[effgee]

I noticed something quite odd with my 12" rev. B (1GHZ) Powerbook today - came back from a meeting with a client this evening, took my PB out of the bag (I always travel with a 1/2" padded Timbuktu Powerbook sleeve) and pushed the latch button to open it and get back to work. That's when I saw that the tiny gap (< 1mm) between the narrow part of the aluminum casing and the grey plastic ring that surrounds the top of the case (which has always been there and never bothered me before) had suddenly widened a whole lot - so much actually that, when picking up the PB, my sweater got stuck in it - thank god without making the "dent" any worse. Take a look at these pictures ...

• 
  
  

I did a search here and on Apple's discussion area but only found info about the infamous warp/wobble of the entire case (mine does that too when it gets warm but it's not bad enough to bother me.)

Has anyone seen or heard of this before? I'd like to be prepared when I go to my local Apple dealer tomorrow and (hopefully) be able to refute his claims (he will make them, customer service here in Germany is pretty much the worst anyone can imagine) that I somehow caused this dent.

I clean my PB frequently, have never dropped it and I am 100% sure that I would have noticed this dent if it had been that bad the last time I gave it a thorough cleaning (last Fri.)

Any links to reports from other PB 12" owners you guys can provide would be very, very much appreciated.

TIA!

[arjay]

I haven't seen any mention of this problem anywhere. I hope they treat you right and repair/replace it as they should.

[DKeithA]

I don't have photos to back it up, but I just bought a 15" 1.5 a few weeks ago. I brought it home and saw warping very close to what you have except it was around the CD/DVD slot. I took it back and they exchanged it on the spot. This was a fresh computer straight out of the box. I doubt if this helps, but I feel for you. Good luck; hopefully they will get it fixed for you without much hassle.

[iomatic]

I've seen the exact same dent from someone else, and she definitely dropped it (in a case). Bummer. I would use a pencil eraser or art gum to try and massage it back in.

I have a ding from a stupid metal luggage tag from the company that laid me off--bastards... um... never mind... anyway, good luck.

[effgee]

Originally posted by iomatic:
I've seen the exact same dent from someone else, and she definitely dropped it (in a case). Bummer. I would use a pencil eraser or art gum to try and massage it back in. ...

I already tried to gently bend it back - no chance. And no, it has never been dropped - not ever. I treat my PB as if it was made of glass - always. I'll see what the dealer has to say ... thanks guys

[Simon]

effgee, I feel with ya.

I recently experienced a very unpleasant customer service myself. I know German 'Kundendienst' is rather crappy, similar to the one in Switzerland where I'm currently living. My advice is to remain as kind as you can and just repeat that you always cared very well for it and that this is some kind of design problem and not so-called 'user abuse'. Remain calm, but firm and if they really don't yield an inch, demand to talk to the technician's superior and finally inform them that this story will go directly to Apple Deutschland and consumer organizations.

If you treated your PowerBook well this should be repaired under warranty. Design flaws have to be covered.

In the worst case, you could of course try to disassemble the PowerBook yourself (you will find the necessary manuals here) until the bottom case shell is well accessible and apply some force in order to bend back the case. At that point it's very thin and should give in to some pressure. As a last measure I'd try it, but be careful!

Alles Gute und viel Gl�ck!

[sheer]

Mine's the same, although not as bad as that. To be honest I see it as general wear and tear from opening/closing and partially due to the catch mechanism for the lid which is just behind it. Remember that's a thin strip of Aluminium so it's susceptible to bending quite easily.

Mines' a rev B 12" combo, and it never leaves the desk.

[effgee]

Quick update ...

As it turns out, the story was quite a bit more complicated than I remembered. Not only did my 1 yr. warranty period end last Friday (hmpft...) but in my initial stress, I had also completely forgotten that in May, I had another Apple dealer put a new hard drive in my PB (they were the only ones to have it in stock back then) - was reminded of that when I dug out the receipt for the PB yesterday.



