#fix touchbar

[123myit]

Fix MacBook Touch Bar

This video will show you how to Fix touch bar issues on a MacBook Pro. This is helpful if the touch bar is unresponsive or failing to start. Command: sudo pkill TouchBarServer Step 1 First step is the most basic and it’s a Restart of your Mac. Go to Apple Menu, Restart take the tick out of Reopen windows when logging back in. And click Restart. It sounds easy but a restart can sort out most…

[amememightywarrior]

The Case of the Strobing Touch Bar

So my macbook pro has had this really obnoxious issue with the touch bar (their horrible innovation that they really need to ditch, or at least quality test for) flickering angrily at me like a goddamn strobe light when I open it, and it has basically been the bane of my life for months.

I finally got mad enough this morning to look up youtube videos to see if there were any DIY fixes, and evidently I have to go into Apple and like...get a ton of bits replaced. Of course I'm out of warranty period >:( but on a completely random youtube short I found this comment:

[youtube user SteveKarrasch states 'same issue. Has to do with the auto dim sensor, but can't disable it. Flashing stops when in bright light.']

Makes sense. I'd noticed when I let the touchbar go to sleep, usually when it wakes up again it quits flashing. Not so this morning, of course. But after reading this, I turned on my bedside lamp and put my laptop next to it and bam, flashing stops.

What in the actual hell, Apple. Steve Jobs is probably spinning in his grave. But anyway, I figured I'd post about this in case anyone else is having the same issue.

[applefixnz-blog]

Macbook Pro a1706 keyboard replacement | 2016 2019 Touchbar | Complete Tutorial DIY | AppleFix NZ

Macbook pro keyboard replacement in Hamilton New Zealand. AppleFix 125 ward street Hamilton NZ Call 078394111

macbook keyboard repair in hamilton new zealand

We specialize in logic board and liquid damage repair and can fix your Laptop, MacBook, mobile phone , ipad, iphone , tablet , playstation, xbox or any other elec tronic gadget that has been deemed unfixable by another repair shop.

*Have a repair shop and are looking to outsource logic board repairs? We offer discounted repairs to other repair shops, schools, large organizations and government agencies. — https://applefix.co.nz/contact/

logicboard repair course in New Zealand

Skill development Job Oriented short Training course. In Latest Gadgets, Smart Mobile Phones, Tablets, Laptops, Desktops, gaming gadget, Playstation, Xbox Repair Technology.

This course is aimed / focused, to teach you to fix most common repairs an electronics repair shop could face in a practical working environment.  Start your own business or increase your chances to get job quickly.  https://applefix.co.nz/logicboard-repair-course/

 Mail in device info read here https://applefix.co.nz/send-your-device/

[woman-child91]

Whew! Thank God! Literally. I prayed and made promises that I intend to keep/go through. Now, my MacBook Pro works again. So, I’ve fixed a 2010 iMac and a 2018 MacBook Pro Touchbar.

[queenlua]

amazing how Apple’s new Macbook press release literally does not contain the word “keyboard” even though that’s literally the only thing anyone i know gives a shit about at this point

[scifiphan]

heLLO what's ur opinion on the touch bar on new MacBook worth it or nah BC I'm looking for a new laptop thank u! Also how do the new macbooks play games in ur opinion (like stardew valley and sims) ok THANK U 💕💕💕💕

i don’t have the touchbar bc fUCK paying an extra 1k for it (ik the touchbar mbp’s have slightly better specs but like,,,,,, my mac runs amazing)

i compared my mac to my friends mac (i have the new mbp and he has the touch bar version) and like,,,, the differences aren’t that major unless u are a video editor or do anything creative. there is like a 0.02 second delay in my processing speed (tested by opening search at the same time) and like,,, again,,,, unless ur using ur mac for professional creative purposes or have a shitload of money,,,, the new macbook pro without the touchbar is fine. 

my baby opens photoshop in 5 seconds and can multitask rly well. i’ve only had lag while using chrome occasionally bc chrome can get dodgy on apple rip. as for games, it runs stardew valley amazingly!!!! like you can easilly add mods and there is no lag ever and my mac rarely turns on the fan. as for sims, i haven’t played it in ages bc i’ve had other obsessions but from memory, it runs it okay! not as good as a gaming pc (ofc) but if u dont crank up the graphics all the way it doesnt lag which is good

soz this is long and rambly,,,,, it’s 4am and i am too hyped on caffeine hrfdjsksk

[missanthropicprinciple]

Ugh technology

I have two computers. One MacBook Pro from 2009 is in excellent condition but it’s a little slow and the video card is shot. I would fix it myself but I’m worried about trying to repair it myself or how much it would cost to have someone else replace it. I have to back up all my files on that. And then I have my current computer is another 15inch MacBook Pro from about 2015? I’ve noticed that the lid won’t completely close which I assume is the battery being swollen. It will cost $150-200 to replace. It’s also infected with malware which I’ve had trouble removing lately. I would love to get a new computer but the new MacBook Pro is absolutely not what I want. They’re now 16 inch, have that stupid touchbar, don’t even have USB ports anymore? and cost like $2000+. I’m honestly thinking of getting a non Mac. My only concerns are how do non Macs sync up with iTunes or my iPhone and how I’m going to text from my computer. All helpful comments encouraged.

[tezla7]

Apple release new laptops and the internet goes wild because they “brought the ports back”.  Err... they brought two ports back.  At the top is my Apple laptop from 2014 that I use daily.  6 different connection types- the headphone jack also has integrated SPDIF.  Oh and it’s got the old keyboard, before it became the new old keyboard.  The keyboard that’s good to type on, before Apple broke it with a new design, then brought back the old design and called it new.  Noticing a familiar pattern?  If it ain’t broke, break it.  Take away what is good.  People complain.  Give some of it back, people go bananas.  Then people like me complain that people are going bananas.  

