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My Surface Pro 4 no longer detects its own internal drive. Is the connection loose? Do I need to replace the drive? I don't know because I can't open it up e

My Surface Pro 4 no longer detects its own internal drive. Is the connection loose? Do I need to replace the drive? I don't know because I can't open it up easily. This is weird for me because I've always been able to reliably do my own repairs, even on my previous MacBook Pro. To now realize that my Surface is worthless unless I'm still barely within the warranty period is unsettling.

snuxoll 9y ago
Oh man, don't get me started on doing any repairs on the surface line. It took me FOREVER to safely replace the battery on my aunts old Surface RT because it bit the bullet, and the only choice for a replacement was an after market Chinese battery I don't fully trust. I warned her of the risks, but she didn't want to spend the money on a new device - so now I'm just hoping it doesn't catch fire before she finally replaces it.
- reificator 9y ago
  Ouch, that's actually scary. Good luck.
bproven 9y ago
Unfortunately, Macbooks and Macbook Pros are like this now too :( Apple will say it is necessary to make it as thin and efficient as possible. But that has a smell to it. My Dell XPS 15 9550 can be easily serviced : the SDD, Memory, wifi card and battery are all accessible and it doesn't sacrifice (much) thinness or weight to accomplish. I sometimes wonder if the customer would be OK with Macbooks being 1mm thicker with user replaceable parts. There is only so thin you can go... If Apple wants claim to tell a sustainability story or to be "green" this planned obsolescence stuff needs to go.
- reificator 9y ago
  Yeah, I brought up the MBP specifically because they've always been kind of unpleasant to work on. But at least you used to be able to. My surface died yesterday and if I don't have a warranty still, it's dead to me. I'm not sure I'm even going to try opening it up based on what I've seen.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- natch 9y ago
  While it is true that Apple laptops have been getting thinner, the rest of your comment is severely out of step with reality. MacBooks and MacBook Pros do have repair options. At least until they are obsolete. And since Apple caps the price the consumer pays for parts at a set per-model limit, the repairs can be surprisingly reasonable, especially if several major repairs are done at once. We had a top cover with keyboard, battery, motherboard, and MagSafe charging board all replaced with new ones for a total of under $400, a low price that was then waived because we had AppleCare. As far as sustainability and being green, Apple takes computers for recycling at its stores. Where I live they also have a dedicated electronics drop off spot separate from the store, but then I am in Silicon Valley. They then have centers which break down the computers into parts, eventually recovering precious metals and reusable components and responsibly dealing with hazardous waste. I have visited this place and seen it happening with my own eyes. Not on some arranged fake tour, but from the back door, catching glimpses of what was going on inside, while dropping stuff off. They are being acclaimed for all this work they are doing. I'm not sure what other option you see, given that we all demand power upgrades with every new system we buy. There is also the hacking risk which everyone on your side of this discussion loves to overlook. If it's easy to install bugging devices in a household member's laptop, then it will happen all the time. Apple is a big target. Instead of a hugely fragmented hardware ecosystem where makers of rogue, key logging, components don't even know which model to target, Apple presents a unified attack surface, and thus needs to be better defended. It really makes no sense for them to make it easy for me to hack your laptop so that I can destroy your privacy. It makes all the sense in the world for them to protect their user's hardware from unauthorized tampering. I hate that I can't repair my own device. But there are some good, valid user-centric reasons for it, not just the profit-centric reason the outraged anti-Apple crowd assumes.
  - Kadin 9y ago
    > unauthorized tampering The rub is in who is doing the authorization? Increasingly it's the manufacturer, not the user. That is a gaping chasm of a difference. I don't think many people really want to punt on that to the manufacturer for the lifetime of the device; they just aren't thinking about the implications when they are purchasing it. The idea that they will almost certainly want to do something during the lifetime of that device, that the manufacturer might not want them to be able to, is a sort of buried and non-obvious risk, since what the manufacturer might allow is both subject to change and not necessarily clear upfront.

snuxoll 9y ago

Oh man, don't get me started on doing any repairs on the surface line. It took me FOREVER to safely replace the battery on my aunts old Surface RT because it bit the bullet, and the only choice for a replacement was an after market Chinese battery I don't fully trust. I warned her of the risks, but she didn't want to spend the money on a new device - so now I'm just hoping it doesn't catch fire before she finally replaces it.

reificator 9y ago
Ouch, that's actually scary. Good luck.

bproven 9y ago

Unfortunately, Macbooks and Macbook Pros are like this now too :( Apple will say it is necessary to make it as thin and efficient as possible. But that has a smell to it. My Dell XPS 15 9550 can be easily serviced : the SDD, Memory, wifi card and battery are all accessible and it doesn't sacrifice (much) thinness or weight to accomplish. I sometimes wonder if the customer would be OK with Macbooks being 1mm thicker with user replaceable parts. There is only so thin you can go... If Apple wants claim to tell a sustainability story or to be "green" this planned obsolescence stuff needs to go.

reificator 9y ago
Yeah, I brought up the MBP specifically because they've always been kind of unpleasant to work on. But at least you used to be able to. My surface died yesterday and if I don't have a warranty still, it's dead to me. I'm not sure I'm even going to try opening it up based on what I've seen.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
natch 9y ago
While it is true that Apple laptops have been getting thinner, the rest of your comment is severely out of step with reality. MacBooks and MacBook Pros do have repair options. At least until they are obsolete. And since Apple caps the price the consumer pays for parts at a set per-model limit, the repairs can be surprisingly reasonable, especially if several major repairs are done at once. We had a top cover with keyboard, battery, motherboard, and MagSafe charging board all replaced with new ones for a total of under $400, a low price that was then waived because we had AppleCare. As far as sustainability and being green, Apple takes computers for recycling at its stores. Where I live they also have a dedicated electronics drop off spot separate from the store, but then I am in Silicon Valley. They then have centers which break down the computers into parts, eventually recovering precious metals and reusable components and responsibly dealing with hazardous waste. I have visited this place and seen it happening with my own eyes. Not on some arranged fake tour, but from the back door, catching glimpses of what was going on inside, while dropping stuff off. They are being acclaimed for all this work they are doing. I'm not sure what other option you see, given that we all demand power upgrades with every new system we buy. There is also the hacking risk which everyone on your side of this discussion loves to overlook. If it's easy to install bugging devices in a household member's laptop, then it will happen all the time. Apple is a big target. Instead of a hugely fragmented hardware ecosystem where makers of rogue, key logging, components don't even know which model to target, Apple presents a unified attack surface, and thus needs to be better defended. It really makes no sense for them to make it easy for me to hack your laptop so that I can destroy your privacy. It makes all the sense in the world for them to protect their user's hardware from unauthorized tampering. I hate that I can't repair my own device. But there are some good, valid user-centric reasons for it, not just the profit-centric reason the outraged anti-Apple crowd assumes.
- Kadin 9y ago
  > unauthorized tampering The rub is in who is doing the authorization? Increasingly it's the manufacturer, not the user. That is a gaping chasm of a difference. I don't think many people really want to punt on that to the manufacturer for the lifetime of the device; they just aren't thinking about the implications when they are purchasing it. The idea that they will almost certainly want to do something during the lifetime of that device, that the manufacturer might not want them to be able to, is a sort of buried and non-obvious risk, since what the manufacturer might allow is both subject to change and not necessarily clear upfront.