We had a customer ask us why it costs so much (oddly, we’re cheaper than every other repair shop in Denver) to replace a 15-inch MacBook Pro LCD when we’re able to offer the 13-inch MacBook LCD replacement for $199. It’s a great question and hopefully this explanation will help people understand why there’s a difference between the two prices.

One of the questions that came up was this: “Why am I paying so much more for the LCD when it’s just a couple inches bigger?” The answer to that lies in two parts: the manufacturer and the screen resolution. All LCDs vary by price depending on the manufacturer… each model of MacBook or MacBook Pro could potentially have different part numbers depending on which LCD ended up in your machine. Your friend might have the exact same model laptop but your LCD might cost more. Our rates depend on those numbers. We are always trying to find the best deals so we can bring you the best prices, and if we can make it cheaper, we will.

Part two of that question is screen resolution. There may only be slightly more material in a 15-inch screen versus a 13-inch screen, but the manufacturing process is completely different. A 13-inch MacBook screen resolution is 1280 by 800, while the MacBook Pro is 1440 by 900 or higher. The MacBook Pro can go up to the 1920 by 1080 resolution. In reality, the 1280 by 800 LCDs are very inexpensive to make: I actually had a Dell machine about 6 years ago with a higher resolution LCD… so there’s nothing fantastic about Apple’s MacBook LCD. As soon as you get into higher screen resolutions like the MacBook Pro, the manufacturing costs go up as does the price we pay… which makes its way to you.

The other factor we need to consider is the amount of labor we have to put into each screen replacement. Thanks to trade secrets and the skills we’ve developed over the years, we can replace a 13-inch MacBook LCD in about 30 minutes (sometimes less). We can’t — and no one can — replace the MacBook Pro LCD in that same amount of time. There aren’t any shortcuts with the MacBook Pro LCD as it is glued into the display bezel. To properly remove it, we have to disassemble the whole machine and heat up the broken LCD to pull it out and put the new one in. That labor process takes anywhere from 1.5 hours to 2 hours… depending on how cooperative the display is. If you consider that our labor rate is $65 an hour, you’ll see that the price would increase by $100 just from the labor itself. That still doesn’t take the higher 15-inch display cost into consideration.

So, don’t be surprised by our discounted price on the 13-inch screen. We guarantee you won’t find a better price for that model in Denver, or our other LCD replacements for that matter. We just want you to understand that screen replacement cost is always dependent on the specific machine, not the screen size. We’ll also stress that our “Deals” are “deals” because they’re “deals.” Our suppliers have given us a deal because they got a deal and in return we get to give you a deal on the repair. We can’t make everything the price you want it to be, no one can… but we certainly do our best to try.

Josh Carr
Owner, Rocky Mountain Mac Repair

Dropped, crushed, cracked or dunked… let us take a look at your iPhone. We replace the glass in the iPhone 3G and 3GS for just $99.

We know that there are companies (some guy and his van) offering to replace your iPhone glass for $60. Be wary of that price! We actually purchase our glass at a hefty price to bring you “Apple-Original” glass. You can definitely find iPhone glass for $13 on eBay, but we don’t believe in bringing terrible knockoffs into our shop. $13 glass is not manufactured by Apple and it’s not made to the same specifications… you may very well end up with a non-functional iPhone because they’re using b-stock knockoffs.

Other companies in the area use the same glass we do and charge $200 to replace it. We don’t necessarily think that’s the best price for the customer, so we’ve drastically reduced our margins in order to bring you great quality glass and the lowest price you can get… for legitimate service.

We try to focus specifically on the iPhone 3G and 3GS due to the difficult design of the 1st generation iPhone. If you’re interested in a 1st generation screen replacement, it’s $249… you’re probably better of replacing the phone. In the first generation iPhone, the LCD, Digitizer and Glass are all one piece thus the higher price tag. Our suppliers have yet to bring prices down to where we can make this repair cost-effective, but we’ll let you know if we ever get there.

This is a great deal for desktops that aren’t easily upgraded. Just think, your iMac G5 could have a terabyte hard by the end of the day! It doesn’t stop there, any Intel iMac can be upgraded… even Power Mac G5s and the newer Mac Pros qualify for this amazing deal.