So yes, I’ve been waiting years and avoided buying another machine until Apple put magsafe back on the laptop, put ports back on the laptop and got rid of the touchbar.  In 2021 they’ve done all that and yes that’s good.  Good like a victory from a pointless battle- great.  Now let’s move on, back from where we started.  But wait, just to make sure there’s some built-in obsolescence, some half-baked idea to be fixed next year- Apple put a massive notch in the display of the new laptops.  A huge design sacrifice for...... a crap webcam.  Permanently disabling the form of a beautiful new LED screen at all times for....... a crap webcam.

All in all, the new Apple silicon is very exciting and a genuine step change in computer hardware.  It’s powerful, efficient and only getting started.  Apple has always been limited by hardware and now they are making their own, it’s a step forwards.  Nevertheless, despite the fact things are heading in a better direction, Apple are increasingly greedy and ruthlessly mercenary when it comes to ripping off their customers.  When they do engineer improvements, it usually comes at huge cost to the consumer.  For example- it’s great magsafe is back, it’s even better the magsafe cable is detachable from the power brick because my old magsafe cable broke at the end of the connector and I needed to buy a whole new charger brick which cost me £79.

What happens if you need a new magsafe 3 cable?  £49.

What happens if you need a new charging brick?  £79.  What happens if you lose them both?  £79+£49= £128.

£128 for a new magsafe charger cable and power brick.  £228 for a keyboard and a mouse.  In 2021 the “Apple tax” is feeling more like a “slap in the face” and speaking of taxes...

https://itep.org/fact-sheet-apple-and-tax-avoidance/

https://inews.co.uk/news/apple-makes-1-4bn-but-avoids-almost-all-tax-on-uk-sales-505348

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53416206

[claavis]

https://claavis.com/macbook-pro-2020-touchbar-i5-16g-2t/

MACBOOK PRO 2020 TOUCHBAR I5 16G 2T Nouvelle génération…. MACBOOK PRO 2020 I5 16G 2T SSD 13 POUCE RETINA 3K I5 2.0GHZ TOUCH Processeur Intel Core i5 quadricœur de 10e génération à 2,0 GHz, Turbo Boost jusqu’à 3,8 GHz Écran Retina 13 pouces avec True Tone Touch Bar et Touch ID Graphiques Intel Iris Plus 16 Go de mémoire LPDDR4X à 3733 MHz Stockage SSD de 2000 Go Quatre ports Thunderbolt 3 Clavier magique rétroéclairé – Anglais américain Possibilité facturation avec garantie livraison à domicile 48….. /// GARANTIE 12 MOIS INTERNATIONAL CHEZ APPLE N’accepte pas l’échange Prix : 420000 DA Fixe

[ivanca]

15 flaws of the Macbook pro (and MacOS)

For clarity sake this article refers to the MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019) with MacOs Mojave (10.14.6), without further ado lets start:

❌Overheating: The part over the touchbar gets hot... extremely hot, as in I can’t put my finger there for more than 10 seconds when it gets really hot and sometimes it even smells like burning, specially when charging but for 9-to-5 work I need it plugged in at all times; one time in particular it got so hot mouse and keyboard stopped working so I had to turn off the laptop; sometimes the keyboard itself gets really hot, I wonder who told Apple keys are supposed to be heat condensers.

❌Sometimes the cursor freezes every 4 seconds when a turned-off external screen is connected... no, I’m not joking: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/290528/352569

❌On finder “Edit > Copy” allows the user to copy files but “Edit > Cut“ is always grayed-out for files, turns out the later one is only referring to text-selection cuts and not any other form of “cut”, but there is not clue about such behavior, I only discovered this fact after googling why “Edit > Cut“ is always grayed-out and found this answer: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/12392/352569, I know you can Opt+Cmd+V but thats not the point, which is extremely poor UI/UX.

❌When searching files Finder does not have a column for the location of the files, meaning you only see their names and hope you are guessing right where they might be, that also means you cannot order by file location because a column that doesn’t exist can’t be clicked, superb engineering if you ask me: https://superuser.com/a/335118/95971

❌Lack of normal USB ports and ethernet port; due this all the 100+ MacBooks at my company have at all times an USB-C-to-normal-USB adapters in order to user regular keyboards, mouses, fans and ethernet connections. 

❌Fn key is on the bottom corner of the laptop, one of the less-used keys is taking space from a bunch of keys that are used like 99% more than that one such as “control” , “option” and “command”; it is without doubt poor engineering; maybe it should be to the right of the esc key on the touch bar instead.

❌Lack of window-preview when using command+tab, you just see the icons like is 1999

❌Command+tab goes through apps not windows, for Windows you have to use a different command, command+º, but that one doesn’t show icons like command+tab does so you have to go through all of your open Windows of the current app to find the one you want; for this matter I use a third-party software called witch but unfortunately is full of unsolvable bugs (apple is to blame according to its author).

❌External non-Apple mouses can have unexpected scrolling behavior because it wrongly assumes is a touch-based mouse, fortunately someone created a fix for it https://github.com/emreyolcu/discrete-scroll ❌It cannot be changed where notifications appear on the screen, they always appear in the top right which pretty inconveniently hide my Chrome tabs I’m using in the corner of the screen.

