macbook help

[toffeestillidie]

So my macbook has been running perfectly forever, until about 2 days ago when i had put it on my roommates desk to use his speakers, and upon shutting it on my way out, it slipped off his books and fell on the ground.

there doesn't seem to be any significant harddrive damage, but my laptop is running painfully slowly for some reason. i can barely run one program at a time (i got the spinning beachball about 4 times as i was typing this message), and it will even freeze up a couple times while playing a song on itunes. I had never had any issues with performance before, so i'm pretty sure the drop caused it.

The macbook is under applecare warranty so it shouldn't be a big problem, but i don't live anywhere near an apple store so it will be difficult to get it there. Does anyone know what the problem could be specifically? i'm guessing just some connection inside slipped out of place, but i don't know if its the harddrive or memory or processor or what. I would appreciate any advice before i open it up

 

[Dylan]

Are you sure you aren't just blaming the fall for the Apple performance???



Doesn't sound like a processor problem, although it could very well be a hard drive issue. The platters in hdd's don't like being banged around. The spindle could be damaged causing excessive read and write times. I would get in touch with just-as-evil-as-microsoft and get a warranty claim going to get it repaired for free (minus shipping fee's)

 

[Chris]

Put your ear to the case whilst osx is booting up, if you hear ticking or repetitive clicking it might be the heads have hit the platter. If that's the case get time machine on the go quickly!

You might have just knocked your ram out which is easy to check and fix. Go to top left "about this mac" and check your ram is showing up properly.

Failing that get apple care and use it!

 

[Dylan]

Although remember, if you go into your laptop yourself, you run the very real risk of invalidating any warranty you have on the machine.

 

[Chris]

I think the aluminium body ones are meant to be upgraded by the user. Mine had instructions how to take the 2 bottom covers off etc in the box. I think I've got a pic on my iphone of it if it will help.

 

[McBain]

Use the Chico Technique.

You'll need sawdust.

 

[Gwladys St. Glory]

It could also be that you knocked something to do with the cooling aspect of the processor around (fan not working, heatsink came loose etc) and now it's throttling (ie. slowing down) the processor because of excessive heat.

There's a whole list to choose from of what could be wrong...welcome to the world of troubleshooting.

 

[chicoazul]

Someone restrain Ghost, he's going to bad rep your arse out of town for that.

Oh hang on, he's on holiday and watching the footie with me tomorrow - I'll tell him.

 

[maddison]

If it's an Unibody macbook, it will show that its been dropped. The aluminium bends quite easily from a fall, I dropped a powerbook a few years back and they definitely don't handle falls well.

If the case doesn't show any signs of damage, then keep quiet and phone apple. The laptops are designed to be carried about, and you can always answer any suspicious questions (should they arise) by blaming it on a transportation issue. i.e. being transported in your bag etc, you get the idea

Anyway, the point I'm writing to help you out on. You don't need to take it to an Apple store, Apple will pick it up for you and drop it back off if you phone them. There's no charge for this either. The vast majority of people don't live close to an Apple store or an Apple service centre. Give them a quick call, you'll get through easily and they'll arrange to pick it up and drop it off pretty quickly. Usually it's out of your hands for about a week

Jay