Armed with my PB and all the necessary receipts, I went to the dealer where I bought the PB and, as expected, they looked at the PB, looked at the receipt from the other Apple dealer who installed the hard drive, smiled and told me to "go see why the other dealer didn't reassemble my PB properly after installing the drive" - made sense to me.

So I hop back into my car, drive another 25mls to the second Apple dealer, enter the store, show them my PB, three guys looked at it and told me to call Apple (huh?) to see if they would be willing to replace the bottom case out of the goodness of their hearts since the warranty had run out just 48 hrs. earlier (yeah, right)

Upon asking them (in a very friendly way) why they think Apple should be the ones to rectify the mistake and if it wasn't possible that they might not have reassembled the PB properly, I was told that (quote) "it's impossible to put a 12" Powerbook back together improperly"



Now, I haven't taken a look at the guts of the 12" PB but that statement sounds ... uhm, bogus. Since I have neither the inclination nor the time to deal with crap like this, I did what any good German consumer would do - called my lawyer this morning, made an appointment and have him deal with those "it's impossible to put a 12" Powerbook back together improperly" guys.

Should be interesting to see what happens next ...



Holy crap Simon, I read through your horror story this morning - that is unbelievable. I hope everything worked out ok for you ...

[effgee]

Originally posted by sheer:
Mine's the same, although not as bad as that. To be honest I see it as general wear and tear from opening/closing and partially due to the catch mechanism for the lid which is just behind it. Remember that's a thin strip of Aluminium so it's susceptible to bending quite easily. Mines' a rev B 12" combo, and it never leaves the desk.

It of course depends on what exactly the "dent" on your PB looks like - while not impossible, it's extremely unlikely that this is due to general wear and tear.

The "dent" on my PB bulges out so far now that I can see what's behind the aluminum casing - there's a second "inner" case (probably more like a frame that holds all the components) and the latch mechanism is behind that, not behind the thin strip of aluminum.

Also, upon closer inspection (I took a whole bunch of photos yesterday morning before going to the dealer), there's a visible "bulge" to the right of the track pad - almost as if something were crammed in underneath the case. The slightly larger gap between the gray plastic and the case indicated by the right arrow in the picture below shows the approximate location - but the bulge itself is actually directly next to the trackpad button, extending about an inch to the right and up to the center of the trackpad.



Stupid thing is that it's only visible if you look at the PB straight on and hold it at eye level - and I hadn't done that before yesterday ...

Maybe the guy who installed the new hard drive forgot to take out his screw driver?

[Simon]

effgee, the right arrow in your pic indicating the bent plastic lining looks very familiar to me.

Ever since my crappy SOB dealer took apart my 12" PowerBook I have that dent as well. I'm guessing they put some stress on the plastic while disassembling or reassembling the PowerBook. Since the plastic is not very elastic a dent will remain.

I'm going to check the PowerBook disassembly guide (see the link in my last post) to find out at what point that plastic lining is removed. I'll bet a six-pack it happens whenever they take the case off...

[effgee]

Well, the gaps between the plastic and the aluminum casing are actually a bit uneven all around my PB - and always have been. That I had noticed before. The bigger one (right arrow) though, which seems more recent (had never noticed it before), indicates where the actual bulge on top of the botom case is - as indicated by the orange area next to the trackpad ...



Aaaaah! My Powerbook's pregnant! Hmmmm ... maybe it'll be an iPod mini ...

[chabig]

My Rev A had that problem. It's just a cosmetic problem you have to learn to live with.

Chris

[Simon]

Originally posted by effgee:
Well, the gaps between the plastic and the aluminum casing are actually a bit uneven all around my PB - and always have been.

Same for me. But those gaps are smaller than the gap you indicated with the right arrow.

The bigger one (right arrow) though, which seems more recent (had never noticed it before), indicates where the actual bulge on top of the botom case is - as indicated by the orange area next to the trackpad ...