❌Keyboard sucks in all possible ways, e.g. the keys are too small, about this issue has already been written extensively including the famous Taike Waititi rant at Oscars ❌The price, for less than the $2.200 USD it costs right now you can get a much better alternative (1, 2, 3, et al)

❌The lack of physical FN keys and having a “touchbar” instead, it’s so useless, only newbies look at their keyboard when typing.

❌The toolbar of an app is only shown when that app is focused, meaning that if you are working on two windows at the same time you can only access the toolbar of the unfocused windows by first focusing it, requiring one more click than the same interaction on any other OS.

❌On activity monitor you can select multiple processes with shift or cmd but the “Exit process” button becomes disabled, meaning you can’t force quit more than one program at once.

If you are wondering why I use a Macbook Pro is because I’m forced to by my workplace, still I didn’t expected it to be so mediocre on nearly all aspects, in its defense the retina screen does look very pretty.

[dailytechnologynews]

MacBook Pro Keyboard Failures: Why Apples dust excuse is bullshit! [Teardown + Explanations]

Original source: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bjtyaw/macbook_pro_keyboard_failures_why_apples_dust/

Today we will be tearing down a MacBook Pro keyboard to try and figure out some possible causes for all the failures that these keyboards get. Settle down, because this will be a bit of a long post. Hopefully you'll at least learn something from this.

My Background:

I've worked as an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) Technician for the last 3 years.

Before that, I use to work as a 3rd party Technician at an Apple-focused repair shop.

Because of this experience, I stand in an interesting position where I use to see all the shit Apple pulls in order to make 3rd party and DIY repair difficult, and now I sit in a position where I can see exactly how Apple deals with these issues and get a more-representative ideas of how the machine fails, how many fail, and exactly what the most common failures are. 

History: 

Apple originally released the Butterfly-style keyboard back in 2015 with the release of the 12" Macbook. Afterwards in 2016, this keyboard design was expanded to all Macbook Pros. The butterfly keyboard is different from a conventional rubber-dome keyboard that was used for 20+ years before that. It uses a metal dome that buckles under enough stress and makes contact between 2 metal terminals, and the keycap itself is held up with a butterfly-style henge rather than a traditional scissor hinge. Both are pictured further down.

This entire experiment began with a thought: How could something as simple as dust kill the keyboard switch?

My old 3rd party tech instincts say that this should not be possible, since there are billions of smartphones that use metal-dome style buttons that do not experience failures like this.

Apples official stance is that dust manages to somehow enter the keyboard and cause the issues. This can cause things like: 

Keyboard keys feel sticky, crunchy, or are physically jammed.

Keyboard does not input even though you pressed the key.

Keyboard inputs the same character 2+ times even though you only pressed the button once. https://www.apple.com/support/keyboard-service-program-for-macbook-and-macbook-pro/

Their official documentation also states that you can "fix" the issue by using compressed air to blow out the keys. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT205662

When it comes to failures, there's 3 schools of thought about how the switches fail:

"Dust" Theory. This generally takes apples words at face value and don't go deep into it.

"Heat" Theory. This assumes that Dust Theory is bullshit and assumes that overheating causes the material to expand and warp enough to render the buttons inoperable (2018 TouchBar models in particular).

"Shit Design" Theory. This assumes and accepts that it's just awful design.   

You may have also seen articles like https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/macbook-pro-keyboard-failure-rate-double-older-models/ that say that keyboard failure is in the low 10% range, but these should not be accepted at all since they do not take into account a number of things that critically invalidate these statistics as a whole:

They come directly from apple, which is a huge conflict of interest considering they have to sell these machines to make money.

They do not take into account the number of repairs that were turned down due to the cost of the repair itself, which is around 500USD before the keyboard replacement program came into effect.

They do not take into account the number of people that don't want to go to apple or cannot go to apple due to time constraints, especially since most countries do not offer over-the-phone mail-in repairs on Macs.

They do not take into account the number of people who just avoid apple stores and AASP in general and instead go to local 3rd party repair stores.

The keyboard program was introduced June 22, 2018, meaning that anyone before that date who does not have warranty was forced to pay 500USD for the replacement part, and most likely falls into the above. Notice how conveniently these statistics don't include numbers for 2018?

From my experience as an Apple Technician, here are the most commonly reported problems at my store, in order of most to least common:

No-input, particularly from all vowel keys, most commonly used consonants, spacebar, enter, and shift.

Multi-input, particularly from all vowel keys, most commonly used consonants, spacebar, enter, and shift.

Sticky/Crunchy/Stuck keys.

As for demographic, the most common folks we see with these issues are:

Writers or any kind (blog, scripts, office workers, etc).

Students of all kinds.

Programmers. 

With that said, here are a few things that were floating around in my head:

The first red flag about the dust hypothesis should be the failure types. Only 1/3 are related to physical objects actually preventing the keys from working. The other 2/3 are related to electricity, specifically whether the circuit in the switch itself is "closed" or "open". Open circuit means that the positive and negative terminals are not connected, which is the equivalent of a keyboard button that is not pressed. Closed circuit is the opposite. 

Second red flag is that human dust and household dust is classified as non-conductive. By itself, it does not have enough conductivity to meaningfully carry electricity, so the multi-input style failure should not be possible at all. The No-input failure can somewhat be explained with dust, since it can at as an insulator between 2 metal terminals, but keep reading and you'll see why this isn't the case. 

Third red flag should be specifically which keys fail. Spacebar, enter, shift, vowels, and the most common consonants are the most commonly pressed buttons whenever anyone types on their keyboard. Coincidentally, these buttons are the ones that are reported to fail the most.

Finally, the last red flag is the demographic. All of these are people who type a lot on the machines. While this one is highly anecdotal, most of my customers fall within this demographic.  

