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MacBook Pro Stage Light Fault: Apple's Design Turns $6 Fix Into a $600 Nightmare (9to5mac.com)

Posted by msmash on from the show-me-the-money dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Some MacBook Pro owners have complained of a 'stage light' effect, where they see uneven backlighting at the bottom of the display. For some, the symptom is only the first stage, with the backlight failing altogether. iFixit says that it has identified the cause -- and the way in which Apple changed the design of the Touch Bar generation for the MacBook Pro turns what would otherwise be a $6 fix into a $600 nightmare. The problem, says the company, is caused by Apple using much thinner ribbon cables instead of the thicker wires used in previous generation MacBook Pro models.

4 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Typical Apple misdesign... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Informative

    Typical Apple misdesign, or rather malicious design to prevent repair. This isn't new, though. Remember the old iBooks that were literally built around a 2.5" spinny hard drive? Or the newer iMacs where a fragile glass screen is GLUED over all of the replaceable parts. What about the last-generation Time Capsule, where replacing the hard drive would be child's play, except for a short cable routed below the drive with fragile connectors buried deep in the unit which are almost impossible to unplug without damage. If the cable were a few inches longer, it would be easy to replace the drive.

    Apple are masters of malicious design to prevent repair and reuse. They pretend to be an environmentally responsible company, but they're really shits in this respect, since the best form of recycling is long-term use.

    1. Re:Typical Apple misdesign... by citylivin · · Score: 4, Informative

      "malicious design to prevent repair" is a quite deliberate exaggeration

      Please. The old imac screens were magnet'ed on. A simple suction cup and the glass is removed.

      The parent is right, all new screens since around 2013 have been glued on. Why would they do this if not to prevent people upgrading their hardware or changing components?

      Sure you can hopefully slice the screen off without damaging it, then buy a $15 kit of adhesive strips to reattach. And then you can pray you didnt fuck anything up, or have a spec of dust between the glass and the screen, causing you to disassemble once more.

      I haven't personally had to do it yet (luckily professionally, most people dont use macs), but it seems like a nightmare. Especially if you compare it to the process that came before it.

      --
      As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
  2. Re:Entire display unit by Zorro · · Score: 4, Informative

    China no longer accepts recycled electronics. It just gets dumped in Africa now.

  3. Re:A $600 Nightmare maybe, but only for Apple by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1, Informative

    Because having to hand over your laptop to a "Genius Bar" for a week while they "wait for parts" is such a great option. And of course, you can't remove the SSD or HDD before doing so, because the fucking thing is part of the system board, so they may have access to your persona data. Nah, fuck Crapple and the whores they rode in on.