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This discovery came after my latest question: High Sierra's External Display bug heats Macbook's, damaged my Retina Screen, what can I do?

I use my macbook on a stand with good airflow, after High Sierra, I noticed unusual high heating along with poor gpu performance, afterwards I noticed screen damage, and now, I discovered that my macbook is physically swollen, 2-3mm's I'm guessing

The issues could be unrelated to High Sierra, yet, it would be too big of a coincidence if it's not the cause, as things were breezy beforehand

Here's a picture of the issue: https://imgur.com/a/feBG7

Swollen Mid 2014 Macbook

The trackpad area is swollen, the trackpad doesn't click any more, the battery reports "Normal" condition (Cycle count: 12), the lid doesn't close any more, but everything luckily works for now

I assume it's the battery that's swollen, but even with the high heating I complain about, the GPU temperatures was 80C at most and enclosure temps weren't extremely high

It's a shocking issue for me, I'm wondering whether there is a solution other than buying a new Macbook, unsure how to approach the issue in general, and since I use the device daily, really don't want to part with it even for repairs or inspection, I'm located in Turkey

Also curious why I experienced these issues with High Sierra and whether anyone else has similar experiences

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It shouldn’t be shocking that this could happen. The software change is pure coincidence. When lithium batteries fail - they offgas and there are “airbags” to contain the gas but the case / trackpad will be deformed by this safety design. Overcharging is a safety issue - back up immediately - get it to service and stop charging the Mac. See the links back to 2007 - Apple’s newer batteries are far more resistant to this, but still the chemistry and potential to swell exist.

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  • Thanks, will do, in hindsight, makes a lot of sense, I hoped it was relatively safe to use even in this state, but after reading more about the issue, I'll call Apple tomorrow. I don't think it's a coincidence tho, High Sierra with an external display seemingly amplifies gpu resource usage for some reason, I think it's either a heating caused issue, or more likely, the constant power hog might have cause the overcharging, at those times, I had the browser open 24/7 for work
    – Kaan
    Nov 26, 2017 at 17:48
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    @KaanSoral Good plan. We run MacBook at full CPU / full GPU / full heat day and night for years and years at work. Some small fraction of them get this failure so I doubt it’s anything you could have controlled for / caused. In fact, the numbers show the portables that travel fail at far higher rates than those that just sit and run all the time.
    – bmike ♦
    Nov 26, 2017 at 18:40
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Make a full backup and get it into a store/repair shop for inspection.

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