Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Portables (Apple) Apple Your Rights Online

Apple Expands Self-Repair Support To MacBooks (reuters.com) 31

Apple said on Monday it would offer customers tools and know-how to repair and service their MacBook laptops at home, months after launching the service for iPhones. From a report: Apple said genuine parts and service tools will be available starting Aug. 23. Customers can buy the repair kits or rent it for one-time use for $49. Self repairs are possible only on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with the M1 chips. In April, Apple launched self-repair services for select iPhones models in the United States, with plans to expand the service to Europe this year.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Apple Expands Self-Repair Support To MacBooks

Comments Filter:
  • If past experience of people evaluating the iPhone repair kits is any indicators, this $49 rental kit is going to be absolutely aweful, causing hours-long hair pulling, until you to flip the table and scream "fuck it, I am buying a new mac book".

    Also, probably, the only level of repair allowed is going to be "let's swap the whole motherboard".
    But if somebody like Louis Rossmann tries to get a component to solder, the shipment will be blocked at the customs for "copyright infringement" (because it turns out

    • by njvack ( 646524 )

      The complete list of repairs according to Six Colors [sixcolors.com]:

      • Antenna Module (MBA only)
      • Audio Board
      • Audio Board Flex Cable (MBA only)
      • Battery (MBA only)
      • Battery Management Unit (BMU) Flex Cable
      • Bottom Case
      • Display
      • Display Hinge Covers
      • Embedded DisplayPort Flex Cable with Connector Cowling (MBA and 13 MBP only)
      • Fan(s) (MBP only)
      • I/O Board (MBA and 13 MBP only)
      • Keycap Replacement
      • Lid Angle Sensor (LAS) Module (14 and 16 MBP only)
      • Logic Board
      • MagSafe 3 Board (14 and 16 MBP only)
      • Speakers (MBA and 13 MBP only)
      • Top Case (MBA only)
      • Top Ca
    • If past experience of people evaluating the iPhone repair kits is any indicators, this $49 rental kit is going to be absolutely aweful, causing hours-long hair pulling, until you to flip the table and scream "fuck it, I am buying a new mac book".

      You're literally only able to repair new mac books with this stuff, so the only thing you could replace the machine you can't repair with from apple would be another machine you won't be able to repair when it breaks. Maybe it would be smarter to say fuck it, I'm not buying any more of Apple's shit.

      • And who is building your custom Dell parts do you think, either Dell or some cheap knockoff Chinese company stealing rejected parts? When push comes to shove, Louis Rossman will not do board repairs in his shop, nobody does, the cost of an hour of engineering time to do board level repairs is more than the cost of a new board.

        • And who is building your custom Dell parts do you think

          Who cares? Since there's no DRM baked into them, they're easy to knock off.

          When push comes to shove, Louis Rossman will not do board repairs in his shop

          You don't have to do board repairs as often on other makes, because not as much hardware is soldered to the board. When push comes to shove, you can shove that Apple hardware up your ass and whistle.

      • so the only thing you could replace the machine you can't repair with from apple would be another machine you won't be able to repair when it breaks.

        ...but I suspect this irony is lost on the largest part of typical Apple consumers.

        Maybe it would be smarter to say fuck it, I'm not buying any more of Apple's shit.

        That what you and I would do. Saddly not the vast majority of consumers that the big companie have been slowly training to get used to "when expensive toy breaks, throw it away and fork out large wads of cash to buy again a new expensive toy".

  • When Apple announced they were bringing out a new architecture, everyone who had the old stuff and expected to resell it to defray the costs of their next mac should have done so immediately because we all remember what happened to PPC mac values when x86 macs came out, and why. For all that Apple does better than Microsoft, supporting their old hardware is not one of those things.

    There's no good reason for Apple to support convenient repairs of their pre-M1 hardware, as they want you to buy new hardware AS

    • In general, it's been intensely frustrating which devices have benefited from the right to repair laws. Because it's not just Apple --- Samsung also isn't supporting even three years of phones back (the S10 series is absent). And which are the phones most likely to need repairs so they don't need to be replaced? That's right, the ones these companies are specifically excluding.

    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      it's also a matter of doing it as part of the product cycle.

      The ones they're doing it fore are at the beginning, and it was probably contemplated during development, whereas the older models would need a "retrofit" program, and don't have as much time left as the newer models.

      • That's bullshit. Stop making excuses for Apple. They have repair parts for those older models, they just won't sell them to you. You're making excuses for abusive behavior, you're enabling abuse. Stop enabling abuse, especially by a corporation which not only doesn't love you, but isn't even capable of love.

  • by Laxator2 ( 973549 ) on Monday August 22, 2022 @11:15AM (#62811133)

    A good 'ol x86 laptop with Linux on it offers much better value at a fraction of the price.

    • sure, if you like spending much of your time trying to figure out why the hardware isn't working correctly, instead of using the computer, switch to linux!
      • I already switched to Linux, back in 1998 to be precise. After 2004 (the much-derided "Year of the Linux desktop") I did not run into any hardware that was not working in Linux.

