08-07-2011, 05:38 PM

I woke up the this morning to find a bubble on the bottom of my MacBook! Any idea what causes this, or what I can, or should, do to fix it? I use my laptop all the time, it's about 1 1/2 years old and has never given me one iota of problems. This bubble has me thrown.

Thanx for your help, Lisa

08-07-2011, 05:44 PM

Here's a photo of the bubble.

08-07-2011, 05:44 PM

Welcome to Mac-Forums Lisa

Do you mean a bubble as in the metal has warped?

- Simon

08-07-2011, 05:45 PM

Sorry I posted at the same time you posted that picture.
Are you under AppleCare or not?

- Simon

08-07-2011, 05:47 PM

Not. Like I said I've not had any problems, until now, lol.

08-07-2011, 05:49 PM

Unfortunately that means you either try and get a replacement casing for it or find someone who will be willing to try and straighten it out for you. Either way is going to cost some money, but the real worry is what caused it, could be some sort of over heating or your machine being quite hot for a considerable amount of time or even a dodgy fan

- Simon

08-07-2011, 05:53 PM

I guess that's what my real concern is. I'm not sure why the bubble got there, my husband said it had to have gotten hot. I did google a bit and found a place where a number of people had experienced the bubble while still under warranty and Apple had just replaced the bottom, and I guess all was well after that. And I saw a thread here somewhere talking about overheating issues and to only worry if it shut you down. Well, I am not having any issues doing what I normally do, have never had a shut down - could it get hot enough to bubble, yet not shut down?

Thank you for you help!

08-07-2011, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by Lisaschaos

I woke up the this morning to find a bubble on the bottom of my MacBook! Any idea what causes this, or what I can, or should, do to fix it? I use my laptop all the time, it's about 1 1/2 years old and has never given me one iota of problems. This bubble has me thrown.

My first question would be (since you spotted this bubble this morning)...was your MacBook left running all night...and possibly left laying on a blanket (or other "squishy" surface) where the MacBook wasn't getting good ventilation?

The bubble to me looks like 1 of 2 things:

- The battery is bulging due to a defect (but the bubble in the photo doesn't look near the battery area for this to be the problem).
- the MacBook overheated (possibly due to what I mentioned above)...and either the gpu (graphics hardware) or cpu overheated, melted the plastic...causing the "bubble".

- Nick

08-07-2011, 06:35 PM

Nope, not running all night, I always let it sleep unplugged while I do. And it sleeps on my side table, nothing soft, even when using on my lap I have one of those lap tray things for it.

Since it's 1.5 years old and I've never sprayed air in the vents I'm wondering if the fan got dusty, I sprayed some in today, we'll see what happens. But am not able to squish the bubble out so guess I will have to see about getting that fixed too.

08-07-2011, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by Lisaschaos

Since it's 1.5 years old and I've never sprayed air in the vents I'm wondering if the fan got dusty, I sprayed some in today, we'll see what happens. But am not able to squish the bubble out so guess I will have to see about getting that fixed too.

Yes there is the external "bubble" damage...I would also be concerned about internal damage as well...just so a total repair cost could be estimated. And of course determine what caused it...so it doesn't happen again.

- Nick

08-07-2011, 10:14 PM

I think that this might help http://www.apple.com/support/macbook-bottomcase/

08-08-2011, 12:08 AM

That doesn't apply to her MacBook. That free bottom case replacement is only for those MacBooks which have the rubber bottom separating.

08-08-2011, 12:42 PM

The bottom does appear to be rubber. I'll check out the link. Thanx.

08-08-2011, 12:51 PM

Well, I filled out the form - it said it would know by my serial number if I qualified and the form was submitted. Now I wait for my bottom to arrive. Thank you all for your help.

Lisa

08-08-2011, 06:41 PM

If you're lucky enough to get a new bottom case from Apple, make sure you find out what caused the "bubble" before replacing it. That bubble may have been created by heat build up or some kind of chemical reaction. The internal battery maybe?