This deal gives you a 1TB 3.5 inch hard drive, you also get the installation and the data transfer at no extra charge. You pay $199 plus tax… that’s it. There aren’t any hidden fees and we won’t pressure you into buying other upgrades. In fact, we run a full suite of diagnostics on every machine that comes through our doors. You can be sure that your machine is getting the best treatment available.

Want more space? We can special order 1.5TB and 2TB drives! We’ve bundled those drives into great deals as well: $299 and $349 respectively. If you find a better deal from one of our local competitors, we’ll match it and take an additional 10% off. Yes, we’re that confident that we have the best prices in town.

This deal will not last forever, so take advantage of it while you can.

Our LCD supplier has partnered with us to offer the best LCD replacement prices in Denver! In fact, this price is much better than most of the overnight repair centers you can find online. We’ll have your 13 inch MacBook LCD replaced within a day of drop-off. Depending on supply, we may even be able to do it while you wait. At RMMR we guarantee the best service and price! This deal won’t last forever, so make you sure get that LCD replaced now instead of putting it off even longer. This rate does not apply to Unibody MacBooks, but we can replace the glass or LCD in those models as well.

Going against all odds, RMMR would like to give you the opportunity to upgrade your MacBook or MacBook Pro’s hard drive to 500GB.  You’ll never have to worry about about downloading too much music, or uploading too many pictures from your family vacation.  If you’re like us, you hate lugging around extra peripherals for your computer… laptops are meant to be portable, right?  Well you can take that external hard drive out of your bag because RMMR offers notebook hard drive upgrades at a price that won’t hurt your pocket book.

So, what do you get?

We’ll install a 500GB hard drive into your computer and transfer your data at no additional cost.  Other companies would charge you more than $199 just for the drive itself… but we’re throwing the labor AND the data transfer in for one low price!  We offer a 90-day warranty on all the work we do, but we also extend the manufacturer’s warranty to you when we can.

Is 500GB still too big small? We’d be more than happy to up the ante for you… how about 1000GB (1TB) for $379?  That’s 300,000 mp3′s — 1000 movies — 200,000 high quality photos.  That’s some serious internal storage.  (And no, we can’t go bigger than 1TB… it doesn’t exist, sorry)

This deal is going on NOW !  So act quickly… this price won’t last forever.

So what’s the story with iMac G5 capacitors? Let’s start by addressing the issue as a whole.  The iMac G5 suffers from a couple different manufacturing defects.  The first being poor quality capacitors on the logic board.  The second: bad power supplies (in most cases, this actually relates to bad capacitors as well).  The capacitors in some models of the iMac G5 will swell and possibly leak with time.  There’s really no way to predict it… Apple had released a set of serial numbers several years back that could have been ailed by this issue.  As time has passed, I’ve realized it isn’t limited to those serials.  Any iMac G5 could be affected.  I’m not saying that you should go out and have all of your iMac G5′s capacitors replaced with good quality capacitors… I’m saying that there are a few things that you should look out for.  First, you can always visually inspect the capacitors by removing the back panel.  Second, watch for these symptoms:

• Video distortion
• Video freezing (you can still connect to your system externally, the display just doesn’t change)
• Complete system lockup
• Trouble shutting down
• Trouble booting up
• Weird, unexplainable crashing with applications
• And more… basically, if your iMac G5 is acting up — check the capacitors

I have an iMac G5 capacitor replacement on the bench right now… after I replace the caps it will be in great shape! Don’t let other companies charge you for a new logic board. It’s a lot of labor, but you shouldn’t be paying to much for the repair. At RMMR, we’ll do the capacitor replacement for a flat rate of $199.  If you feel comfortable with a screwdriver, it never hurts to check the capacitors and make sure they’re okay.  Lay the iMac G5 on its front and loosen the three screws that are at the bottom of the display. Gently lift the back panel away from the display. If you see swollen or leaking capacitors like the ones pictured below, they need to be replaced. Bring your G5 in and we’ll get you taken care of right away!

We also accept mail-in capacitor repairs. You are responsible for shipping it to us, but we’ll cover shipping on the way back! Just include a note explaining your name, address, phone, email, as well as the symptoms you’ve experienced thus far.