Tell HN: Apple Studio Display firmware bricks itself, no fix after 1.5 months

I had a similar experience with an Apple authorized service center in Mexico; I wasn’t near an Apple Store. They couldn’t fax my laptop’s broken screen. I had another broken screen about a year later, and the Apple Store in Berlin fixed it right away. However, I think it’s misleading to say Apple Store good, Apple authorized partners bad.

When I was in Berlin, remembering my experience in Mexico, I was trying hard to get an appointment at the Apple Store & not at an authorized Apple service center. When I couldn’t find a same/next day appointment at the Apple Store in the Apple support app, I went down to the Apple Store to see if walk in repair appointments were a thing (they weren’t at that time). While learning how the repair process works, I discovered that the Apple Store (in Berlin) doesn’t do their own repairs! They, and every authorized partner, all delegate the repairs to some behind the scenes repair center that does extremely high volume for all Apple devices in the local area.

My semi-informed opinion is that you really want to find out if your local Apple service center is connected to some high volume repair hub. If they are, you can hope your device will be repaired reasonably quickly. The repair hub will likely have technicians who have seen your problem before, a lot of the parts already in stock, and a well understood process for ordering the parts they know you need. If you go with a repair shop outside that does all the work in house, I’d guess you can expect your device to get repaired or replaced eventually, but only after an unknown amount of time.

That’s an interesting insight. I had no idea they worked that way.

My local repair shop isn’t connected to any kind of hub; when we need to try new parts, we wait until it’s ready and then wait for it to come in the mail. The guy working on my display also has to wait for Apple engineers to crawl through diagnostics because he and Apple have no idea what’s wrong, and he doesn’t have access to documentation which would allow him to really dive into it. It’s an amazingly inefficient system for a company pushing towards a 3 trillion dollar market cap.

This is the second time I've heard about specifically a firmware update irreparably bricking an Apple Studio Display. A YouTuber Dankpods [1] had a very similar issue, and ended up getting a full refund from the retailer. (Apple Reseller)

He makes a pretty good point in the video: getting a replacement isn't ideal now that you know you're 1 firmware update away from a display that's only capable of displaying an error message.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UiVe0mzidw

Thank you for this! That was oddly cathartic. I’m so glad he got a refund.

Apple has told me no refund at this point; I have to wait until the panel has been replaced, which is still out of stock. The crazy part is that the current panel seems to work… It displays an image (similar to the error Dankpods was seeing). My gut feeling is that the panel won’t make a difference.

The customer service with Apple is binary, and you are more likely to get your problem resolved at "Apple" rather than an "authorized repair shop".

It seems short of getting a new screen, your solution is to buy a new one. If it's important to your work, then mark it as "cost of doing business". Apple hardware is also binary: They work reliably well (at least from a hardware perspective) but sometimes they fail completely.

I agree. I’ve had failed Apple products in the past (butterfly keyboard and AirPods Pro were especially bad), but otherwise they tend to be great. Those failures were catastrophic, though. Kind of like this display.

In both cases before I had to really work to get help. When I got it, it was excellent. Prior to that, I was treated bizarrely coldly and like an inconvenience. You really do have to push.

With that in mind I’ve tried quite a bit to get better help with the display, but for some reason it isn’t panning out. I suppose because it’s being repaired, no one at Apple thinks it’s all that urgent to deal with. Surely it’ll just get fixed soon, right? Why rush to do anything?

I don’t think anyone expected it to take this long.

The urgency is not their problem. If the screen is important to your work, you go get a new screen in 48 hours max. You then re-sell the second screen after it gets repaired and mark the difference as a cost of business.

I agree with you to a point. I did do this, but what I find particularly frustrating is that I’ve got an approximate timeline of 2 months+ on a unit I use for work. I’ve used Dell devices for work in the past and had turn arounds of under 5 business days via mail. While “spend money to continue working and mark the difference” is essentially necessary, I still find this concerning.

What if someone uses this as a screen for their kids’ homework? Do they go out and buy something else and call it a cost of raising a family? My sons do a lot of video and CAD work for school; is it just a cost of raising a family if I have to get another? At some point Apple needs to be responsible for faster turn arounds on equipment all kinds of people rely on.