This is the one I was talking about. This one is not normal and it has only appeared since my PowerBook was taken apart.

The disassembly guide mentions that you should take a plastic rod and run between bottom and top case to slightly separate them w/o completely taking them apart. If at this step the technician puts to much pressure on the rod he will bend the plastic lining because the top will be detached on one side, but not on the other. That's how I guess my dent got in there.

In your case it probably has to do with the dent in the top case. I checked the disassembly guide but couldn't see what could possibly be under the top case at that location. I was guessing some kind of cable that wasn't properly put in its recessed channel or a not completely lowered screw, but I couldn't find anything.

[effgee]

Simon,

thanks for looking that up - much appreciated! I've had some time this morning to research the problem a bit more extensively and it doesn't look like I'm the only one dealing with this issue - the most extensive collection of user accounts I have come across so far can be found here (I wish I had found that site before I went to the Apple dealer yesterday.)

It does indeed look like a small batch of 12" PB's were shipped that were prone to developing the "bulging" issue - there's 5 user reports on the site above alone from folks that had exactly the same problem.

• "... the metal is bulging out just above the right side of the screen latch. ..."
  
  "... My computer came with a serious bulge above the latch on the front. ..."
  
  "... then i noticed a bulge below the latch button ..."
  
  "... but the sides of the case hace begun bulging outward a bit. Specifically, this is happening ... and in the front where the latch is. ..."

Plus I've found a few more identical stories in the Apple discussion forum. The number of reports seems to indicate that while a lot more people suffer from "the wobble", there's also quite a few of them who encounter "the bulge".

Now what pisses me off is not that Apple shipped a batch (or two) of laptops that suffer from a minor design flaw - sh!t happens - but the fact that both Apple dealers told me yesterday that this is not an issue they have ever heard of. Which in my book means that they're either incompetent or malicious (especially the first one - they're the largest chain of Apple dealers in Germany) - and that's just not acceptable.

Oooooh ... my lawyer's going to love this one

[giggs11]

Wow, add me to the list. I thought I was the only one. I had sent my 12" rev C back to Apple a few weeks back to get the video card replaced, and when it came back, there is a definite bulge to the right side of the latch button. I may have to take it back to my local Apple Store and have them take a look.

[effgee]

Originally posted by giggs11:
... I may have to take it back to my local Apple Store and have them take a look.

You most definitely should. If you'd like to go there "prepared" send me a pm and I'd be happy to email you my "collection" of user accounts from folks having the same problem (I've got about 10 or so from people in the US plus 5 or 6 from German users)

Update 2:
So I went to my usual law firm on Fri. to talk to the lawyer who speacializes in contract, fullfillment and warranty law and he was quite certain that the dealer I bought the Pboook from will have fix it*. He's going to send them a friendly letter (letters like that just look better on law firm letterhead), offering a few alternatives as to how the situation could be remedied (repair, return, trade-in for different model) and give them two weeks for a reply. Should be interesting.






* - Warranty law here in Germany is a bit on the complex side - as soon as the first 6 months following the purchase date have passed, and during the 18 months thereafter, the customer has to prove that the product was defective all along (e.g., has a "design flaw".) This is in addition to any warranties provided by the manufacturer of the product, which in my case expired the Fri. before I noticed "the bulge"

[freakboy2]

u know i got a new pb in sept. and i got a bulge on the front left side, but it was caused by the powerbook being squished while in my backpack. I had it between a few books and the pack was pretty well filled up.

It's quite a drag that this happened to me, but i think i'm just stuck having to live with it. I would caution anyone who reads this thread not to let their powerbook get squashed to hard. Although the metal is solid, the screen and body don't lie flat and are subject to bending if pressed from both sides.

wah wah.

hey fg - good luck with it. your problem sounds more like a design/idiot problem. Those guys in the store must be real meatballs.

fb