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My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

tobiasberg.net

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Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#41

Post by carlosjobim »

Swedes many times have a defeatist attitude towards companies and authorities, and expect that they will never get any help unless they have a right to it (from warranties or such).

The author doesn't mention ever contacting Apple to get his keyboard fixed. Maybe he could have gotten pleasantly surprised?

"Here’s hoping governments regulate laptop manufacturers to actually make repairable machines in the future."

However, this quote is not a surprise at all, and goes perfectly in line with Swedish philosophy. And the philosophy of this message board as well.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#42

Post by MostlyStable »

>Here’s hoping governments regulate laptop manufacturers to actually make repairable machines in the future.

No, this is a bad solution. If you want a repairable machine, buy one. They exist. Others have already mentioned Framework, but there are other options that aren't that far down the spectrum either.

One of the things macbook users praise the most is "build quality", which often means the solidity of the device, lack of flex, etc. These quality features are, in part, achieved by the same choices that make it hard to repair. Ease of repair and "build quality", are to some degree (although not entirely) tradeoffs against each other.

I say this as a framework owner who would never buy something as irreparable as a macbook. Regulation is not the answer here.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#43

Post by bonyt »

I replaced the keyboard MacBook Air M1 keyboard with a $20 model from Amazon and it's been going strong for a full year. I had spilled ginger ale on the original.

The board is riveted in, but there are enough screws to hold the replacement in place. Removing the board is a shockingly violent process, but it worked for me.

Keyboard: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQBVMM3X (price has gone up).

Video of rivets breaking: https://i.tonybox.net/9f2083b218d5.mp4 (you can see I missed a screw and slightly cut my hand here too).

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#44

Post by phil21 »

tim-tday wrote: post #32
justinator wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AppleCare is honestly a great deal, especially for laptops. M1 Macbook Pros from 2020 are humming along just fine for regular people who see no reason to upgrade. The future is now, old man.

Bought AppleCare for my AirPods. Never again.

AppleCare is leaps and bounds better than any other insurance you can buy for mobile or laptops.

For accessories I don’t see the point, those are effectively disposable wear items.

Ironically a large part of deciding to migrate to an iPhone from android was final frustrations with even Google purchased devices under warranty coupled with hardware quality requiring repairs. My wife’s experience with AppleCare won me over.

If nothing else it’s first party insurance. I will never purchase device insurance offered via a third party ever again. Either its first party so I’m dealing with the place I bought it or nothing at all.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#45

Post by ChuckMcM »

zapnuk wrote: post #30
mattbillenstein wrote: post #9

Framework Laptop + some form of Linux - MacOS keeps getting worse and the hardware exceeding hard and expensive to repair.

Framework Laptop is more expensive than a Macbook Air with all around worse hardware. For a framework 13 I'd have to pay 1900€ with a 16GB setup. For 1450 I get a MBA with 24GB ram. Similar with a dell or lenovo who get smoked in performance comparisons. It might still be worth it for those who hugely value open source and repairability but as for value I think its save to say that Apple is currently in a league of t…

> Framework Laptop is more expensive than a Macbook Air with all around worse hardware.

Is it though? I'd agree the hardware is less capable but if your Macbook anything is really just one 'top case' repair away from being more expensive. RAM failure is 'motherboard replace', the display? it is similarly expensive to replace.

So I would agree that it is more expensive to purchase a Framework laptop than a Macbook laptop, but also feel it is more expensive to own a Macbook laptop than a Framework laptop. Also I just replaced the screen on my FW13 not because it was broken but because they have one with 4x the pixels on it now. That's not something I could have done with the Macbook.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#46

Post by mananaysiempre »

linsomniac wrote: post #38

Does anyone know if this is covered under the Apple Care plans? My 16" M1 MBP keyboard has been no problem, I'm just curious. Not saying that negates the issue. Unfortunately, AFAICT, these repairability issues are largely due to the move to thinner and lighter laptops. Replacing my MILs Microsoft Surface tablet was a pain in the butt. Had to cut the case open and tape it back together. But that thing was insanely sm…

Keyboards on MacBook Pros have been riveted since at least 2014. That doesn’t necessarily disprove your argument, but it does move the “thin and light” bar farther back than one would expect from the phrasing.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#47

Post by mittensc »

zapnuk wrote: post #30
mattbillenstein wrote: post #9

Framework Laptop + some form of Linux - MacOS keeps getting worse and the hardware exceeding hard and expensive to repair.

Framework Laptop is more expensive than a Macbook Air with all around worse hardware. For a framework 13 I'd have to pay 1900€ with a 16GB setup. For 1450 I get a MBA with 24GB ram. Similar with a dell or lenovo who get smoked in performance comparisons. It might still be worth it for those who hugely value open source and repairability but as for value I think its save to say that Apple is currently in a league of t…

I can configure a 1400E framework 13 with a bring-my-own ssd + linux.

I can drop it down to 1050E without the ram if i take ram from my older laptop.

Upgrading or fixing this is very easy. RAM/SSD i can take with me over multiple generations of a laptop.

I can't do that on a macbook, if anything breaks there (screen, ssd, ram, keyboard, battery bulging...) I might as well buy another.

Then there's the issue of macos... you're stuck with it, if you don't like it, it's a dealbreaker.

There's also issue of waste... I can make a router/firewall from an old framework mobo. I can't do that with a macbook.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#48

Post by mh- »

nerdsniper wrote: post #35
SkiFire13 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see a replacement guide link on that page, but curiously there's this note: > The aluminum upper case and installation screws are not included. I would assume you likely need those too, as the article also mentions.

Wouldn’t the screws in your existing generally be reusable for this replacement?

Yes, they're not highly torqued or anything. I would reuse them even if it did include new screws.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#49

Post by crazygringo »

tim-tday wrote: post #31

I just had the most horrendous Apple repair experience. In standard warranty with Apple care. Would NOT authorize a mail in repair. Would only authorize walk in to my local shitty Apple authorized third party repair center who were unable / unwilling to reproduce. Fought with them for weeks. Escalated. They lied and said they were doing a no cost replacement. Had to fight the charge. Then they lost my return. So much…

What was the problem? If the local repair center couldn't reproduce it, what was going on?

And what do you mean they lost your return? Like it got delivered and then it was lost? Surely they gave you a working unit at that point?

I've had a bunch of experiences with Apple repair and always always been fast and great. I mean, they're definitely the best service of literally any corporation I've dealt with, by far. Sometimes you get unlucky I guess with a particular rep or something hard to reproduce, but it sounds like you got extremely unlucky? It definitely isn't representative in my experience, not even close.

Re: My MacBook keyboard is broken and it's insanely expensive to fix

#50

Post by wvenable »

MostlyStable wrote: post #42

>Here’s hoping governments regulate laptop manufacturers to actually make repairable machines in the future. No, this is a bad solution. If you want a repairable machine, buy one. They exist. Others have already mentioned Framework, but there are other options that aren't that far down the spectrum either. One of the things macbook users praise the most is "build quality", which often means the solidity of the device…

> No, this is a bad solution.

You didn't say why this is a bad solution. The government mandates that cars get safer every year and fatalities are down 78% from the 1960s. Whenever government regulates things to benefit people, people tend to benefit.

> One of the things macbook users praise the most is "build quality", which often means the solidity of the device, lack of flex, etc.

It seems like the Macbook Neo has a lot of those properties as well for a very inexpensive device that is extremely easy to repair.

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