[mad cow disease]

I have a 15" powerbook with about six months left on Applecare.

I'm wondering if it is entirely worth it to get two problems fixed - first, in the center of my screen there is what appears to be two faint blotches where the screen is whiter than everything around it. You can barely see it, but once you look directly at it it becomes fairly annoying. Would Apple cover this under warranty service?

Also, my shift key has come completely off the keyboard. It appears the scissor mechanism, for some apparent reason, has broken.

Could anybody tell me the average turnaround time for a repair to the screen, assuming it's covered, and whether they will just send me the key in the mail - or do I have to ship the entire laptop out to them?

[Nivag]

Not sure if they'll swap the keyboard as it might be considered wear and tear. Defo try and get the screen swapped, it'll only get worse over time.

Can't say what the turn around we be to get these fixed.

[Waragainstsleep]

Screen should be covered. There was an REP for the issue on certain models. Keyboard may well not be, but any good repair centre ought to have faulty keyboards lying about to pinch keys from.

Turnaroud on the LCD will vary from place to place and current demand, but the keyboard should be a while-you-wait job.

[chipchen]

So long as there's no apparent damage to the computer, they'll cover it. Turn around time is 3-5 business days. But there's no guarantee. I've seen repairs take less than 48 hours, and I've seen them take over 3 weeks.

The keyboard is an easy fix. If you take it to an Apple Store, or most service providers, they usually have spare keys and scissors. Easy to to replace. (seconds)

But the LCD would have to be replaced. At the VERY least... bring it to an Apple Store for the keyboard. Then have them not the LCD problem in your record... and you can have them send you a box to ship at your leisure.

REMEMBER THIS THOUGH, they don't guarantee data, so back up before you send it out.