Screen died, under warranty, Apple won't fix it

A few months ago, my 15" 2.2GHz Macbook Pro screen started flickering. Then it got worse and whole parts of the screen go dark. I took it to Apple to get it repaired under warranty, but they refused (citing a small dent on the case, far from the screen as justification although they could prove no link). I have written a formal complaint and will take it further if necessary.

Now the notebook is useless as a notebook, although it works fine with an external monitor.

Has anyone seen this problem before? Apple told me it would cost $1500 to fix

So it was never dropped or hit in any way? How did the dent get there?

By the way, not trying to accuse you of anything but trying to see what is going on. If it was not dropped or hit they should fix it.

I found that calling applecare, even after an in store technician turns down service can help. My cd drive failed and i was told that they wont repair it due to a dent on the case. I called applecare, told them what happened, explained how the dent got there and how it was not relevant to the cd drive failure. Applecare then gave me a code to give to the applestore which said that the repair was authorized.

To the OP:

Looks like the Inverter board may have gone south not the LCD itself.

I would give Applecare a call and speak to a supervisor and explain your situation. Be polite and honest about the machine. If it was never dropped or banged into something, then they should repair it under the warranty.

Regards.

I have had good luck contacting Apple's Customer Relations. It should be obvious but sometimes they need a reminder which direction the money flows.

yep...ive had my screen replaced once due to a few dead pixels n things...they pretty much did it no questions asked...& this was in india...where usually too many questions are asked

i was asked by the tech to call apple care to explain my problem...as eliehass said...that may help you too

Have you tried connecting an external display? That looks like a bad GPU, not the screen itself. This is a known issue with the NVIDIA 8600M chip in the MacBook Pro. In fact, Apple has extended the warranty to 2 years as a result of this issue.

I don't believe this is a bad inverter, as my experience has been that the backlight simply doesn't work when the inverter fails. This might be different with LED-backlit screens (where an inverter shouldn't really be necessary).

cwa107 said:

Have you tried connecting an external display? That looks like a bad GPU, not the screen itself. This is a known issue with the NVIDIA 8600M chip in the MacBook Pro. In fact, Apple has extended the warranty to 2 years as a result of this issue.

I don't believe this is a bad inverter, as my experience has been that the backlight simply doesn't work when the inverter fails. This might be different with LED-backlit screens (where an inverter shouldn't really be necessary).

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The OP said it works fine with an external monitor, although I do agree that poor inverter boards cause screen flickering for months before dying and then result in a blank screen. This looks like an issue between with the GPU output. Besides, a new inverter board costs less than $50 and maybe $200 to fit, certainly not $1,500, which is outrageous by the way.

Zoolook said:

The OP said it works fine with an external monitor, although I do agree that poor inverter boards cause screen flickering for months before dying and then result in a blank screen. This looks like an issue between with the GPU output. Besides, a new inverter board costs less than $50 and maybe $200 to fit, certainly not $1,500, which is outrageous by the way.

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Oops, you're right - my eyes instantly diverted to the image and I missed that.

My guess would be a bad flex cable or the screen itself in that case.