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IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

9to5mac.com

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Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#91

Post by alistairSH »

tpmoney wrote: post #35
mmastrac wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple: If the adhesive strip breaks, attempt to retrieve the rest of the strip with ESD-safe tweezers. If you can’t retrieve the rest of the strip, replace the top case Jesus. This is not what I'd consider "repairable". And that's not the only place in the manual where Apple just says "toss the whole top case out".

Anyone who’s ever repaired a car has encountered one form or another of a fastener or hose that breaks or drops and can’t be easily removed because it’s in a bad place, and leaving it where it is won’t cause any harm. Does it really surprise us that small space computers would have their own version of this?

Sure, but rarely does the stuck fastener require the replacement of a car's major subsystem. Stuck bolt = replace engine? That's so rare it's hardly worth discussing. But with a Mac, stuck glue strip = replace half the laptop.

Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#93

Post by michaelmrose »

alistairSH wrote: post #91
tpmoney wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who’s ever repaired a car has encountered one form or another of a fastener or hose that breaks or drops and can’t be easily removed because it’s in a bad place, and leaving it where it is won’t cause any harm. Does it really surprise us that small space computers would have their own version of this?

Sure, but rarely does the stuck fastener require the replacement of a car's major subsystem. Stuck bolt = replace engine? That's so rare it's hardly worth discussing. But with a Mac, stuck glue strip = replace half the laptop.

There was a notable case where road debris hit fitting on a 2 psi coolant line in a Tesla and the owner was told they would have to pay $16,000 for a new battery pack to deal with damage to a flange on the line out of pocket because no insurer would pay to replace a $16,000 battery for want of a 5 dollar piece of plastic.

The solution was a slightly more expensive $15 piece of metal and $700 in labor.

If you look at how new appliances are made with difficult to replace electronics which ought to be trivially replaceable for cheap if you weren't getting bent over by the manufacturer you might begin to notice a pattern.

Manufacturers are saving their pennies at the expense of hardware that fails outside of warranty and makes them $100 bills for their trouble of doing a bad job in the first place.

Their is little reason to build to last when bad work pays dividends in the long run.

The Tesla story for those who didn't catch it originally.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/41493/teslas-16000-quote-for-a...

Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#94

Post by robmccoll »

wlesieutre wrote: post #65
dkonofalski wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's a temporary situation to do it this way until they can get enough stock and work their supply chain to provide additional batteries? What a non-story.

I don't see anything to suggest that this policy will change in the future, they probably don't want to risk someone burning their house down while trying to remove a glued in pouch battery and then blaming Apple for it. Incidentally on the flip side of this, I got a free new battery out of the keyboard replacement program because they replace this whole top case assembly for keyboard replacements as well. I hoped th…

I replaced the glued-down baggie-cell batteries in the laptop I'm currently using. It was a giant PITA, and I was very wary of burning my house down the entire time. It would absolutely be worth the cost difference to secure and protect the batteries in any other way.

Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#95

Post by chris_wot »

dkonofalski wrote: post #52
pilgrimfff wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iFixit praises the M1 MacBook Air service manuals by saying “they’re in-depth, mostly logical, and well worth an additional repairability point,” This is the service manual you're referencing. The one they're complaining about it is the M1 MacBook Pro. Here's the actual manual referenced: https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/2000/MA2085/en_US/mac... And here's iFixIt's actual complaint: > it’s not 162 pages becau…

So it's a temporary situation to do it this way until they can get enough stock and work their supply chain to provide additional batteries? What a non-story.

They sell the top case and battery already. What supply chain issues are you referring to?

Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#96

Post by smitty1110 »

dewey wrote: post #46
falcolas wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is a relatively new phenomenon when it comes to batteries. It's only been a handful of year since I could swap them out with a couple of latches.

To be fair, batteries back then lasted a lot shorter than they do now. For my first MBP I had to buy multiple replacement batteries, for my newer ones I didn't have to do that a single time while using them much more.

Don't forget that they also had significant wear after only a few months. HP sucked so much money out of me with replacement batteries before I switched to an MBP in 2015. I haven't bought anything from HP since, and good riddance.

Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#97

Post by jagger27 »

vimy wrote: post #81
pilgrimfff wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iFixit praises the M1 MacBook Air service manuals by saying “they’re in-depth, mostly logical, and well worth an additional repairability point,” This is the service manual you're referencing. The one they're complaining about it is the M1 MacBook Pro. Here's the actual manual referenced: https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/2000/MA2085/en_US/mac... And here's iFixIt's actual complaint: > it’s not 162 pages becau…

It’s always been like that. Bring your macbook to an Apple store for a battery replacement and they will replace the top case.

Well, it wasn’t _always_ like this. Apple used to have unibody MacBooks with user replaceable batteries without even needing a screw driver.

Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#98

Post by woojoo666 »

tarentel wrote: post #4

No it doesn't. Ya, it's a 162 page manual and a huge pain and likely not worth it but the program doesn't make it less repairable. It was designed in such a way that makes repairing it a pain in the ass. Having the tooling and manual to do the repair doesn't make it less repairable. This headline makes no sense.

The actual ifixit article title is "Apple’s Self-Repair Program Manages to Make MacBooks Seem Less Repairable".

The "seem" here is important, and was excluded in the 9to5mac article title

Re: IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

#99

Post by Spooky23 »

pilgrimfff wrote: post #32
rocket_surgeron wrote: post #19

>This time, along with the manuals, Apple is presenting DIY repairers with a excruciating gauntlet of hurdles: read 162 pages of documentation without getting intimidated I read the PDF. https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/2000/MA2083/en_US/mac... It seems highly likely to me that anyone claiming this document is intimidating either has not read it or is lying for some reason. In many respects, the Apple document…

> iFixit praises the M1 MacBook Air service manuals by saying “they’re in-depth, mostly logical, and well worth an additional repairability point,” This is the service manual you're referencing. The one they're complaining about it is the M1 MacBook Pro. Here's the actual manual referenced: https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/2000/MA2085/en_US/mac... And here's iFixIt's actual complaint: > it’s not 162 pages becau…

Modern flat lithium batteries are fairly hazardous and Apple is very conservative in their approach to handing them.

They never want a Samsung like situation where the airport announcer says “No MacBook Pro 14” on the plane”. Additionally, because it’s Apple, there would be a media shitstorm if that happened.

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