The Truth Behind Macbook Battery Replacements

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At a certain point in the life-time of owning a Macbook, it is inevitable that you will need to go for Macbook battery replacements. Apple’s own webpage about Macbook battery replacements states that Macbook batteries have “a limited lifespan and may eventually need to be serviced or recycled”. Apple’s webpage also states that Macbook batteries retain about “80 per cent of its original capacity at 1,000 complete charge cycles”. This is a myth. In real world, this statistic never runs true.

In our own experience with replacing hundreds of Apple Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro Retina batteries, the amount of time a Macbook can remain powered diminishes drastically once the battery hits around 300 – 500 charge cycles. The capacity of the battery would be around 80% once it reaches 300 charge cycles. Additionally, the battery status bar will usually prompt the user to “Service Battery” or “Replace Battery” when the battery reaches 300 – 500 cycles. In our 3 years of operation, we have only seen 2 Macbook Pro 13″ batteries reach 1000 cycles before the “service battery” status appears.

Macbook Battery Replacements

Service battery – Macbook needs battery replacement

Apple Authorised Service Providers in Singapore charge high prices, between $400 – $600, for Macbook battery replacements. They also have a slow turnaround of 5 days. Many customers, repulsed by the high prices and slow turnaround time, have turned to independent Mac repair providers for cheaper Macbook battery replacements. However, it is not an easy feat to decide which place to go to, as the prices of Macbook batteries varies widely. Many repair shops have also claimed that their batteries are original Apple batteries. How do customers then know whether they are taken for a ride?

Our experience with working with different MacBook battery suppliers and our tear downs shows that there are no new original MacBook Pro unibody batteries. Only MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Retina possibly have original circuitry batteries with original or OEM lithium cells. It is not worth it to pay high prices for MacBook Pro Unibody batteries that sellers claim to be original. These batteries are likely OEM third-party batteries or refurbished batteries. Refurbished batteries are used original batteries with less than full capacity, but had their plastic covers replaced with brand new ones. The cycle count on these batteries have also been reseted to 0, as evidenced by a patch on the original circuitry in such batteries.

The only original batteries we have come across are Macbook Air and Macbook Pro Retina batteries, but it is hard to ascertain whether they are originals as Apple does not sell MacBook batteries or iPhone batteries directly to independent repair centres. Almost all iPhone batteries sold in the market that shops claim to be original are OEM batteries printed with an Apple logo.

Here at Mac Plus, we are truthful that our MacBook Pro Unibody batteries and MacBook Air batteries are good quality OEM batteries. Some of our MacBook Air batteries might be originals manufactured by the same manufacturers that manufacture for Apple. All our MacBook Pro Retina batteries have original circuitry and original ICs. Our batteries come with 6 months 1-1 exchange warranty as well as free installation.

Data Recovery for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar 2016 – 2017 Now Available

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Data Recovery for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Data Recovery for the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is Finally Possible

We now have the capability to recover data from spoilt beyond repair MacBook Pro with Touch Bar 13″ and 15″ 2016 to 2017 models with our newly acquired proprietary Data Transfer Device that is not available to the public and is currently unavailable worldwide. This means that we might be the only independent Mac service centre in Singapore to offer data recovery for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar that were released in 2016 and 2017 that are beyond repair. Without the Apple Data Transfer Device, Data recovery for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar 13″ and 15″ models is impossible due the on-board design of the solid-state drive on which data is stored.

Data recovery for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

The MacBook Pro 13-inch and 15-inch with Touch Bar have soldered on Solid-state Drives making Data Recovery Possible Only with Official Apple Tools

For the uninitiated, the data recovery for any MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and Mini that is beyond repair is only possible if the hard drive or solid-state drive that the data is stored on can be removed and connected to another Mac for copying the data. The MacBook Pro 13″ and 15″ with Touch Bar released in 2016 and 2017 have unremovable soldered on solid-state drives. This means that in the event the MacBook Pro is beyond repair, the solid-state drive cannot be removed for data retrieval. If the drive cannot be removed, data recovery for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is impossible for repair centres that do not have access to special tools.

