[masugu]

My wife dented her 12" PB around the edge near the left corner of the palm rest. Took it to the Apple store today as I was gawking at MacBooks. They want $650 to fix it! Told her for another 650 she could get a shiny new MacBook, but she is attached to her current Mac. She is debating the fix.

I could try craigslist or ebay...but can anyone suggest the best /most economical way to go?

I gotta think I can "part out" someone's PB who say fried the MB or otherwise has spare parts. Might be able to save some money - on parts - if I have to pay to get it repaired.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[masugu]

OK

So no one has had to deal with this before?

I feel so abandoned

[freakboy2]

how bad is the dent? does the machine still work? if it's cosmetic, then can you just live with it?

my powerbook has some buckling on the front which i thought i read on these boards somewhere might be covered under warrantee. but it doesn't bother me that much.

[chipchen]

masugu, I've changed plenty of these. What you're looking for is a "bottom case." This will run you about $100 for a clean one on ebay or up to $150 from a more esablished place like ifixit.com. However, the repair is EXTENSIVE. I would never encourage anyone to do it unless they've taken apart PowerBooks before. Even still, the 12" PowerBook is the worst notebook ever to work on. You'll probably hit 100 screws to do the job, and then there's putting it all back together.

Apple charges $6xx because anything that has cosmetic damage is upped to a tier 2 status. Somewhere else that doesn't do tier pricing (any other Apple Authorized Service Provider), you'd still be lookingat $300-$400.

[Zeeb]

I think it would be a good idea just to sell it either on craigslist or ebay. If it still works, there are plenty of people who wouldn't be bothered by a dent or would be technical enough to repair it themselves. If the PB is a few years old, it just doesn't make sense to spend that much to have Apple fix it.

If she doesn't need dedicated graphics or an aluminum body the Macbook is a great machine and so much faster than her PB.

I guess if you can scavenge parts and then provide them to someone who is competent enough to fix them that might be cheaper. $150 for a bottom case and maybe $150 for a poor college student might work but could also be a disaster.

[masugu]

Thanks folks!!!

Nice to know the market price of the spare part - AND that fixing is a pain due to "screw-happy" case construction.

The machine works fine...just something that was bugging her. The ring near the right palm rest - not left / not right as stated earlier- is buckled outward.

We went to the Apple store so I could lust after the BlacBook and we hit up the Genius Bar at the same visit.

All good suggestions. I told her to consider a MacBook, but she is pretty attached to her PB...and she is frugal Me on the other hand - I want to replace my Ti 1GHz PB...but it is still running well.

Much appreciated Zeeb, Chipchen and Freakboy2