        I recently bought an HP Pavilion laptop for about 500 quid and installed Linux on it without any problems. I would like to see you getting the same level of functionality from a MacBook of the same price.

        • by kick6 ( 1081615 )

          I would like to see you getting the same level of functionality from a MacBook of the same price.

          The fact that you find a $500 laptop acceptable for your level of "functionality" means you haven't considered many workloads at all. I'm not apple fanboi, but I do use an M1 air for my mobile DJ'ing biz because mixxx just isn't going to cut it.

  • I've been repairing MacBooks for quite some time now. Now it's just not frowned upon by Apple. Nothing's changed except Apple's now officially offering parts, instead of you spending less on a third party part that's just as good.
    • How difficult is it to replace a butterfly keyboard?
      • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
        Are you covered under this class action? https://www.reuters.com/legal/... [reuters.com]
        • No I'm Canadian.
        • Are you covered under this class action?

          Translation: Did you sign up to get a check 5 years from now that might cover the cost of gas to go cash it?

          Unless you're one of the lawyers who initiated the class action, your sentence isn't even worth the bits it cost to transmit it across the intertubes for everyone else involved.

          And "covered" would imply you're protected somehow. That hasn't been the case in decades with class-action. Shit, I'd call for a class-action suit against the definition of class-action suits, if it was even remotely worth it

          • by EvilSS ( 557649 )

            Lawyers for the customers expect maximum payouts of $395 to people who replaced multiple keyboards, $125 to people who replaced one keyboard, and $50 to people who replaced key caps.

            And "covered" would imply you're protected somehow.

            No, not really. Just in your head maybe.

  • For all the whining out there...

    Apple is offering the exact same parts, documentation and tools their engineers specced into the design process for repairs, to do service to the same standard as an authorized repair would be done. This should help ensure the same kind of long-term reliability Apple customers have come to expect from their products, which has not been the case when I have personally had third-party part repairs done to reduce costs on out-of-warranty devices over the years.

    Every time I'v
    • I had an apple dealer replace my butterfly keyboard that only lasted a year, with another butterfly keyboard that lasted a year and a couple months.
      • by EvilSS ( 557649 )

        ...with another butterfly keyboard that lasted a year and a couple months.

        So was it a faulty repair then, or was it just that the butterfly keyboard design sucked?

        • It's the latter. Apple knew it was garbage but took years to fix it, and the replacements are only incrementally better... not actually good.

          • It's the latter. Apple knew it was garbage but took years to fix it, and the replacements are only incrementally better... not actually good.

            They last just long enough to be covered under a very consistent and predictable warranty period.

            I heard they hired dozens of BMW engineers to perfect this technique.

            • Right. Hire a car engineer to make a keyboard. Also they perfected it so much, they got rid of it. Your words are funny to me, thanks.
              • Humor seems to have been the goal there. Anyway, Apple had to revise the butterfly keyboard in order to service the old models that they were obligated to service under warranty and so on, if they didn't want to keep getting them back again and again, or replace them with a whole other computer without the flaw at their cost.

    • Every time I've had a repair done with a non-authorized part, it's been a joke. iPad screens that develop dead-touch zones or color-drift most notably, or premature-death batteries across devices. With Genuine Apple repairs I've never had anything like that.

      That's why I only use parts from iFixit. If they don't have it, I turn away the customer.

  • by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Monday August 22, 2022 @01:47PM (#62811785)

    I have 3 problems with what apple are doing here.
    The first is that it doesn't include every part that an official Apple service centre would have access to (either in terms of the range of devices supported or the parts available for the devices they do support).

    The second is (last time I looked anyway) Apple pairs parts to devices (for no other reason than to make repairing harder) and will only sell you parts for the device you have in hand with the specific serial number you are providing to Apple rather than allowing repairers to buy and hold parts inventory.

    And the third is that they aren't even considering rolling this out in many parts of the world (Australia for example).

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I have 3 problems with what apple are doing here.
      The first is that it doesn't include every part that an official Apple service centre would have access to (either in terms of the range of devices supported or the parts available for the devices they do support).

      The second is (last time I looked anyway) Apple pairs parts to devices (for no other reason than to make repairing harder) and will only sell you parts for the device you have in hand with the specific serial number you are providing to Apple rather

      • by hawk ( 1151 )

        >Or who see dishwashing a keyboard to clean it and
        >then stick their laptop in the dishwasher.

        I'm trying to remember just how much of that PowerPC Mac I *did* put int he dishwasher.

        A friend was done with it, and sent it to me for the kids for shipping costs.

        And she had *just* quit chain-smoking.

        I made my oldest help me clean it. (no, I didn't really have any use for the help).

        I can guarantee you that she never touched a cigarette.

        We disassembled it as far as absolutely possible, and I think even the p

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

Working...