Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IFixit: Self Repair Program makes M1 MacBooks less repairable

9to5mac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 140 posts

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

#61

Post by kube-system »

josephcsible wrote: post #44
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?

> leaving it where it is won’t cause any harm But that's apparently not the case here: > If you can’t retrieve the rest of the strip, replace the top case

Their lawyers probably didn't like:

> If you can’t retrieve the rest of the strip, forcefully remove the battery by jamming a pry tool under it.

This is what other people do when those strips break. This is a service manual, not a binding contract. You can choose to service your device differently if you feel inclined to do so.

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

#62

Post by dkonofalski »

falcolas wrote: post #31
tarentel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely agree with you there. But the headline says it makes it "less repairable." If your car manufacturers changes all the bolts on your tires to use specialized tools and require you to read a book to understand it that makes your car less repairable. If they provide those tools and manual that doesn't make your car less repairable than it already was. My point is the title of this makes no sense.

Titles rarely do. And sadly, if you want to thrive by producing content, you need to juice up the title a little. Yeah, I hate it too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng But on topic, Apple's official stance, as provided by this repair manual, is that replacing a battery requires you to replace vast portions of the final product. Car analogy time: Got bad seals on your block? Send us the engine; who knows wh…

The article and manual everyone is talking about explicitly say that the top case situation is temporary and that Apple will offer battery-only parts in the future. Stop making mountains out of molehills. They're attempting to cover as many repairs with the same parts as possible. This is a supply chain issue not an intentional requirement to force people to replace parts that don't need replacement.

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

#63

Post by dkonofalski »

TehCorwiz wrote: post #20
tempnow987 wrote: post #13

What a stupid take as is increasingly the case with ifixit. How does adding manuals and parts make something LESS repairable? At worst you are no better off than you started. And for all the crap apple gets for things like their batteries, I used to do fleet battery stuff on dell machines using a third party providers and the rate at which these machines BURNED through batteries was insane. THis was a while back, and…

If you read the article you'd see that Apple will not sell you a battery. They will ONLY sell you a "Top case with battery and keyboard" which requires removing every single part of the laptop in order to replace. This is more invasive, more expensive, and less approachable from a repair standpoint if you go with their process.

>If you read the article you'd see that Apple will not sell you a battery.

YET. The manual and the article itself acknowledge that this repair is only possible with a top case replacement and that battery-only parts will be available soon.

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

#64

Post by smoldesu »

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.

What's your source for Apple planning to provide individual batteries?

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

#65

Post by wlesieutre »

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.

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 that whole keyboard warranty extension fiasco would encourage Apple to stop gluing everything together so much and design for individual components to be replaced again, but I guess not.

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

#66

Post by smoldesu »

kube-system wrote: post #49
josephcsible wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a car service manual said "replace the engine" (along with detailed instructions on how to do so) when a spark plug went bad, would you consider that acceptable just because the manual were released?

There are many service manuals for cars that recommend procedures that independent auto shops and shade-tree mechanics do not follow. Get a short in a wiring harness? The service manual for your car will almost certainly recommend replacing the entire harness which is a very labor intensive and expensive procedure. Will mechanics do this? Depends on which shop you're at and who is paying. If there are multiple ways t…

Well, part of me wishes this particular "car" wasn't separated into two replaceable pieces. A fender-bender or bad battery shouldn't warrant replacing half of my car! Not only is it ridiculously expensive, but it's insanely wasteful if the half it's replacing isn't being salvaged for components.

Apple has the resources to fix this. They choose to actively neglect it, since they have a very successful side-business dedicated to replacing your iDevices at-cost.

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

#67

Post by jks »

reaperducer wrote: post #55
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…

It seems highly likely to me that anyone claiming this document is intimidating either has not read it or is lying for some reason. I used to be a fan of iFixIt, and have even bought one of its larger tool kits, but have lost respect for it in the last few years. In part, because any time Apple does anything , iFixIt is there with a snarky criticism. Like it just really really really needs the clicks. I don't mind pe…

I've changed parts on several Apple laptops and one Mac Mini using iFixit manuals. In every case, it was really useful to read all the comments left by readers. Sometimes the comments tell you that you can skip several steps, in some cases they point out when you need to be extra careful or when the iFixit photos were misleading.

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

#68

Post by dillutedfixer »

memco wrote: post #15
dillutedfixer wrote: post #6

I've had my 16" MBP since early April and I only have 30 cycles on the battery. At my usage rate, I charge this thing about once or twice a week on average. At this rate, the battery is going to last longer than any laptop battery I've ever owned. And then when it finally degrades to the point that I need to replace it, I would happily pay $199 to Apple for a new one rather than save a few dollars and do it myself. P…

I have a disassembled laptop in my garage after a failed attempt to replace the battery on my 8 year old MacBook. Apple no longer offers repairs nor is there anyone else in the area I could find to do it. I replaced my wife’s (10 year old) battery a few months prior to attempting mine: hers required a few screws and was done in about 5 minutes. Mine required disassembling the whole computer dissolving the adhesive on…

Good advice, thanks. I've replaced the battery on my wifes 2013 MBA and it was incredibly easy.

My MBP is maxed out and was quite an investment so I want to keep it around for as long as possible. I'll probably just be safe and have Apple replace the battery around 5 years assuming it stays usable for that long.

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

#69

Post by oefrha »

mminer237 wrote: post #53
oefrha wrote: post #21

> Our 14″ MacBook Pro battery replacement guide is 26 steps. That might not seem like a very speedy guide, but the Surface Pro 6 is twice that long, and iPad guides can be upwards of a hundred steps. In the scheme of things, 26 steps is pretty good. Imagine our surprise when we found that Apple’s official MacBook Pro battery replacement method clocks in at 162 pages. 162 pages is the entire damn manual[1], not just b…

You'll note that at the beginning of the three-page battery section, it says that you must have already removed every other part from the other 159 pages. The battery section is basically just "whatever's left doesn't come apart, so replace all that for a new battery". I think saying it takes a 162-page manual is fair.

If you follow everything religiously you start at p.47. You definitely don’t need the 25 pages for replacing keys. And all those pages include reassembly, which is missing from the 26-step iFixit guide, which stops at “remove the battery”.

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

#70

Post by lisper »

josephcsible wrote: post #57
lisper wrote: post #14

This is a clickjack link. The original is here: https://www.ifixit.com/News/64072/apples-self-repair-program...

How is this link clickjacking?

Clickjack may have been the wrong word to use. I was referring to this from the HN guidelines [1]:

"Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter."

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Post reply on HN