Apple News

MacBook Car-nage: Surviving a drive-over

September 13th, 2009 at 07:30pm Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: Hardware, MacBook

Yesterday, I had a distraught customer come into the store and lay the remains of a black MacBook (13-inch Early 2008) on the front counter. My immediate thought was that the machine had been trashed and was just at the shop to be recycled.

I asked the customer what happened and he explained that it had been run over by a car. At this point I thought to myself, “Yikes, there’s gotta be a story behind this one.” As it turns out, it was just an unfortunate accident of forgetfulness. He just returned home from a road trip and set the machine down to bring in a load from the car. After being inside for a bit, he came out and decided to check his mailbox, which was just down the road. He stepped into the car, backed up and… CAR-NAGE!

What’s most amazing here isn’t the accident, but what he discovered when he tried to power up the MacBook. Even after having a car completely crush it, it still worked. When the customer told me this, I couldn’t believe it. I opened the display — which you can see is absolutely smashed in the picture — and pressed the power button. To my excited surprise, the machine turned on and booted into Leopard.

After running a full suite of diagnostics on the machine, I found it needed a display assembly, optical drive, and optical drive bezel (the part of the inner frame that the discs go through). All of that was cheaper than getting a new machine, so I went to work. It took me a couple hours and some frame bending here and there, but after all was said and done, I gave the customer back a machine that would pass any warranty inspection at the Genius Bar. See the gallery for more pictures!

Disclaimer: The Unofficial Apple Weblog cannot and will not be held responsible for any damage done to your computer by cars. Just because we think it’s cool that it may survive doesn’t mean you should go out and crush your MacBook.

TUAWMacBook Car-nage: Surviving a drive-over originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Josh Carr Continue Reading MacBook Car-nage: Surviving a drive-overAdd comment

Apple: “Exploding” iPhones succumbed to external pressure

August 31st, 2009 at 06:30am Under Hot Apple News

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, iPhone

There’s been much news of “exploding” iPhones lately. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, the European Commission formally asked Apple to investigate a series of reports that users’ iPhones were abruptly cracking and/or catching fire. According to the French periodical Les Echos, an iPhone in Aix-en-Provence, France, started to “crackle and pop like a deep-frier” before breaking violently apart.

This past Friday, Apple said that, in all cases, the iPhones in question were damaged by an “external force,” not a faulty battery or glass screen:

“To date, there are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits. The iPhones with broken glass that we have analyzed to date show that in all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone.”

It does seem odd that at least four cases have been reported in France in short order. Still, it’s even stranger that iPhones would suddenly turn into Molotov cocktails. We’ll keep you updated on this story.

TUAWApple: “Exploding” iPhones succumbed to external pressure originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Dave Caolo Continue Reading Apple: “Exploding” iPhones succumbed to external pressureAdd comment