[oflorey87]

I was hoping I'd never have to make one of these posts, but alas, that day has come. I was happily sitting in my room browsing the net on my 12" PowerBook when the phone rang. I took the PowerBook off my lap and placed it in the middle of my bed and got to the door of my room. I suddenly heard a crash and looked round to see that my idiot dog had knocked it onto the floor while trying to reach a bowl of pizza.

It landed port-side first on its side and upon first inspection the damage didn't seem too bad - a slight dent above the bit where you plug the charger in and a mangled adapter bit on the charger (fixed that with some pliers).

However, I think my ethernet port was badly damaged. When I plug the ethernet cable in now nothing happens - it doesn't know that anything has been attached. However, if I grab the cable and pull it tight, almost pulling the cable out of the socket, it will connect. Now, if I let go, it instantly disconnects again. What I think has happened is that the little ethernet port has kind of been pushed inside the housing and broken away slightly from the connection. This was obviously caused by the PowerBoook landing on its ports with the ethernet cable still plugged in. It's not the cable because I've tried another one with the same problem.

I don't think there's anyway I can fix this myself so where do I go from here? I think the PowerBook is just inside the warranty period, but I don't suppose that covers accidental damage. Could I take it into an Apple store and ask someone to look at it? Or would I be better phoning them up, being honest and sending it away for repairs? The annoying thing is that I'm off to uni in 4 weeks so this really couldn't have happened at a worse time - I have no money and no time. Could I possibly claim on house insurance if it's covered in the policy?

[bighead]

Tier 3 - $1021.27 (with the OC's 7.75% sales tax) plus shipping if applicable.

Homeowner's and renter's may cover it, but you'd have to ask them.

[oflorey87]

Sorry, what's the 'Tier 3' thing? Please tell me that isn't the cost of repairs...If it is, do you think I would be better putting the PowerBook on eBay, stating that the ethernet port is unreliable and then buying a new one with the money raised from the sale?

[Maflynn]

One thing is clear your warranty will not cover this. That only handles manufactoring defects, not wear and tear or damage caused by the consumer.

Your only option is to replace or repair.

Even if you send it in for repair on an unrelated issue, Apple may see the damage, blame that for the issue and not cover anything which means the odds of you not even having a warranty are good

Usually when this occurs the unlucky victem brings the computer in to an apple store, they validate that everyhting is working fine save for the cosmetic issues (and maybe port issues in your case) and enter it into the computer so if you do need repiar work that is definitely unrelated to the fall, then you shouldn't have too much hassles gettng it fixed.

Bummer man
Mike

[mrmister]

Depending on what you use it for, could you work around it? Between FireWire, USB dongles and Aiport Extreme, I think I use my ethernet ports once or twice a year.

Also--a bowl of pizza? What the heck is a bowl of pizza?

[oflorey87]

Thanks for the replies. I have a slight update on the situation. I looked at it in cleaer light today and I think I've discovered the source of the problem. You know the little gold metal pins in the port? Well, running from left to right, the second one and last one are 'broken'. They're not snapped, but if you look closely, the other ones are kind of spring loaded against the top of their little housings. These two are sagging down slightly, as if they've completely lost their spring. This would explain the fact that when I want to get the ethernet working, I have to apply immense pressure to the cable connector in an 'upwards and right' direction, as if I'm somehow forcing the connector onto the pins. It would appear that all pins have to be touching for it to work. It's painful so I can never hold the connection for more than a few seconds (just enough to post!).

I've tried pushing them back up with a needle but it appears as if they've just completely lost their spring. It's strange, though, because they're kind of halfway between the top and bottom of their little housing - they're not completely flat; just lacking the final push to reach the top. Would superglue work? Now, that may be a stupid question as I presume the springs need to move and I doubt that it would conduct electricity but I'm getting desperate! Oh, and there's also a very slight rattling near the ethernet port when I turn the 'Book off and shake it - I was wondering if it's possible that a part of the pins that I can't see has been damaged?

I suppose I could work around it. I only use it (the ethernet port) for the net and I have a wireless router and stuff ready to go. However, I'm really bad at networking and could never get it to work so I just gave up and used the ethernet cable. Also, wouldn't my main pc have to be on to get a wireless connection from it? Because my only pc is on its last legs and can't hold a connection to the internet for more than a few minutes which is really frustrating.

I don't really think it's worth spending £600 or whatever just to get the ethernet port working when I could build a cheap pc, get some decent wirless gear and set up a wireless network for that price. However, my university has said that I'm not allowed to connect wirelessly to the uni network so I'm going to need my ethernet port for that, right?

Oh, and the pizza was some leftovers I was eating that I just whacked in a bowl