13-inch MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) Battery Replacement Program
apple.com
apple.com
2nd gripe: I made the most unfortunate mistake of attempting to install Windows 10 through bootcamp. short story: windows f-d up during reboot, leaving me with a non-booting mac parition that I don't want to erase.
I thought I could repair it with Ubuntu, but...
Most aggrivatingly, there are no linux drivers for the keyboard on the MBP (due to the touch bar being a single unit with the keyboard) and you need more than one USB-C to USB converter if you want to both plug in a linux boot disk and a keyboard that actually works.
Far worse is the fact that there is no linux driver for the entire logic board (as it's a single unit with the keyboard and touch bar). No logic board means no access to the hard drive at all. So I can't fix the partition with a linux boot disk even if I do have multiple USB converters. Now both laptops are either used as bookends or to hold my coffee. So yeah, thanks Apple.
Does someone at Apple get their ass kicked up and down the hallway for this idiocy? Presumably a lot of the keyboards fail in-warranty so Apple are eating the costs.
> Does someone at Apple get their ass kicked up and down the hallway for this idiocy?
Nope, it perfectly aligns with their culture. Make it thinner, no matter what crazy things you have to.
They replaced entire top cap (aluminum case + keyboard + touchpad + batteries + touchbar). What a waste.
Even weird, the touch id failed to activate when they assembled it so they replaced the main board too (with ssd).
I have the display and bottom plate of my original mbp on this monster.
Recently, the new keyboard started having issues with enter key. Hopefully I will cause more costs to Apple replacing this.
My understanding (from a recent interaction between my MacBook, a glass of water, and the Genius Bar) is that the top case contains the battery and keyboard, and the logic board is a seperate, replaceable component.
Only if you habit of striking the keys too hard, which I used to do as well. The only real solution at the moment for the end user is to either not buy the laptop, or adapt to a less vigorous typing style. Before my purchase of the 2016 13" nTB, I went to the store several times to ensure I could maintain the same speed as I do with Cherry MX Brown and Topre switches.
That said, I'm interested to see what the ThinkPad keyboards are like, because I don't much like any other laptop keyboard (including XPS or other older Apple keyboards).
I encourage you to learn to type more smoothly and "feel" for what force is actually required to trigger the clicks. It's worthwhile reaching a point where you don't have to fight it, and it's possible to still hit 100 to 110 wpm on the Butterfly 2 mechanism if that is your Cherry MX Brown speed.
No physical damage either. The C-clamp holding them in just loosened a nanometer and it doesn't work anymore.
If I could go back five months, I'd replace my MBP with an old Air. I would've thought I had a particularly defective unit had my friend not had the same problem. His 2017 MBP collects dust while he went back to his 2015 MBP.
Easily the worst keyboard I've had on a laptop. It's pretty awful for a $3000+ CAD investment.
> The serial number you entered is not eligible under this program because either:
> • It's not in the affected serial number range.
> • Our records show that your battery has already been replaced.
> • Our records show it's no longer eligible for a free replacement under this program.
> If you have questions, please contact Apple.
If even they don't know which one of these three options apply to the serial number that I have, what hope is there to guarantee that my computer will not explode in front of my face while I am working? I bought mine during the time frame mentioned in this page, custom built (upgraded RAM and disk capacity), and never had taken it to an Apple store for repair (which means, option #2 doesn't applies). I wish there was a better way to double check if option #1 or option #3 apply to my device, other than scheduling an appointment with their "Genius Bar" which usually takes several days.
Got in touch with support and they claimed that the manufacture date was outside the applicable range (doesn't make any sense since it's custom built). Will have to escalate to someone higher up since it seems that the lower level staff aren't even aware of this program yet.
Even if you were affected, it wouldn’t explode in your face.
"poses no safety risk" is a fairly high standard when discussing incorrect battery management.
Maybe think of it in terms of aeroplane engines - do you go for the latest and greatest, or the tried and tested? How can you be sure that a replacement battery won't be worse after x weeks?
You are responding to a straw man of "I want a guarantee that my device will never fail"
If that’s not enough, you could try Apple support. They have many options short of Genius bar. Email, chat, phone, and the Support app. Maybe one of those will help.
These days I'd be looking into DIY mods, so many people are into hacking I'm sure it's possible to swap these.
Consider another angle to this: look at all the cheap poor-quality keyboards that get bundled with business desktop computers these days. Comparatively speaking, nobody cares.
Outside of technology, my main hobby is cycling. The number of times where I've seen "experienced" cyclists or would-be experienced riders not care about having the right specific gear for the task (n.b., not necessarily expensive), or not using it in the most ideal way is remarkable.
The Surface Pro is also beset with a host of other glitches that simply should not be present on a laptop costing north of £2k so I would strongly recommend you look to spend your money elsewhere. (Sadly, I'm not too sure where - I find the PC laptop market somewhat hard to navigate, but I'm going to have to learn when it comes time to replace my 2015 MBP, unless Apple make some major improvements in the next release or two.)
Macs have shitty support for these mice.
I’m so glad that I’m not locked into any hardware, except of course when I want to compile an app for iOS.
My issue with the Surface Pro specifically is that it's competing in the, well, I won't say high end (because that implies something about hardware specs that may not be true), but certainly the expensive [1] laptop market, yet is plagued with annoyances, some of which are quite severe: bad touchpad, sketchy WiFi, indifferent (at best) battery life, and rapid battery drainage during sleep, to name but a few.
[1] I won't say premium either because, given the issues, it's premium only in the sense that you pay one.
On Linux, with modern GTK apps, scrolling up and down has become pretty nice. Scrolling in other directions is still not certain and zooming is out of the question, though.
For me the most important is the basic function of putting the cursor where I want it. It's hard to explain, but on other laptops I always struggle with it either being to slow or to fast, general responsiveness or just the miniature size. Apple touchpads for me are a "it just works™". I barely use multigesture, but they work as expected as well. Also for me the force touchpads are blissful, you can just 'click' by pressing anywhere and you get haptic feedback indistinguishable from a hardware click (I loathe tap-click touchpads btw, they always click when I don't want to).
"Your 13-inch MacBook Pro will be examined prior to any service to verify that it is eligible for this program and in working order. Service may take 3-5 days."
So I might go through that and still not get a new battery? Feh!
That sounds so wonderfully sarcastic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/11...
Yes, they require working computer to be eligible for their "programs" (euphemism for recall). Imagine some peoples surprise when they couldnt get <=2011 laptops(bad GPU) serviced because hey already couldnt boot = Apple diagnostic thingamajig not reading codes = not eligible.
People say that it might be due to a swollen battery. Either way, Apple wants >$400 to replace.
2015 MBP
you should stop using it as soon as you can, it's a fire hazard