MacBook Pro 13″ gets dropped at 195mph… but wait it still boots!

Aug 24, 2010 - 29 Comments

broken macbook pro

Here’s a Mac heartbreaker: a motorcycle enthusiast went for a ride carrying his MacBook Pro 13″ in a backpack, unfortunately the zipper holding the MacBook Pro in place failed going a reported 195mph (315km/h)!

it was a nice Sunday afternoon and the boys wen out for a ride… on some damn powerful motorcycles…

One of them took his brand new MabBook Pro 13″ on his standard back pack…

When testing the bike at 315km/h [195mph], the backpack zip started to fail… and all of the sudden, the macbook flew trough the air… landing on the side of the road, beginning a series of turns and crushes from about 150 meters… while being torn apart.

shattered macbook pro screen
macbookpro broken

The aluminum is really bent up and even cracked in some places, the screen is completely destroyed, and there was some internal damage. Obviously the damage is pretty severe, but amazingly enough there is a slightly happy ending: the machine still boots when hooked to an external monitor!

the best part… we try to make it work again…. and we could!!!
the hard disk, motherboard and superdrive survived! and with an external monitor, keyboard/mouse and new ddr3 memory modules… it booted!!

broken macbook pro boots with monitor

What a bummer about the MacBook Pro, but the fact that it can still boot is pretty impressive, you’ve got to give credit to the tough aluminum shell. The quotes are from and more pictures are at NeoWin Forums, thanks for sending this in Kevin!

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Fun, Mac

29 Comments

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  1. Julian says:

    I would have never imagine I found the article I wrote on Neowin forum here!
    That MacBook became an awesome plex and nas server afterwards.

  2. Jamal says:

    Wow bruh

  3. Machater says:

    The most appropriate use of a mac book pro I’ve seen so far.

    I nearly bit the bullet and bought a MBP for about $2700 December 2015. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t relieve myself of that much cash for a laptop designed purely for the mentally disabled. So I bought 2 refurb laptops instead. Both have SSD in Raid0, 32G ram, Nvidia 780M……..etc… steel series keyboard……..etc…..

    so now i have 2 pretty intense gaming laptops and it’s all thanks to apple preparing me to spend nearly $3k on a pile of horse pucky, thanks apple!

  4. camerique says:

    Now those sharp edges are even sharper.

  5. bluegenre says:

    that macbook despite the damages still looks beautiful. ugh! why does it have to be so expensive.

  6. ratbum says:

    I wish my Powerbook G4 were as resilient as that.

  7. qwerty says:

    just shows… mac is better than pc!

    (yeah i know, mac is pc… NOT THE POINT!)

  8. Rob says:

    Only a stupid arsehole would ride at those speeds with a backpack affecting aerodynamics etc. The damage to the Mac is what might be expected, I’m not sure the rider would have rebooted if HE (I never met a female biker that stupid) had impacted with the ground at that speed. I hope it was on a track. I used to be involved in Advanced and Novice bike training and rode with some of the police training guys who joined our setup to help reduce the rising numbers of serious 2 wheeled accidents in our area. Even though they were the best riders I ever went out with, one of them smashed up at a similar speed on a race track day and was hospitalised for 7 months with very serious injuries.

    The backpack etc suggest the Macbook came a cropper on a public highway.

    Joey Dunlop, probably one of the world’s finest ever road racers was killed on a 125cc, leading a race in Tallyn in 2000, having already won the races for bigger and faster bikes, so our friend with the Macbook should think carefully about his speeds

    Food for thought.

  9. […] to make your gadgets survive some pretty disastrous situations. This iPad faired better than the MacBook Pro that fell off the back of a high speed motorcycle, but that also fell out of it’s case at 195mph, and yet, somehow it still […]

  10. Bull Crap says:

    I don’t believe this at all.
    The case has very little to do with how well the internal components do. In fact, the internal components are under so much stress due to the aluminum unibody, that logically speaking, it shouldn’t still be working under its own power.
    As far as dropping a plastic notebook, it depends wholly on the brand. An Acer would not survive something like this, that’s a given. Acer’s are BUDGET notebooks, hence why you’re paying considerably less. A Lenovo, however, is a different story. I would put my money on a Lenovo any day against a MacBook Pro. Aluminum is a shotty material unless it’s aircraft grade.
    Which it’s not, so all you Apple fanboys can stop trying to justify paying ridiculous prices on your shotty computers.

    • lol says:

      lol im not paying money for the durability of the shell. dude i know to take care of my laptop. im dj and i play with laptop (with traktor pro scratch) and i been traveling in 2 years in many cities of my country + berlin, italy (bologna), bulgaria, sicily etc. i never installed the os on it and i never got an error . it works perfect.

  11. […] the proof of the durability too from OSX Daily: Immortal MacBook […]

  12. daniel says:

    a serious question…
    so my mac dropped from about 7 feet and hit hard enough to fracture the screen and tweak the case. i checked the hard drive and the information can still be pulled off without problem, so i just bought an external monitor and the mac makes the mac sound when booting, but goes to the setup screen (the one of the galaxy with stars in the background). i can move the mouse around, but there is none of my normal icons are there, and the computer is not doing anything. Any thoughts? thanks. feel free to email directly at daniel.metcalf@yahoo.com

  13. Notlikely says:

    I’m calling bull on the claim of 195mph. There are NO factory sportbikes that can go that fast. One or two (Like Hayabusa and ZX14) will top 180mph, but to get close to 200mph takes about 65 more HP than the best of the best even HAS. So, what, you have changed the gearing and added a nitrous kit?

    And now we are to imagine you rode in the 195mph hurricane wind with a BACKPACK on your back?

    Don’t believe you.

  14. chickenboo says:

    My Macbook once fell out of my backpack after the zipper failed. However, I was only travelling at walking speed and the machine only fell about 5 ft. onto the pavement. Still, got a nice dent next to the DVI connector…

  15. Tz says:

    But if you will be dropped a plastic Acer PC, its parts will be all the way ye drive

  16. Observer says:

    Stupid…my condolences with the MacBook!

  17. Rich says:

    Mac > PC.

    So Mac > Mac?

    Or did you mean Mac PC > Windows PC?

    • Cake says:

      “Mac > PC.
      So Mac > Mac?
      Or did you mean Mac PC > Windows PC?”

      Semantics. You’re just being an ass. You obviously know what he means.

  18. RightSaidFred says:

    Oh that is just painful to look at… what was he thinking?? Incredible that it still boots up, Macs are built so strong. Years ago I dropped a PC laptop and it stopped booting completely, and that was just onto carpet from about three feet up!

    Mac > PC

    • Damien says:

      I dropped my Dell XPS 15 (weighs a bit, not light) 1 meter and a half on my stone driveway. Heavy scratches on the aluminum lid and small chips out of the rear rubber/plastic port but boots up fine, not all PC’s are made equal.

  19. Steve P says:

    He obviously couldn’t afford an LCD/LED external monitor given the 2nd mortgage prices, Apple charge for there overpriced ****

  20. mason says:

    what a moron

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