccorso]

im not really having an issue

theres alittle bit of play but not alot i think the hinge is actually doing pretty well. i made a video of it and my experience with the refurbished air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh1jD3NDNEs

 

[tsubikiddo]

I was thinking about getting a Rev. B MacBook Air as a secondary computer to surf the net, email, IM, etc. This is because, who seriousley likes carrying a santa rosa 17" MacBook Pro everywhere? I think it's good for Final Cut, but now I am beginning to reconsider.

Is anybody who has a Rev. B MacBook Air having the hinge problem?

I have a MacBook Air rev.B base spec
no hinge issue at all.

the display tends to either lean forward/backwards though,
this is especially the case when you raised the Air with the display open

 

[cedar]

I've had my Air a year. Just wait. Mine started off with a sloppy hinge that finally broke. I bought Applecare, but the Apple store told me it wasn't covered and it would cost $650 to fix. I had been a long-time defender of the Air, but no more. I would never recommend this product to anyone again. Too bad because I love the operating system but hate the quality of the encasement.

 

[Revtop22]

I've had my Air a year. Just wait. Mine started off with a sloppy hinge that finally broke. I bought Applecare, but the Apple store told me it wasn't covered and it would cost $650 to fix. I had been a long-time defender of the Air, but no more. I would never recommend this product to anyone again. Too bad because I love the operating system but hate the quality of the encasement.

Is the hinge broke or just very loose? I've got a few extra hinges and even a full display .....took forever to find.

 

[cedar]

Is the hinge broke or just very loose? I've got a few extra hinges and even a full display .....took forever to find.

Broken. The whole top slips out of alignment. The "genius" at the Apple store said that he had never seen an Air with a broken hinge, therefore it must be my fault and not covered under warranty. I told him to google "apple air hinge problems" and he might find a few others with the same problem. The jerk was very smug and arrogant.

 

[rroback]

My rev a hinge had finally got fairly sloppy. the screen has about an inch of wobble in the top, and it's a bit annoying. not super bad, since I can use the computer fine, but I do notice it. I certainly know that apple won't do anything for my current annoyance, but I worry the hinge will begin to break.

 

[cedar]

My rev a hinge had finally got fairly sloppy. the screen has about an inch of wobble in the top, and it's a bit annoying. not super bad, since I can use the computer fine, but I do notice it. I certainly know that apple won't do anything for my current annoyance, but I worry the hinge will begin to break.

I would take it in to get it on record. I was told by the Applestore that mine would have been fixed under warranty if I had brought it in earlier. Makes no sense, but that's what I was told.

 

[Tobeb]

Reading this thread makes me a bit worried.

I am considering getting a refurbished Macbook Air Rev. A and it seems like a lot of people have had hinge problems. Should I be worried about this? Have people that have bought a refurbed Air lately have hinge play problems?

Is it a great % of the air's that have problems or is it pretty isolated (being that the Geniuses are saying they haven't seen it before)? And am I likely to be getting a refurbished air that was sent back due to hinge problems???




Should I maybe stick to the new Macbook Unibody? Although I am buying this primarily for the portibility (and the nicer screen) mainly to travel.


Any help would be greatly appreciated, sorry to hijack thread.

 

[jeremybuff]

Hey all-

I just thought I should throw my 2 cents in. My dad has a MacBook Air which has virtually sat still for the last few months. In fact, it has only been on vacation once, and that was in a car, no in an airplane. It's been well documented how bad the hinges are for the 1st MacBook Air. Recently BOTH of the hinges broke, just "popped". I can't believe this, and I may be joining forces with others who will *not sue* but ask (demand) compensation. Apple is very nice to some people and they fix the problem, but to others they slam down their fist and say no.

Does anyone else have any idea about this "asking of compensation"? I am just interested, that's all. Not looking to "get back at Apple", because I like the company and understand things happen, especially with such a tiny computer. However, this problem needs to be dealt with.

Take care everyone!

 

[SonicRage]

Tobeb:
I ordered the refurb'd MBA, was quite fond of it, but the "sloppy" hinge pushed me to sell the unit and buy a unibody MB. I just can't enjoy a machine if I am constantly paranoid of these sort of issues. I was in the market for a secondary machine to carry around the house (and very occasional trips) so the portability factor was not a deal-breaker for me. I must say that I do miss that MBA display though...

On the optimistic side, this hinge problem is getting quite a bit of press so I would not be surprised if Apple begins honoring all hinge-related issues in the near future.

 

[kinkster]

Quite a bit of press?

 

[editonmac]

Well, forget the Air.

You can never be too cautious. I don't think i'll get the MacBook Air now, just to be sure. A regular MacBook with some upgrades will cost about the same, be faster, and have no possible hinge issues.

 

[Revtop22]

If apple gets a ton of bad press over it and is forced to respond, it's their own dumb fault. This would be a non issue if they made the hinges & bezel available on the aftermarket for cheap. People are ticked because they can't get it repaired (cheap) by anyone local and must be forced to pay through the nose for Apple to repair it.

They could've fixed the entire problem by designing a better hinge/display in the first place. I don't know how this got past their brainiac engineers. This is the kind of problem you run into when all you focus on is the look.

 

[Tobeb]

Don't see many people that haven't had problems commenting here... Have there been many of you that have not had any problems with the play or broken hinges?

Really like this machine, but I am really concerned about this potential problem.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Don't see many people that haven't had problems commenting here... Have there been many of you that have not had any problems with the play or broken hinges?

Really like this machine, but I am really concerned about this potential problem.

Such people are unlikely to read this thread, much less post. But you may want to start a new thread with poll- I would be interested in the results.

 

[DarrenT]

i saw a thread while looking for some other stuff tha had a hinge poll in

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/658308/

it was quite a small sample though.

 

[wangchunggti337]

Has anyone had success at the Apple Store getting the hinge tightened up?

 

[gsampson]

I'm getting pretty freaked out that my MBA Rev.A won't be fixed if the hinge breaks. Mine has about an inch of play, and by reading all this posts I'm scared it might finally break. I was thinking about selling it for a new Macbook, but I really love this machine... Anyone go into the store to "log" the problem incase it were to break so that it would be covered? I have Apple Care til 2011.

 

[Revtop22]

Has anyone had success at the Apple Store getting the hinge tightened up?

These hinges cannot be tightened, only replaced. I'll take some photos of the hinges themselves tomorrow. I had some bezels waterjet cut the other day but one of the radius' were off so I'm redoing them. Cad interpreted my drawing all wrong. Will have some photos by the end of the week hopefully.

Not sure if I'll be able to make a hinge replacement on the cheap but I'm still working on it. It'd probably be easier to find a factory worker in china to grab a bag of hinges for sale on the aftermarket though.

 

[gsampson]

I called Apple Care today to see what they thought of the play in my hinge. I explained the problem and was told to take it in to the Genius Bar or have it shipped in for repair. I said I would be willing to take it in for repair. I'm going to be upset if I'm told at the store it normal. I have a case number that Apple Care gave me, so hopefully this will force them to repair it even if they don't want to.

 

[Revtop22]

Here's a photo of the hinges on the right and the C-clamps (that loosen over time) on the left. Once you take the little metal cap off the hinge you can see the tiny sleeve that goes around the bar and C-shaped clamps that grab onto the bar. All of it's greased up. I don't think any of Apple's other hinged products require grease. In general I think the design stinks. You'd think they'd have a set screw or some other mechanism to tighten it but noooooo.

http://img9.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hinge1.jpg