Rattle up by right speaker. Take it to Apple, or can I open it?

[fiveightandten]

I have a slightly annoying rattle that happens when i'm playing music or sounds through the internal speakers. It sounds like either plastic vibrating up around the power button, or maybe something internally in that area. It's not the enclosure itself...definitely something internal, as pressing on it doesn't help.

I bought my computer as a refurbished machine from a 3rd party vendor. It's under Apple warantee until this summer.

2 issues:

1) I don't want to void my warantee by opening it up to fix something silly. Even though i'm sure I could take care of it.

2) I can't be 100% positive that the computer hasn't already been opened up in a way that would void the warantee, as I didn't get it directly from Apple. This doesn't bother me, but if that's the case, i'd rather that Apple not have it on record. For instance, i've already gotten a new battery from them under warantee. If they open the computer up and void the warantee for some reason, it'll be on record and i'll be out of luck in the future if, say, my charger died, or something like that.


Can anyone tell me what the deal is with opening up the case or offer up any advice? Thanks in advance.

-Nick

[nirvana]

If Apple have replaced the battery under warranty then I'm sure that your warranty is still active and they will repair it for free. Any work done by Apple or an authorized Apple repair centre is all done under warranty i.e if a local Apple authorized repair centre need to open the case to fix a problem your warranty will not be void.
If my computer was still under warranty i would never open it up, even if it wasn't under warranty i would pay for someone to repair it.

[fleurya]

I wouldn't open it. That's what the warranty is for. Don't do work you can have done for free, especially if it risks your warranty in the chance that bigger problem could be down the road.

[fiveightandten]

Thanks for the replies guys. I guess what i'm wondering is where the seals are that allow them to tell whether or not the computer has been tampered with...and if I can tell by opening the thing up.

As far as Apple is concerned, the warantee is still valid. The place I bought it from deals with new and refurbished electronics, and sells online. They were great to deal with. The computer was listed as non-factory refurbished. This doesn't bother me, as I got a real real good price on it, and i'm pretty technically proficient. I repair, modify, and build guitar amps, so i'm not new to electronics. Even if the logic board went, i'd be comfortable replacing it, and the $300-400 i'd pay for one still wouldn't break the bank as far as total cost of the computer.

Anyways. I guess what i'm saying is that I only want to take it to Apple as a last resort. I'd like to know what mechanisms they use to detect tampering. How *I* can tell if they've been compromised...and if not, whether or not i'll compromise them by opening it up to take care of this.

Thanks again for the replies.

-Nick

[Thundermoon1994]

The general consensus around here is that if you've never opened a MacBook/MacBook Pro, you WILL leave evidence that you were in there. It will at least be apparent to Apple techs should you need to have them work on your computer down the road.