Thursday, October 18, 2007

Fix A Crack, Lose Your (i)Sight

A couple of weeks ago, the palm rest on my MacBook cracked.

My right wrist had dragged across the front edge of the palm rest and I felt something flick against my skin, like the sensation of an elastic band snapping. When I looked down, there was a long, slender, splintered piece of plastic raised from the edge of the casing, and underneath it, the blackness wherein the innards of my MacBook had once concealed themselves.

As seen here:

Notice anything unusual?
How about now?



I thought I was going to be in for a debate with the local Apple repair tech when I called in to report the issue, but he quickly quieted those concerns when he explained how this is a common issue and he could have the part ordered in within a few days. Oh. Well alright then!

My MacBook went in for repair today and the technician was very kind. I explained a couple of other issues I was having, namely the infamous high pitched whine and the fact that my iSight's mic was recording a lot of static noise. Because I needed the computer back the same day, we agreed it best to come back at a later date to have these two issues looked into. Meanwhile, the repair on my case was done in a matter of hours.

The new casing is great. It fits like a glove and feels of that lovely new MacBook texture, which inevitably wipes away to smoothness with regular usage. It appears as though the entire top layer of the MacBook's open face was replaced, including the scroll pad, mouse button and keyboard. Its almost like having a new MacBook.

Almost, if not for the fact that my iSight seems to have come back busted. The green light shows the moment the power to the computer is turned on, and it remains despite not having any iSight applications running. When I do run an iSight app, like Photo Booth or iMovie HD, the camera doesn't work at all.

I'm sure this can be easily fixed, but it kind of reminds me of the old trope about the car going into the mechanic with one problem and coming back with another. Not that I'm suggesting this was intentional. It's just annoying.

Not to mention that the constant green light just makes me feel like someone, somewhere is watching me while I type.

Happy and normal. Happy and normal. Happy and normal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi

Kinda eerie seeing the photo of your cracked macbook - my macbook has an identical crack in exactly the same place - except, it hasn't snapped off yet - the splinter is hanging on by 2mm at one end...

I was planning to put a drop of superglue on it, when my wife (wisely) pointed out that the superglue might melt the case!

So I'll follow your lead and take it in to the mac shop on monday...

thanks for the blog,
Malcolm

Anonymous said...

I had this isight issue on a new macbook. I'm waiting for the replacement in the mail