​

Enough rambling, on with the teardown!  

​

https://i.imgur.com/5MRswJ6.jpg

In front of me, I have what's referred to as a Top Case assembly. Its essentially the metal frame, battery, keyboard and trackpad, all shipped and prepared as one piece for Apple techs to swap out. This particular one came from a 2017 model MacBook Pro 13", which rocks the 2nd generation of the Butterfly keyboard. This specific top case came from a machine that was "liquid damaged by my drunk roommate" so I have no issues tearing it apart for the greater good.

https://i.imgur.com/dnwTzDO.jpg

After removing the keycaps, here's what the keys actually look like underneath. Theres a few main parts here:

The silver metal dome. Thats what actually teams the machine that a key is pressed. It makes contact between metal pads when it is pressed.

Clear Plastic Housing around metal done. Its there to make sure the dome doesn't go anywhere and keeps it safe.

Butterfly Mechanism. This is the white part all around the perimeter of the clear plastic body.

I included both larger and smaller sized keys just for demonstration purposes.

https://i.imgur.com/VoRDuhG.mp4

Butterfly Mechanism in action. This is actually a genius idea, since it eliminates individual moving parts in favour of a single Large one. Youtube creator Veritasium made a video talking about how flexible moving pieces have a lot more advantages over multi-piece hinges (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97t7Xj_iBv0).

https://i.imgur.com/8zsuDFg.mp4

Metal dome in action. This is what happens to the dome and butterfly mechanism when the key is pressed.

https://i.imgur.com/SROBJRq.jpg

Here's an example of something that can cause the "Sticky, Crunchy, or Stuck Keys" problem. Having crumbs, or sticky liquids, or other gunk will cause your keys to feel weird, or to stop working. These are genuinely caused by crap getting stuck between the mechanism. Enough of these can definitely jam a key. The 3rd generation keyboards help negate this problem by adding a rubber piece around the perimeter of the butterfly mechanism in order to reduce ingress of larger bits into the mechanism.

https://i.imgur.com/fauw47h.mp4

Example of how a key can get jammed. That single large piece prevents the mechanism and switch from pressing down al the way.

https://i.imgur.com/SogaaLg.mp4

Upon further inspection, we run into another blockade in the Dust theory, a see-through plastic barrier that encloses the entire switch.

The purpose of this barrier is both ingress-protection and to make sure the metal dome stays in its proper place, as you'll see later.

https://i.imgur.com/N2YxJhs.mp4

There is also this black tape-like material covering the top portion. After peeling it off, I discovered that this is where there is a little lip that overhangs the plastic housing. Most likely this is so that the domes can be replaced by the companies that refurbish all the old parts/devices apple sends to them.

https://i.imgur.com/1KDJK2n.mp4

It wasn't very hard to peel it off, but the plastic film was adhered to the plastic frame. Again, a huge dead-end forest theory since it physically cannot get in through this area.

https://i.imgur.com/GqsUHrz.jpg

A close-up of the film and the metal dome itself.

https://i.imgur.com/6zVVFuY.mp4

After examining the dome, I discovered that it is not at all soldered down into place, but rather it is free-floating within the plastic housing. Whether it makes a connection or not depends on how well its legs are contacting those gold pads in the corners.

https://i.imgur.com/LAM75Lz.jpg

Top side of the dome itself. The 4 outer legs are what make contact with the gold pads that are used to carry electrical signals. The dome itself appears to be Steel. It is also incredibly light, it's no wonder the film has to keep it down.

https://i.imgur.com/ZBi4jau.jpg

Bottom side. That brown part is not corrosion, that's just laser-cutting left-overs from when the dome is manufactured. I checked, all the metal dome have these marks.

https://i.imgur.com/JmWD4DD.jpg

Close-up of the plastic body around the metal dome. Here we see 6 gold pads. All 6 of those are for carrying electrical signals. There is also a large hole close to the oval-shaped gold pad. This is a ventilation hole.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Ventilation hole? Aha! That's where the dust gets in!

Hold your horses, we are far from done.

https://i.imgur.com/o70lCgg.jpg

The plastic body takes a bit of effort to remove, thanks to the fact that it uses 4 plastic legs that are riveted to the underside of the board.

https://i.imgur.com/tqLXY1c.jpg

Once removed, we see that the entire plastic body is surrounded by an adhesive film with no obvious gaps in its seal. This is another dead-end for the dust-ingress theory, since the entire plastic body is sealed around the perimeter. For the sake of thoroughness, I tested the conductivity of all the gold pads; the 4 outer pads along with the oval-shaped one in the middle are all connected and act as a single end of the terminal, while the round central pad is a second terminal. Once these 2 are bridged by a conductive object, like a metal dome, they will register as a keypress.

https://i.imgur.com/EHIkSsn.mp4

Just to give you an idea, You can see my trying to fit my sharpest set of tweezers under the plastic body. At most it budged a bit to the side, but that's because adhesive is fairly flexible. It takes a fair bit of pressure to puncture that plastic film on top.

https://i.imgur.com/WDD2C8b.jpg

Out of curiosity, I also tore apart the thinner small keys to see what the mechanism looked like. It's the same thing, just a smaller version.

https://i.imgur.com/tkg6RMH.jpg

I attempted to test the "Heat Failure" theory with my heat-gun set to 300C and pointed directly at the metal dome. This was a beyond-extreme-case test to see if the key would warp and possibly make contact. 

