Logic board broke, AppleCare useless, help this girl!

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I have a MacBook Pro, and my logic board is broken. I came home one day about a week ago and the mac wouldn't start, it wouldn't even make it past a few seconds without losing juice, my screen never even showed.

I thought it was the battery, so I took it in to an iCenter (I live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands), they sent it to the place where repair look at macs, and that's the diagnosis.

I received an cost estimate of 1,134EUR, for a new logic board and a new bottom case. I called iCentre service number for the Netherlands today. I have AppleCare, it expires Jan 1 2011, but the argument is this can't be covered because of "accidental damage" from an incident back in March.

My bottom case is cracked from when my Mac fell in March this year. It was knocked off the table (about two feet from the ground). I brought it in, got the screen fixed but not the bottom case (it's a small crack).

Luckily Germans have an insurance that covers these sort of costs if the object does not belong to them. It was smooth sailing up until a few days ago when the logic board busted.

Basically AppleCare won't cover this cost because the "Golden Rule" is that if it's been dropped in the past defects can be seen as "accidental damage". I fought as hard as I could, but they wouldn't budge from the belief that the March incident was completely linked to the logic board suddenly not working 8 months later.

Is there hope? As a journalist who uses their mac constantly, I'm not convinced with their argument, and I'm really in trouble here, so any advice at all would be very helpful.

Should I just find a computer whiz who knows about logic boards and get them to fix it?
Should I keep fighting the good fight?

Thanks.
 

pigoo3

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I received an cost estimate of 1,134EUR, for a new logic board and a new bottom case. I called iCentre service number for the Netherlands today. I have AppleCare, it expires Jan 1 2011, but the argument is this can't be covered because of "accidental damage" from an incident back in March.

My bottom case is cracked from when my Mac fell in March this year. It was knocked off the table (about two feet from the ground). I brought it in, got the screen fixed but not the bottom case (it's a small crack).

Luckily Germans have an insurance that covers these sort of costs if the object does not belong to them. It was smooth sailing up until a few days ago when the logic board busted.

Basically AppleCare won't cover this cost because the "Golden Rule" is that if it's been dropped in the past defects can be seen as "accidental damage". I fought as hard as I could, but they wouldn't budge from the belief that the March incident was completely linked to the logic board suddenly not working 8 months later.

Yes...Applecare does not cover accidental damage or damage caused by liquid spills (which happens more than you would think).

What you mentioned above about the accidental dropping of your MacBook Pro back in March...and the failing logic board now...does seem to make sense (since to you they both seem like totally separate events). But it is possible that something did get damaged on the logic board during that accidental drop...but at the time (back in March) it may not have been fatal enough to keep the computer from functioning...and it just took until now (9 months later) for the semi-damaged component to completely fail.

On the other hand...the broken logic board may be totally unrelated to the drop back in March. The problem is it's much more difficult to know if the logic board damage is due to the fall/drop...or from a manufacturing defect. This is why you are have trouble getting the computer broken logic board repaired. If Apple in Europe is like it is here in the United States...sometimes the decision to repair something is a "judgement" call...where it may be a "gray-area" situation...one thus one Apple person may say "no" to the repair, and another person may say "yes". Sometimes these repairs are not a clear cut yes or no.

Also...I'm guessing that if you had to have this computer repaired due to the drop back in March...that repair "incident" is in the computer. So no matter where you take your computer for the logic board repair now (using Applecare)...they are going to see this previous repair (due to a drop)...and refuse to repair the logic board.

Long story short. MANY times when a logic board needs to be replaced (and paid for by the computers owner)...the cost of the replacement logic board is so high...that it makes no sense to do the repair. And the only option is to buy a new computer...or buy a similar used computer.

There two other other options. Find a used logic board for your Macbook Pro...and do the repair yourself...but this is usually beyond the ability of most users. Or find a used logic board...and get a computer "savvy" friend to do the repair...or have a professional do it (and hopefully this will be much less expensive).

HTH,

- Nick
 

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