Do you repair your Macbook Pro when it fails

Canned air hasn’t fixed the dead spot? Supposedly a speck of dust will interfere with keys.

I’ll have to buy a can and try. Being a longtime MacBook owner, I’ve never really needed one before. I’m not even sure where I’d spray it.

If you turn it upside down and spray the liquid stuff on a warm can of soda, it’ll cool it down. Hope that helps!

FYI

This is welcome news. I have a Command key that is a little balky. I’ve also dropped it and have a dent in the side so I don’t know if that will make things challenging for a repair.

Yup, my wife has had two MacBooks in a row have keyboard issues. We have been struggling to decide what to do at present, given that both the MacBooks and large iPad Pro (she’s been considering making the switch to using the tablet as her work machine) are both overdue for refreshes. At the same time, she didn’t want to spend 450 bucks for a keyboard replacement on the current one. This should allow her to keep going (at the very least) until new stuff comes out, then she can decide what to do.

Surely them admitting to the problem means new keyboards on new laptops this fall, right? Right Apple?

I never know with them.

It’s a good question. Was wondering the same thing last night.

Even better would be old keyboards on new laptops.

Not sure that would be thin enough.

I am really ready for Johnny Ive to move on. Quit the thin, minamlist thing. They kind of have lost their way; they’re trying too hard. That said, I think the current iMac line is great, but that is the only model I would feel comfortable buying.

I’m pretty sure J.I. has already moved on when they “uplifted” him to creative director to live full time in England (which was his demand else he quit). He’s more the guru on the mountain now which they visit to get his blessing.

When they bring Thin Laptop 25 to him, crawling on all knees for miles to reach his country home, after letting them sit for a week in the wind and rain without sleep, I’m sure he looks away from playing with his kids, waves his hand dismissively, says “yes that’s fine” and gets back to living his life.

Sigh.

So in December my daughter finally had enough saved up from babysitting, lawn care at Grandma’s, grades, and holiday money (and chores) to buy her dream laptop - a 2016 Macbook Pro for like $1800 freaking dollars. She was so proud and happy and to her credit, uses it constantly and every day.

This morning she was closing the lid and didn’t realize a corner of pillow case was wedged under the hinge, and it cracked the display when she closed it.

I called the local Apple store and guess what - going to cost $800 to replace that damned fancy 2016 retina display. Most of that is the part itself, not much of it (less than $100 he assured me) is labor. She was beside herself this morning, nearly inconsolable. She felt both stupid and horrified. I felt terrible for her. I was angry an $1800 laptop could be defeated by a pillow case.

We’re going to get it repaired for her and she’s going to be taking extra good care of it (not that she wasn’t before, I mean, I don’t know how she could have avoided this to begin with) and she’s going to help us out with the bill, but good freaking lord why? I wish she wasn’t so into Mac - for $1800 she could get have had a fantastic Windows laptop that literally does everything she would ever use her Macbook for, and probably be even better at gaming, and if she needed a replacement screen you can bet it wouldn’t be $800 bucks. Frustrating.

She’s also had two Beats By Dre headphones that needed to be sent in for repairs over the last three years (those were at least covered by warranty both times) so I’m not super thrilled with their hardware right now.

I would argue if you bought a Windows machine with that nice of a display it would cost you that much. Just in my experience, most windows machines don’t come close in quality (or they cost about the same). My gaming laptop costs as much as my iMac, and the display has gsync, but it looks like crap compared to a MacBook.

Hard to believe a pillow case could do so much damage. She could get a fantastic Chromebook for about $500. If it wasn’t for these damned games I totally would go that way next time.

Or any non Google software really. $500 is a lot for crappy hardware that only runs a web browser. An iPad will do more for the same price.

Ungh. It’s really hard to watch that sort of thing happen to your kid. It might just be me, but I just feel an emptiness in my gut, like dang. A pillow. Really? What can you do about that? It’s awesome that she worked so hard for the thing in the first place. That is my big consolation when I see stuff like that happen to my kids.

Here’s my MacBook Pro story, as written in an email that I directly sent to Tim Cook this past Sunday. Apparently he’s got a team of people who handle his complicated customer support:

Dear Mr. Tim Cook,

I write to you today in the hope that you can help me to resolve a very real concern.

I have been a satisfied user of Apple laptops since my first Powerbook G4, purchased in 2004. It was followed by a MacBook in 2008, and MacBook Airs in 2011 and 2013. Most recently I purchased a MacBook Pro with Touchbar in 2016. I have directly influenced the purchase of several other Apple computers amongst friends and family.

I have taken excellent care of my computers over the years, and as your records would sure show, never purchased or needed AppleCare. Until January 2018, as I was coming up on the one year anniversary of my MacBook Pro, and was beginning to have intermittent problems with my spacebar. Having read on various tech sites (e.g., Daring Fireball) that the new Macbook Pro keyboards were prone to breaking and were extremely expensive to repair, I finally succumbed and bought AppleCare for the first time, knowing that I would likely have no choice but to use it to eventually replace my keyboard and wanting to minimize the cost of the over $500 Canadian out of warranty repair. And of course, two weeks ago when my spacebar was failing constantly, I used this AppleCare.

Today I read of your new keyboard service program for my model of MacBook Pro. I wouldn’t have needed AppleCare, not would I have purchased it had this program existed in January. I would therefore like to request a refund for my AppleCare purchase, which was bought solely to mitigate the keyboard issue that is now being dealt with for free. Hopefully, you’ll understand my reasoning and help me resolve this matter in a satisfactory way.

Your loyal customer,
(me)

I’d say that the odds of this happening are poor, but it’s worth a shot. And my sister-in-law just asked me for a recommendation as to what she should buy as a new laptop, and I categorically told her to hold off and not buy a MacBook even though it’s exactly what she is looking for in terms of performance / size / weight.

You should look at what kind of Chromebook you can get and have access to the entire Android ecosystem for $500 these days. Your statement is incorrect on all counts.

Yep, exactly. We paid to have it fixed and she will pay us back as she is able (with the understanding this is a one time thing, if she needs to repair it down the line, she’ll have to have money in hand). She’s actually really good with her money, saving it and being careful with it, so it wasn’t a tough decision for us, at least.

Nope it was entirely correct. Why would I want to use a bunch of crappy (jk) android apps on a laptop?

I use software on my computers that were made for computers and kind of suck on mobile platforms. If you have basic needs, maybe a Chronebook is fine, but I would never give up a real laptop for one.