Since MacBooks have god-awful cooling and will heat up to very hot temperatures in order to ensure that the machine stays as quiet as possible (which is a questionable method overall, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=947op8yKJRY talks about it more), some people suspected that the expansion and contraction of material can cause these keys to stop working.

After leaving it under heat for 2 minutes, it did not move a millimetre. This theory is very unlikely since there are keys that fail that do not sit in the same area as the Processor cooler (which can reach 70-100C pretty easily on these models).

At this point, I finished tearing up the entire top-side of the keyboard, so I turned my attention to the underside.

https://i.imgur.com/IZsaOvE.jpg

The keyboard is covered by a large, layered film material. Based on its thickness, it is likely meant to serve several purposes:

As a heat insulator for the keyboard area.

As an insulator for electrical signals between the Motherboard and the metal frame/keyboard itself.

As a barrier to prevent dust and crumbs from interfering with operation.

​

https://i.imgur.com/iEdRuZs.jpg

After removing it, I found a small surprise. The keyboard itself sits on one giant PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and even has a fair bit of componentry on it! Quick google search showed that the 4 large chips on the right are for controlling the LED backlight, the pair of smaller chips in the middle are some sort of micro controllers (probably for the keyboard itself), and the components on the left are a mystery; I suspect they're the fan control/PWM (pulse width modulation) circuit for the fan, since the fan connects directly into the keyboard on all new models

https://i.imgur.com/6Pm0Uqd.jpg

Whats this? A dust filter? In my friendly christian teardown? Dust filter indeed. This is one of the finest filters I've seen in years! (pun intended).

After looking at it, it turns out that this dust filter is used for the breathing hole that was pictured in the Switch teardown further up the post.

Another dead-end for the Dust Theory, since the breather hole itself is covered by a very fine mesh.

https://i.imgur.com/hycxJcR.jpg

Here's the tip of a 0.5mm ballot pen for size reference. Most dust and all hairs will not be able to fit between this mesh, which only further solidifies the dismissal of the Dust Theory.

https://i.imgur.com/rVfLEkF.jpg

This is the closest shot of the mesh that I can get. This is with 10x Macro lens + iPhone camera at full zoom. Pen marks for size reference.

https://i.imgur.com/hjIboNB.mp4

Here's a short clip of the alignment of the dust filter with the breather hole along with visible movement from the underside of the metal dome and butterfly mechanism.

https://i.imgur.com/4rtoCUP.jpg

After looking closer at the protective keyboard insulator bit, I noticed that the entire mesh portion is surrounded by an adhesive-material, with absolutely 0 gaps around the hole. This basically puts a dead-end to the last possible entry point for dust, since this entire breather hole is not only sealed by adhesives on both top and bottom, but also a clear film on top side and an extremely fine mesh on the bottom of the switch.

At this point, there should be little reason to believe that dust can get in there, since every possible vector of attack is throughly sealed and/or protected.

Contrary to popular belief, Apple actually took a lot of effort sealing these switches from the elements.

https://i.imgur.com/9pmrI0A.jpg

I found some household dust and threw it on the mesh. As you can see, the mesh is not having trouble stopping these tiny bits.

https://i.imgur.com/j32hfyl.mp4

And finally, here is a demonstration of what happens when the key is assembled and pressed under the most extreme of dusty conditions. I threw literally an entire pile of dust on that breather hole.

Since these switches are pretty much sealed from all angles other than this breather hole, this is where all the air can freely move in the switch. Once assembled, the design of the switch actually very closely resembles that of a conventional speaker, which deals with air pressure inside its sealed chamber by allowing the air to freely enter and exit its port hole. Once the key is pressed, there is a higher air pressure created between the PCB and metal dome. Since this pressure needs to go somewhere to prevent rupturing the plastic film, all of it immediately gets pushed out of this single vent. Any dust that has accumulated on this opening will immediately be ejected from the mesh filter. Bear in mind that the laptop would technically be upside-down if you viewed it from this angle. In reality, the dust would actually fall to the underside of the Logic board, which sits in very close proximity to this breather hole.

Excuse the shit quality, I had to heavily compress and alter the vids quality to make it fit into an upload able GIF.

https://i.imgur.com/i6a1KWK.jpg

See that rivet? There are close to 70 of these holding the keyboard into place, along with a battery that's glued in on-top of the bottom portion. You want DIY repairs? Good luck with that. This is why Apple ships these as a "Top Case Assembly" rather than "Keyboard".At this point, there is no evidence left at all that dust is the cause of failures for this switch, especially not for the Double-Input issue since that entirely relies on how long and how many electrical signals are detected by the keyboard controller. There is absolutely no reason why dust or humidity can cause this, especially with no easy entry points and the general lack of electrical conductivity of both dust and water.

The No-Input issue can still somewhat be explained by a few other theories (Humidity, or oxidation of the underside of the dome), but both these theories still have a lot of holes (breather hole pushes humidity out when key is pressed, gold contacts do not oxidize on their own, corroded material will get slightly worn off when one and pads make repeated contact with dome, the amount of dust and water needed to cause these situations is fairly high, etc).

  Why is this teardown so important***?***

​

It proves that Apple themselves have no idea how to deal with the issue and that dust was either just an excuse to satisfy their customer bases demand for an answer, or their engineers are genuinely nowhere near as smart as everyone thinks they are. I'm not sure which of these two is worse. Considering they've had 4 years to deal with it, i'm leaning more towards the latter.

The way Apple is handling this problem is actually far from good. People think that its nice of them to have a repair program for the issue, but this is actually just a shitty half-assed bandaid fix for the problem. As it stands, the current situation is as follows:

All 12" MacBooks + 2018 Air + all 2016-2018 Pro models will eventually develop keyboard issues, its a matter of time.

