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I wish they actually sold parts, and not assemblies. My fiance has an original 13" M1 MBP. She spilled a drink, and about 1/3 of the keyboard is non-functiona

I wish they actually sold parts, and not assemblies. My fiance has an original 13" M1 MBP. She spilled a drink, and about 1/3 of the keyboard is non-functional. To replace the keyboard (which has to be a ~$100 part), Apple Service says they need to replace the entire laptop shell. I think they wanted roughly $800, or nearly the price of a used MBP of the same specs.

gjsman-1000 3y ago
Apple does do keyboard only repairs; but Apple has a policy that they never do partial repairs. Your laptop is sent back as it came, or fully repaired. I’m not saying it’s right, but drinks trigger small indicators inside the chassis warning the technician that the board may have taken liquid damage. From Apple’s perspective, even if the board appears to be still functioning; it cannot be warrantied and should not be considered reliable (to them, it’s as good as broken). On Apple’s scale, I do somewhat get it. You don’t want to give someone back a “repaired” laptop that burns out later from latent damage. But it’s still… expensive and overly cautious. Edit: I guess it’s somewhat a matter of perspective on what the repair is meant to accomplish. For you, it’s “I want a working keyboard.” For Apple, it’s “fix all potential consequences of water damage and make it safe to use again.”
- Zagitta 3y ago
  Imagine if car repairs worked the same. Oh you damaged the front bumper on the curb? Sorry we're gonna have to do a full engine replacement as the chassis might have flexed and cracked the engine block despite it running perfectly fine. It's frankly ridiculous what people consider acceptable behavior from apple.
  - jerlam 3y ago
    Cars are going in the same direction. One Rivian had a fender bender that cost $41K to fix: https://www.thedrive.com/news/rivian-r1t-fender-bender-turns-into-42000-repair-bill https://www.thedrive.com/news/rivian-r1t-fender-bender-turns... Tesla is making their cars with huge single castings and structural batteries, making any repair to those components prohibitively expensive.
RecycledEle 3y ago
Explanation of the post above: MBP = Mac Book Pro
baz00 3y ago
This is a design flaw of all macbooks at the moment. Basically the keyboard is riveted into the top case and the battery is stuck to that as well. That means they have to pretty much transplant the logic board and the screen into another shell and stick a new battery in it as well. This is the very definition of a shit show. I have a 14" M1 MBP which I am selling next month as I have already switched to a ThinkPad T14 gen 3 running Windows 11. This is the keyboard replacement process for that: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Lenovo+ThinkPad+T14+Gen+3+Keyboard+Replacement/157530 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Lenovo+ThinkPad+T14+Gen+3+Keybo...
- chongli 3y ago
  It’s design for manufacturing, not design for repair. There are tradeoffs everywhere in hardware design. I’m guessing that by building the MacBook this way they greatly increase the rigidity of the keyboard. If instead they had made the keyboard a separate module in order to facilitate easy replacement then it’d either be way less rigid or it would need an additional backing plate which would increase the overall thickness of the computer.
- jwells89 3y ago
  The models that were redesigned for M series CPUs actually do not have riveted in keyboards. The 13” M1 MPB is like that only because its design is a holdover from the Intel era. Here’s a video of the KB being replaced on an 2021 16” model. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sd1cwO5Y5RY https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sd1cwO5Y5RY Replacement keyboards can be had for $30 according to Google, though I don’t know if that’s an official part or not.
  - baz00 3y ago
    Have you tried looking at the service manual? The only replaceable FRU is the top cover with keyboard and battery assembly. Nope. $30 - but not much fun getting it out...
    - jwells89 3y ago
      Still, it's an improvement over the previous gen and hopefully indicative of a trend. For some it's also worth the trade of not having to daily drive Windows. It is for me, and I say that also owning a ThinkPad. There's also Linux of course which I find good for "single purpose" machines (e.g. a "study pod" laptop), but making it my primary OS would take a number of changes that I'm not likely to get short of developing my own custom tailored DE.

gjsman-1000 3y ago

Apple does do keyboard only repairs; but Apple has a policy that they never do partial repairs. Your laptop is sent back as it came, or fully repaired. I’m not saying it’s right, but drinks trigger small indicators inside the chassis warning the technician that the board may have taken liquid damage. From Apple’s perspective, even if the board appears to be still functioning; it cannot be warrantied and should not be considered reliable (to them, it’s as good as broken). On Apple’s scale, I do somewhat get it. You don’t want to give someone back a “repaired” laptop that burns out later from latent damage. But it’s still… expensive and overly cautious. Edit: I guess it’s somewhat a matter of perspective on what the repair is meant to accomplish. For you, it’s “I want a working keyboard.” For Apple, it’s “fix all potential consequences of water damage and make it safe to use again.”

Zagitta 3y ago
Imagine if car repairs worked the same. Oh you damaged the front bumper on the curb? Sorry we're gonna have to do a full engine replacement as the chassis might have flexed and cracked the engine block despite it running perfectly fine. It's frankly ridiculous what people consider acceptable behavior from apple.
- jerlam 3y ago
  Cars are going in the same direction. One Rivian had a fender bender that cost $41K to fix: https://www.thedrive.com/news/rivian-r1t-fender-bender-turns-into-42000-repair-bill https://www.thedrive.com/news/rivian-r1t-fender-bender-turns... Tesla is making their cars with huge single castings and structural batteries, making any repair to those components prohibitively expensive.

RecycledEle 3y ago

Explanation of the post above: MBP = Mac Book Pro

baz00 3y ago

This is a design flaw of all macbooks at the moment. Basically the keyboard is riveted into the top case and the battery is stuck to that as well. That means they have to pretty much transplant the logic board and the screen into another shell and stick a new battery in it as well. This is the very definition of a shit show. I have a 14" M1 MBP which I am selling next month as I have already switched to a ThinkPad T14 gen 3 running Windows 11. This is the keyboard replacement process for that: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Lenovo+ThinkPad+T14+Gen+3+Keyboard+Replacement/157530 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Lenovo+ThinkPad+T14+Gen+3+Keybo...

chongli 3y ago
It’s design for manufacturing, not design for repair. There are tradeoffs everywhere in hardware design. I’m guessing that by building the MacBook this way they greatly increase the rigidity of the keyboard. If instead they had made the keyboard a separate module in order to facilitate easy replacement then it’d either be way less rigid or it would need an additional backing plate which would increase the overall thickness of the computer.
jwells89 3y ago
The models that were redesigned for M series CPUs actually do not have riveted in keyboards. The 13” M1 MPB is like that only because its design is a holdover from the Intel era. Here’s a video of the KB being replaced on an 2021 16” model. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sd1cwO5Y5RY https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sd1cwO5Y5RY Replacement keyboards can be had for $30 according to Google, though I don’t know if that’s an official part or not.
- baz00 3y ago
  Have you tried looking at the service manual? The only replaceable FRU is the top cover with keyboard and battery assembly. Nope. $30 - but not much fun getting it out...
  - jwells89 3y ago
    Still, it's an improvement over the previous gen and hopefully indicative of a trend. For some it's also worth the trade of not having to daily drive Windows. It is for me, and I say that also owning a ThinkPad. There's also Linux of course which I find good for "single purpose" machines (e.g. a "study pod" laptop), but making it my primary OS would take a number of changes that I'm not likely to get short of developing my own custom tailored DE.