Bubble on the bottom

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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
 
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Welcome to Mac-Forums Lisa

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

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

- Simon
 
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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
 
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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!
 

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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
 
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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.
 

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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
 

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

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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?
 
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I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't send me a bottom. I clearly fit in the proper category and they verified by my serial number. If you clicked the link and read the first paragraph it reads:

Apple has determined that under certain circumstances the rubber surface on some MacBooks may separate from the bottom case of the system. MacBooks shipped between October 2009 and April 2011 may experience this issue.

Apple will replace the bottom case of any affected MacBook, free of charge, that exhibits the issue.


Apparently Apple says there's a problem with the bottom. I assume if the problem was caused by the battery or whatever they would tell me that too. The laptop has never given me one problem, so I think I'm ok. :)

I got the new bottom via Fedex today. Extremely fast response! Hugely happy! :)
 

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I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't send me a bottom.

Technically your MacBook does not qualify...since this repair program is for MacBooks that are having the rubber separating from the bottom of their MacBooks.

This is a problem where the anti-skid rubber surface is "delaminating" from the plastic MacBooks bottom case. Your MacBooks issue is TOTALLY different...since it is a heat related issue (no way that bubble formed other than by extreme heat coming from the inside of the computer).

The reason why your MacBook's serial number was accepted was for three reasons:

1. Your MacBooks serial number fell within the range of the MacBook serial numbers affected for the rubber surface delaminating issue.

2. You had the option of doing a "self-repair" (where no Apple employee visually examined it first to see if it qualifies)...where Apple sends you the part & you do the repair (or take it to someone who can do it for you).

3. You didn't have to take your computer to the Apple Store (like almost all repairs). If someone at the Apple Store saw this "bubble"...there's almost no way it would have been covered under the "rubber surface" repair program. But (on the positive side)...this is a sort of unusual situation...and who knows...they might have repaired it for free (Apple does this sometimes).:)

But...the main issue here is..."What the heck caused this problem/bubble in the first place?" It's going to do absolutely no good to replace the bottom case on your MacBook with the new one Apple is sending...and 24 hours later have a new "2nd Bubble" form...since the actual problem was never known or addressed.

Food for thought,

- Nick

p.s. By the way...Holy Smokes...you got your new bottom case already!!!:)
 
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Seriously? You can diagnose it without seeing it in person. That bubble IS in the rubber coating over the aluminum, which is still flat as a pancake, lol.

I assumed, based on my husband's advice that it was heat related - like why else would there be a bubble? But it was delaminating. The rubber was separating from the aluminum bottom.

I would have taken it into the store if I didn't live the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, nearest store is 2 hours away, lol. But I am confident my problem is fixed.
 

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Seriously? You can diagnose it without seeing it in person.

Actually that is what we do 99.99999% of the time when a Mac-Forums member has a question. How often do you think one of us actually meets with a member with a problem where we can actually see the problem/computer in person??? This is an internet forum!

I assumed, based on my husband's advice that it was heat related - like why else would there be a bubble?

The rubber delamination could be due to poor adhesion, poor application of the rubber, dirt, moisture, or bad adhesive...and may or may not involve heat.

Of course communication via the internet is not perfect. The photo provided in the early portion of this thread looked (to me) like it was a bubble in the plastic...caused by overheating. That's why much of the conversation revolved around "heat". Heat hot enough to melt plastic...and cause that "bubble".

If this "bubble" was only with the rubber "anti-skid" coating covering the MacBooks plastic bottom case (and the actual white plastic is still completely flat as it should be)...this this is clearly a case of confusion as to what exactly this "bubble" consisted of.

If this bubble is only with the rubber coating...then your MacBook clearly does qualify for this special Apple repair problem. Congrats again on getting your replacement bottom case so fast...and congrats getting your problem solved.:)

- Nick
 

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