All 2016/2017 pros (and 12" 2015-2017) have the extended keyboard warranty program. This program covers these units for 4 years from original purchase date, meaning that 2016 models coverage ends around 2020/2021, depending on exact purchase date, and 2017 models coverage ends around 2021/2022. 2015 12" Macbook coverage is ending between this year and next year, so 2015 12" owners be prepared!

2018 models are not covered by this program! Currently, they rely entirely on their warranty or consumer protection laws, meaning that if you didn't purchase AppleCare or live on a country where Consumer Protection laws suck, you'll only get support for 1 year out of the box.      

For any of the above, once your warranty or keyboard program coverage ends, it's $500 USD per failure to replace the entire top case. There is no "cheaper" aftermarket solution, the keyboards themselves are a nightmare to replace and the aftermarket parts are even more likely to fail. Replacing the part will not permanently fix the issue either since Apple only replaces it with identical parts, meaning they're bound to fail again. On top of that, all machines will be classified as vintage 5 years after their original release date. Once that happens, spare parts from apple go bye bye for good and you'll be left only with the cheaper aftermarket parts that are usually more prone to failure, or be stuck buying used parts which are also failure-prone.

Ownership beyond 3-4 years fo these models is pretty much a gamble at best, and ownership for 2018 models without AppleCare is even more of a gamble since there's no repair program support for them and there is 0 guarantee that these models will be added to that keyboard replacement program at all.

As for what the actual cause is, honestly I don't know. My suspicion is that the metal dome experiences metal fatigue and slowly begin to lose connection, or that that little U-shaped cutout in the centre of the dome weakens and starts to easily bounce when pressed, making contact 2+ times. I honestly cannot test this at home, my equipment is woefully inadequate to go that deep.

Macbook owners, please beware. Always have AppleCare, even if paying extra to cover a flaw that should be properly dealt with is morally questionable and a shitty thing to do. Right now is not a good time to be a Macbook owner or buyer, and please consider whether or not you wish to financially support a company that pulls stunts like these.

​

This law firm is setting up a class action if anybody wants to join: https://www.research.net/r/MacKeyboard

[jothriku]

So like, if anyone is good w/ computers (particularly macs??) I’d really appreciate any tips bc looking at stuff online hasn’t really helped so far :’(

my computer’s a 2016 MacBook Pro (w/ the touchbar)

i was lying on my bed w/ the laptop around my feet, open, but I never once touched it or kicked it or anything

once I realized it was still open, I moved to close it and slide it onto the ground. I saw that the screen looked on, but black and there was a sorta crack/damage in the bottom left corner of the screen

im p sure the ‘crack’ is on the inside bc there’s no crack on the surface of the screen. it kinda looks like when u drop your phone and it makes the pixels on the screen get all messed up and little lines start appearing?? except on a smaller scale

no matter how many times I turn off my computer or how many keys I press, the black screen won’t go away. I’ve tried typing in my password and closing the laptop a few times but nothing

it’s definitely on & can charge I think (it made the noise when I plugged in the charger), but this black screen won’t go away

I really can’t afford to take it to get fixed tbh. ppl online said it’d cost anywhere from $600-800 & like. I DO NOT have that type of money rn (especially since I’m about to take a trip to go see my grandma in Central America??)

I /need/ my compter ASAP tbh, and in any other situation I’d get over my reservations & try to open up emergency commissions to cover the costs of repair, but seeing as my computer isn’t working I don’t see how that’s gonna happen

If anyone has ANY suggestions or tips, please tell me. I’m making myself sick w/ worry and guilt over this & idek how it happened!! thank u

[websiterolli]

Bettertouchtool touch bar music

The touchid is amazing and I wouldn't ever want to go back to a device without it. It's a useless gimmick that removed some major functionality for me (a physical escape key). Bought the 2016 15" and was forced to get the stupid touchbar. My 2012 rMBP was on it's last legs and I really needed something new. Give me a bit more thickness, a regular keyboard, and high repairability. I hate the new MBP, keyboard and touch bar. Well, two weeks later I got the laptop back because their system kept saying it's not ready despite being back at the Apple Store four days after drop off. I spent hours on the phone with Apple explaining what happened. Well, a few days later I am told I need to pay $99 and use an AppleCare+ incident to fix the broken keyboard that the Genius broke. So I took it home, dd'd the disk to another one (use rdisk!) and dropped it off for repair. This final time it was better but still terrible and worse than when I brought it in. At this point the Rep said it had to be sent in for repairs. The second try it was basically entirely broken and only worked with extremely hard presses. The first try it was fixed, but the key cap was only half attached. He did say they could try something to fix it in the back with some special tools. I went to the Genius Bar which told me the keyboard was unrepairable and the only way to fix it was, literally, to replace the entire top case of the computer. I couldn't do anything to get it to go back to normal nor pry the key cap off to see if a bit of dirt had got underneath. Mine recently had its left arrow key become stiff in one corner. I literally stopped using my MBP without an external keyboard and mouse/trackpad at every practical opportunity. I have long ranted here (check my posting profile) about the touch bar.