IME Apple will replace an item if they can't fix it after a couple attempts. For example, they tried to fix a laptop of mine and after replacing many internal components, they just provided a replacement.

I would recommend calling AppleCare, asking to speak to a supervisor, and then explaining what's been going on. You might have to try a couple times to get to someone who is sympathetic, but that sure beats waiting for another month and a half!

Thanks, I hadn’t considered escalating it through Apple Care! I’ll try that tomorrow morning.

> Though the repair shop it's with

Which is what?

- Apple

- "Authorized" Third Party

- Third party

Highly relevant since the complaint is time on spare parts.

It's an authorized third party here in British Columbia. It's the shop Apple recommended I bring it to. Are you suggesting that if I shipped it to an Apple Store or some other first party entity, they would have the part and repair it faster?

Yes, Apple would have probably replaced it with a new one on the first visit. It sounds like the "repair shop" is milking you.

Hanlon's razor would suggest more likely its not malice, but the problem with Apples smart devices having mutual "we know the UUID of this chipset" problems and changing the bits has stopped it being prepared to run. Apple have some reset mechanism, which they are meant to share with authorised repair units, but it's costly (as I understand it) and basically they use price as a forcing function to make you go to an Apple store. Usually, this is about replacement parts for iPhones and iPads but I see no reason why a Studio Display wouldn't have the same internal logistics.

(Microsoft were doing this early in Windows 7 licence-for-this-hardware, change videocard, have to call Seattle)

or, they're incompetent. Nice, but incompetent.

There's no need for FUD here. You've clearly read that one article about (based on a tweet) like we all did. But OP said it was the third party recommended by Apple themselves. So this isn't any third party, they likely have the required tools. Meaning any failure would likely stem from incompetence.

The delays, however, are because Apple forbids third party to stock pile parts, they have to order as needed. So that's the aspect you should attack, if you really want to hate the fruit company.

You nailed it. Each time Apple recommends a new part swap, we have to wait for it to show up in the mail. Most of the wait has been this.

Regardless of how I try to look at this, the problem is ultimately Apple. They’re facilitating a repair system which can take potentially months to repair a computer monitor. That doesn’t seem okay to me.

Actually it depends on the type of third party.

Shops adhering to the Independent Repair Program can't stock parts, but Apple Authorized Service Providers can.

I’m not paying the shop anything; they’re begging me to press Apple because they want this thing out of their shop.

> Though the repair shop it's with has been diligent in swapping out components and corresponding with me

Is "the repair shop" Apple?

No, it's an authorized service provider here in British Columbia.

How do you know that the firmware is the culprit?

This was the initial problem. It wasn’t possible to restore the firmware, so components were replaced until it worked again. Initially they tried new ports, then something I’ve forgotten, and then a new logic board. Once it was possible to restore it, the panel was no longer working. This is why a new panel is being ordered.

My suspicion is that the panel was fine, but either component compatibility was upset by introducing new parts (perhaps some need to be paired at the factory? Or when the firmware is first restored?) or the panel was damaged during repairs.

It’s a total mess. I believe 5 components have been swapped so far, the panel will be 6.

I appreciate that it’s all under warranty and Apple is making an effort to repair it, but I think this thing should be repaired as a refurb, and not on my time.

Yeah for a product with this price tag I would also expect getting a replacement and having the vendor deal with fixing the broken product afterwards

Doesn't help you in this situation but when I buy something I always make sure I can afford another one 6 months later if it breaks and it's for work.

My problem isn’t with affording a replacement, but with Apple providing such terrible service. Allowing this to drag out, potentially more than 2 months, is crazy to me. They’re 1.5 months in a giving “some day” timelines. This would never be acceptable elsewhere, and it shouldn’t be here.

If you use devices that belong to big corporations then you aren't paying for service you are paying to be a servant. They have the better products because they have to treat their customers as idiots. If you accept a product that treats you like an idiot be prepared to spend like one. That's why I am.