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Comment by FabHK | Hacker News Reader

My (non-Touchbar, 13 inch) MBP loses (2.4 GHz) WiFi when you plug in a USB-C hub, or Apple dongle with hard disk (noise goes up by about 25 to 30 dB -- depending on how good the WiFi is it's barely to not usable). The left shift key is unpleasantly sticky and non-clicky.

It's by no means a bad machine (retina is nice, keyboard is generally quite nice and crisp), but I'm not elated, particularly given that it was some $500 more expensive than the MacBook Air that it replaced.

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The WiFi thing sounds like it could be a hardware fault - take it in to the genius bar and they'll fix/replace the machine. Hell, from my experience with Apple support they'd almost replace the machine just because of the shift key if you're polite enough.

When my 2011 MacBook Pro (the one with the faulty graphics card that would eventually die) was in for service, before the replacement program, they called me and said "Oh, we noticed that your trackpad button felt a little weird, so we're replacing it, free of charge". This was on top of replacing the logic board for free as well, even though at that point the replacement program hadn't been announced yet. The next time the graphics chip failed they just ended up replacing the laptop with a brand new 2015 model for free (top of the line model too, which was nice).

Thanks, will do - in particular because this time I also got Apple Care on the machine. Remaining problem is to actually get an appointment in the genius bar (I'm traveling a bit these days, and they tend to booked out here for a week in advance).

I'm really curious as to the WiFi thing - I'm definitely not the only one with the problem (see my post here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13494910 with some links), but I haven't seen it widely reported at all.

If you walk in on a weekday near the end of the day, generally you can get an appointment with a 20 - 30 minute wait time right there in the store.

I always do this because I know they will have a cancelation, and I really hate booking a week out for something that is bothering me today.

I'll try - not sure they're as flexible here in Germany. Yes, the one week+ booking thing is annoying.

That is a bummer. I'd try a heavily shielded USB C cable, but I'm not sure if they exist yet. You may have some improvement by installing a ferrite choke on the cable(s). Something like this: https://www.dataq.com/products/accessories/ferrite-choke/

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look, though at first glance I can't tell whether this is some sort of esoteric voodoo (remember the red transparent pens with which to paint patterns on a CD to get more natural music...)

I'm a bit disheartened that even the original Apple dongle effects this problem.

More details (and screenshot of the WiFi performance) here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13494910

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