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

tobiasberg.net

201–210 of 554 posts

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

#201
post #199

I had the same issue and now I cannot use "F" and "Right arrow". It is a smart idea to disabled the right arrow key and mapped capslock + J K L I !

fyi. The keyboard in my last MacBook Pro also failed. Apple Store charged ~$500 to fix it.

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

#202
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would actually suggest this is symptomatic of the real problem: money in politics. Elected officials (and some appointed, like SCOTUS) keep changing laws and precedents to allow more and more money in politics. They can't quit all that dark money - without a lot of funding, you don't get elected. Usually the best funded candidate wins. There was an anonymous oped from a congressman some years back which bemoaned th…

When one party will violate every norm and law to the greatest extent that they can get away with it, it's pretty much impossible to compete with them. I want good things for people. I can't compete with fascists because they will cheat and lie and employ violence. My positive intent is almost impossible to out thwart their dirty deeds if they are willing to break laws / change laws and I won't.

Assuming you're from the USA, your two main parties are exactly like that. The appearances have changed, but Obama drone-assassinating random children on the other side of the world was not much better than what Trump is doing.

Not defending Trump, to be clear, just saying US imperialism and fascism has much deeper roots and that removing Trump is not going to fix any issues the rest of the world has with the USA.

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

#203
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insurance for things you can afford to replace never makes sense anyway. The expected cost of insurance will always exceed the expected cost of replacement in the long run. Unless for some reason you know you will be breaking your device much more than the average person. Insurance is for things that are unlikely to ever happen but would financially ruin you if they did.

>Insurance for things you can afford to replace never makes sense anyway. The expected cost of insurance will always exceed the expected cost of replacement in the long run. "Peace of mind" is not free. Paying ~ten bucks a month to insure my phone and not have to worry about it getting damaged is worth it to me, even if I could afford to replace it if I broke it; because now I just _don't worry about it_.

Why would you worry about it if you can afford to replace it?

If you say you worry about the cost, shouldn't you worry even more about the higher cost of the insurance? Sure, for one item the variance is higher if you are uninsured, but if you have several such items, variance goes down, and you are saving all the more money.

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

#204
post #174
post #43

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: ht…

I wonder if anyone has hacked it (in the "Hacker News" sense of hack) so that the above keyboard can be used in an external casing, without inserting it into the Macbook body. I'd pay a lot of money for that. The Magic Keyboard is different.

i mean it's pretty nice for a laptop keyboard, but i've never thought of it as good enough to use externally tbh

or do you mean integrating it into a different laptop a la framework? that could be cool, but would also have to think how much the chassey stiffness/specific construction contributes to the feel

p.s. has anybody here tried (the external) magic trackpad? the macbook trackpad is infuriatingly good

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

#205

>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…

Decades of HN users finger wagging and suggesting FOSS hardware has progressed society nowhere. 12 months from EU mandatory replaceable batteries and products across the industry are being redesigned with repairability, usb-c, and user friendly designs. It’s time to accept regulation actually does work when you have a competent government.

> It’s time to accept regulation actually does work when you have a competent government.

Given that it's the EU making those regulations, it looks like the government only has to be semi-competent. Maybe the only requirement is that they're not totally in bed with the big corps making money.

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

#206

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

FYI, for those who are consider Framework, you are usually getting a laptop that is 2x as expensive as a Macbook but slower, with a worse screen, far worse performance and battery life, and likely not as reliable as a Mac long term. You can basically buy 2 Macbook Airs for the same price as Framework 13 and keep one in the draw if you are ever scared that one breaks. That's how bad of a deal Framework is or how much…

I've personally found the repairability to be worth the price for me. I got the baseline $999 back when it launched & have done stupid things like spilling a whole gallon of milk on it. Had to take it apart & clean as well as replace the keyboard but now it's still chugging along. Used to own a MacBook & the keyboard started dying after a year with a failed A key. Very expensive to replace so I just remapped caps lock to A. Then the screen started getting weird color issues and dead pixels. A MacBook Neo does look attractive though. Probably better performance.

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

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decades of HN users finger wagging and suggesting FOSS hardware has progressed society nowhere. 12 months from EU mandatory replaceable batteries and products across the industry are being redesigned with repairability, usb-c, and user friendly designs. It’s time to accept regulation actually does work when you have a competent government.

Gigachad writing there <3

Their point is almost the exact opposite to the one a 'gigachad' would make.

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

#208
post #203
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Insurance for things you can afford to replace never makes sense anyway. The expected cost of insurance will always exceed the expected cost of replacement in the long run. "Peace of mind" is not free. Paying ~ten bucks a month to insure my phone and not have to worry about it getting damaged is worth it to me, even if I could afford to replace it if I broke it; because now I just _don't worry about it_.

Why would you worry about it if you can afford to replace it? If you say you worry about the cost, shouldn't you worry even more about the higher cost of the insurance? Sure, for one item the variance is higher if you are uninsured, but if you have several such items, variance goes down, and you are saving all the more money.

Because even though I can afford to buy/repair a new phone if I break mine; it still _feels_ terrible to have to spend 500+ bucks because I was a dumbass.

I literally toss my phone to my couch or my bed from across the room dozens of times a week without worrying about misjudging the throw (which happens more than I’d like to admit), toss is on the ground at the gym, have no problems taking long baths with it, washing it under the sink if it gets dirty, and do dozens of things I would not do if I had to pay a full price if I ended up actually breaking it.

Having AC+, lets me treat the device with the level of carelessness that is worth the price to me.

Math-wise with how durable recent flagship devices are, you are probably correct that I’d be better off financially to just accept that I will break a phone every couple of years and just eat the cost.

But psychologically, I’m happier paying ~120bucks a year, than $500 in repair fees once in a while.

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

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way? Tahoe's UI SNAFU aside, it seems like it's basically just a more polished version of the older macOS versions from a decade ago.

In the java triggers a crash in apples IO library and they wont fix it way.

What's the crash?

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

#210
post #199

I had the same issue and now I cannot use "F" and "Right arrow". It is a smart idea to disabled the right arrow key and mapped capslock + J K L I !

> mapped capslock + J K L I

This is such a good idea that it makes other peoples machines nearly useless for you

All credit to https://tonsky.me/blog/cursor-keys/

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