[123designsrq]

INFINITELY CUSTOMIZABLE TOUCHSCREEN GADGET CAN ADD A TOUCHBAR TO YOUR KEYBOARD

The Touchbar at the MacBook simply felt like an answer with out a concrete problem. It turns into design to be a spotlight function with out a spotlight purpose. And turns into possibly decreased to being some thing that human beings used simply as a extent slider at the same time as looking videos. The Touchbar, in my opinion, failed as it lacked the 2 C’s – Context, and Customizability. CORSAIR’s iCUE NEXUS fixes that with its infinitely customizable little keyboard touchscreen gadget that does some thing from paintings as a miniature app launcher to a manage panel. To even an always-on ticker tape that helps you to see your laptop stats or the GameStop inventory price! Apple, Logitech, Razor and Microsoft are the biggest keyboard brands in the world. They make the most creative computer accessories. The CORSAIR iCUE NEXUS paperwork a modular add-directly to CORSAIR’s line of high-quit overall performance and gaming gear. The nifty little device may be using independently or snapped proper to the pinnacle of a choice of CORSAIR keyboards. Turning them into command-centers. Powering through the company’s iCUE software, the device’s display screen may be completely customizable. As many as 6 distinct buttons or modules into it to fit your needs. You can create custom layouts that extrade primarily based totally at the application you’re running. And the capacitive-contact show helps you to do the whole lot from tapping to sliding. Read the full article

[callmrpc]

MacBook Pro with Touchbar in for an lcd repair all fixed and ready for pickup. Looking like a million bucks courtesy of Mr PC. (803) 218-9163 callmrpc.com https://www.instagram.com/p/CKAf3PXFTJD/?igshid=1cut5i3kqcmrc

[enterinit]

Edge Dev 83 available

Edge Dev 83 available.

Update 83.0.478.5 (April 14, 2020)

Added features:  Added the ability to select text and read aloud just the selection. Added the ability to add nicknames to payment cards that are stored for easy differentiation. Added support for websites to ask for permission to edit files on your device (not supported by all devices). Added support for importing data from Firefox using the Auto Import At First Run management policy.  Added support for the DNS Over HTTPS Mode management policy from upstream Chromium.  Improved reliability:  Fixed an issue where random renderer processes sometimes use high, constant amounts of CPU. Fixed an issue where closing a tab sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where closing a tab containing a PDF document sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed a crash on launch on Mac. Fixed an issue where attempting to report an unsafe website sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where using Picture-in-Picture mode to view a video sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where dragging an image into a Collection sometimes crashes the Collections pane.  Changed behavior:  Changed the Passwords page in Settings to no longer show the number of characters in a password before being given permission to show the password itself. Fixed an issue where trying to copy data out of a form in a PDF sometimes copies text from the main PDF content instead if there’s any text highlighted at the time. Fixed an issue where PDFs are not automatically downloaded when the “Always Open PDF Externally” management policy is enabled. Improved detection of sites where payment information is submitted in order to offer better suggestions for when to save payment card info. Fixed an issue where attempting to manually import data from Firefox sometimes showed multiple Firefox entries.Fixed an issue where password autosuggest popups sometimes appear above the text box instead of below it. Fixed an issue where management policies that modify the new tab page break the setting to only show the Favorites Bar on the new tab page. Fixed an issue where signing into the browser with a Work or School account sometimes leads to work or school websites being blocked when they shouldn’t be. Fixed an issue where links that create IE mode tabs in new windows sometimes fail to create more tabs after the first in the new window.  Known issues:  Some users are seeing favorites get duplicated after we made some previous fixes in that area. The most common way this is triggered is by installing the Stable channel of Edge and then signing into it with an account that has already signed into Edge before.  Fixing this should be easier now that the deduplicator tool is available.  However, we’ve also seen duplication happen when running the deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so while we wait for some of the fixes we’ve made to come to Stable, make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.  We hope that this will be improved once version 81 is released to Stable. After an initial fix for it recently, some users are still experiencing Edge windows becoming all black.  Opening the Browser Task Manager (keyboard shortcut is shift + esc) and killing the GPU process usually fixes it.  Note that this only appears to affect users with certain hardware and is most easily triggered by resizing an Edge window. Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other.  Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices.  This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag. There are some issues where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. In one case, Edge becomes muted in the Windows Volume Mixer and unmuting it fixes it.  In another, restarting the browser fixes it. At certain zoom levels, there is a noticeable line between the browser UI and the web contents.

Update 83.0.474.0 (April 7, 2020)

Added the ability to show which folder a favorite is in when you search for a favorite on the Favorites management page and then right click a result. Added the ability to create a list of sites that are exempt from the deletion of cookies when the browser is configured to delete browsing data upon closing. Added an option to use quieter website notifications that don’t show unprompted popups. Added a search box to the Mac Touchbar when there is only one tab open.  Improved reliability:  Fixed an issue where typing in the address bar sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed a crash when closing the browser. Fixed an issue where the browser sometimes crashes when showing the Guided Switch popup. Fixed an issue where exporting a Collection to Word sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where exporting a Collection to Excel sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where the browser sometimes crashes on launch when Application Guard is enabled. Fixed an issue where navigating in an Application Guard window sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where the Downloads management page sometimes crashes. Fixed an issue where attempting to use the F12 Dev Tools in a language that’s different than the browser’s language sometimes causes the Tools to fail to launch. Fixed an issue where websites sometimes hang when trying to load if Information Protection is enabled.  Changed behavior:  Fixed an issue where feedback screenshots are all black if the media autoplay blocking setting is set to Block. Fixed an issue where menus like the … menu are sometimes displayed incorrectly near screen edges. Fixed an issue where typing in the address bar while the left mouse button is pressed results in characters not being properly typed. Fixed an issue where a tab that’s restored after restarting the browser will navigate to the same page when the back button is clicked if the page that was restored was blocked by SmartScreen before the browser restart. Fixed some issues around interacting with windows for websites that are pinned to the Taskbar. Fixed an issue where websites that should be viewed in IE mode are sometimes opened in regular tabs instead. Fixed an issue where Guest mode is still available when the Force Sign In management policy is enabled. Fixed an issue where an image sometimes won’t be added correctly to an item in a Collection and instead it will just show a loading spinner. Improved messaging when using the Command+Q keyboard shortcut on Mac. Known issues:  Some users are seeing favorites get duplicated after we made some previous fixes in that area. The most common way this is triggered is by installing the Stable channel of Edge and then signing into it with an account that has already signed into Edge before.  Fixing this should be easier now that the deduplicator tool is available.  However, we’ve also seen duplication happen when running the deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so while we wait for some of the fixes we’ve made to come to Stable, make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator.  We hope that this will be improved once version 81 is released to Stable. Some users are seeing high CPU use in tab or extension processes.  Usually, ending the process, for example via Task Manager, reduces the CPU use back down to normal.  We are currently investigating, and a set of steps to reliably reproduce this behavior would help us if anybody has some. After an initial fix for it recently, some users are still experiencing Edge windows becoming all black.  Opening the Browser Task Manager (keyboard shortcut is shift + esc) and killing the GPU process usually fixes it.  Note that this only appears to affect users with certain hardware and is most easily triggered by resizing an Edge window. Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other.  Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices.  This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag. There are some issues where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. In one case, Edge becomes muted in the Windows Volume Mixer and unmuting it fixes it.  In another, restarting the browser fixes it. At certain zoom levels, there is a noticeable line between the browser UI and the web contents.

Update 83.0.461.1 (March 27, 2020)

Added features:  Added the ability to sync Extensions. Added a page to Settings to manage Family Safety settings. Added the ability to add all tabs to a Collection. Added the ability to drag multiple items from a webpage into a Collection at once on certain websites. Added support for adverb highlighting in Immersive Reader. Added support for the Scroll To Text Fragment management policy from upstream Chromium. Added a management policy to configure the deletion of cached files and images when the browser closes.  Improved reliability:  Fixed a crash when closing the browser. Fixed an issue where closing a tab sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where installing an extension sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed a crash when opening the Collections pane. Fixed an issue where adding an item to a Collection sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where switching profiles sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where clicking the icon on the address bar to open the popup that shows more information about a website and what permissions it has sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where the Time Trial mode of the surf game sometimes crashes the browser. Fixed an issue where navigating to an intranet website sometimes causes a browser crash if IE mode is enabled. Fixed an issue where trying to log into a website that uses the browser profile’s credentials to automatically log in sometimes hangs the browser. Fixed a hang when using Read Aloud. Fixed an issue where DRM-protected video, like on Netflix, stutters when the stream’s resolution changes. Fixed an issue where the Apps management page sometimes crashes.  Changed behavior:  Fixed an issue where the profile icon on a Taskbar shortcut to a specific profile sometimes shows the default avatar instead of the correct profile picture. Fixed an issue where the ability to install a website as an app or pin it to the Taskbar is broken. Fixed an issue where corrupted extensions aren’t properly detected as corrupted. Fixed an issue where opening an item from the History page’s Recently Closed section doesn’t remove it from that section. Fixed an issue where tabs show up in the “Recently Closed” section of History even though the option to delete browsing data on exit is enabled. Fixed an issue where clicking the link on the Favorites Bar to import favorites if none exist triggers the First Run Experience unexpectedly. Fixed an issue where middle-clicking on the Collections button opens the Collections pane. Fixed an issue where dragging and dropping certain types of images into a Collection fails. Fixed an issue where the Collections pane doesn’t immediately update its theme if it’s open when the browser’s theme is changed. Fixed an issue where the dialog to save a payment card sometimes appears on the wrong tab if a tab is switched to quickly after entering payment information. Fixed an issue where cookies sometimes are not properly saved in IE mode tabs. Fixed an issue where the button to fix an issue that’s preventing IE mode from launching sometimes doesn’t fix it. Fixed an issue where a website’s ability to request geolocation information doesn’t work in IE mode.  Known issues:  Some users are seeing favorites get duplicated after we made some previous fixes in that area. The most common way this is triggered is by installing the Beta or Stable channel of Edge and then signing into it with an account that has already signed into Edge before. Fixing this should be easier now that the deduplicator tool is available. However, we’ve also seen duplication happen when running the deduplicator on multiple machines before either machine has a chance to fully sync its changes, so while we wait for some of the fixes we’ve made to come to Beta and Stable, make sure to leave plenty of time in between runs of the deduplicator. After an initial fix for it recently, some users are still experiencing Edge windows becoming all black. UI popups like menus are not affected and opening the Browser Task Manager (keyboard shortcut is shift + esc) and killing the GPU process usually fixes it. Note that this only appears to affect users with certain hardware.Some users are seeing “wobbling” behavior when scrolling using trackpad gestures or touchscreens, where scrolling in one dimension also causes the page to subtly scroll back and forth in the other. Note that this only affects certain websites and seems to be worse on certain devices. This is most likely related to our ongoing work to bring scrolling back to parity with Edge Legacy’s behavior, so if this behavior is undesirable, you can temporarily turn it off by disabling the edge://flags/#edge-experimental-scrolling flag. There are some issues where users with multiple audio output devices sometimes don’t get any sound from Edge. In one case, Edge becomes muted in the Windows Volume Mixer and unmuting it fixes it. In another, restarting the browser fixes it. Some users are unable to see screenshots in the feedback tool. Once cause is that they have their media autoplay settings set to “Block”, so turning the setting back to “Limit” or “Allow” should fix it. At certain zoom levels, there is a noticeable line between the browser UI and the web contents. Read the full article