However, Apple has a secret built-in a diagnostic port on the logic board of the MacBook Pro 13″ A1706 and 15″ 1707 with Touch Bar as a workaround for data recovery. This port enables the data on the solid-state drive to be read using a special proprietary Data Transfer Device which makes data recovery for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar possible. The proprietary Data Transfer Device was previously only available to Apple Genius Bars and Apple Authorised Service Providers.

Data recovery for Macbook Pro with Touch Bar

A Special Cable from the Data Transfer Device Connects to an Internal Port on the Logic Board for Data Recovery

One end of the special flex data cable from the Data Transfer Device connects to the port of the spoilt logic board and the other end connects via a cable to a working Mac for data recovery. The data recovery for Macbook Pro with Touch Bar is a delicate process as the data cable is very fragile, and only certain Macs are able to read data off the Data Transfer Device. It requires trained personnel to operate.

Do come to us if you need data recovery for your MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. We offer data recovery services for other MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Mini and external storage devices as well.

Unboxing of the gTool ScreenJack Pro iPhone LCD opener

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Hailing from gTool, an innovative South African-based company that made its name in precision tooling, the gTool ScreenJack Pro is used by us to separate iPhone LCD from its main body during iPhone repairs. We use the ScreenJack Pro to minimise damage to delicate flex cables during iPhone LCD replacements. Top-notch tools comes with top-notch packaging. Here are some pictures of the unboxing of the gTool ScreenJack Pro.

The package was protected with generous amount of bubble wrap.

iPhone LCD opener

gTool ScreenJack Pro (iPhone LCD Opener) in bubble wrap

A sealed, sleek, black box, bearing the signature “G” of gTool, was revealed after removing the bubble wrap.

iPhone LCD replacement tool

Sealed, sleek black box of iPhone LCD Opener

Separating the black box … …

White box beneath the black sleek box.

… … reveals a white box!

Notice the tab below the G that opens up the box when lifted.

Beneath the two-flap cover, laid the ScreenJack Pro in the precision-cut foam. Operating instructions for the iPhone LCD opener were printed on the two flaps.

iPhone LCD replacement tool

Two flaps open to reveal the ScreenJack Pro and the stickers for cracked screens.

The box contains:

  • 1 ScreenJack Pro
  • 3 Screen release stickers
  • 1 gTool spudger
  • 1 Pentalobe screwdriver
  • 1 Philips screwdriver

Items list

ScreenJack Pro (iPhone LCD Opener) and other accessories in the box.

The ScreenJack Pro is made of high quality ABS plastic that felt solid and heavy when held. The spudger was also one of the better spudgers that we have used. However, it was rather disappointing the screwdrivers did not quite match the built quality of the ScreenJack Pro. The entire package might be better off without the two screwdrivers. Rest assured that we do not use inferior screwdrivers to open your iPhones. The screwdrivers we use are made of precision steel or vanadium tips that do not strip your screws. We invest in quality tools to ensure that your iPhones and Macs are well taken care of during repairs.

BREAKING: Apple Orchard Road Singapore Store Opening on 27 May 2017

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Apple announced the date of the opening of not just Singapore’s first Apple store, but South-East Asia’s first Apple store, through direct emailers and on their homepage today. The Apple store, situated at Knightsbridge Mall at 270 Orchard Road, will open her doors on 27 May 2017 at  10:00am.

Apple Singapore Store Opening

Apple Singapore Store Opening Direct Mailer

There will be a slew of activities, including a performance Sezairi, the winner of Season 3’s Singapore Idol. Apple will also be hosting their newly launched programme Today at Apple programme in its Singapore store. It will include workshops that customers can sign up for to learn how to use their Apple products. All of the workshops are fully booked at the time of writing.

Today at Apple. Photo by Apple.

To know more about what to expect see this article by AsiaOne.

What you can expect from the upcoming Apple Store at Orchard Road

 

Insider Predictions on the Apple Singapore Store – 3 Reasons Why We Aren’t Overly Excited

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Apple Singapore Store is finally opening on our shores. That is long wait by many Apple fans and aficionados. One common reason why so many fans are hoping that Apple will open a store in Singapore is that the shopping experience of Apple Authorised resellers in Singapore pales in comparison to actual Apple run stores overseas.

Apple Singapore Store

Apple Singapore Store

Flagship Apple stores overseas are manned by staff who are friendly and have better product knowledge. The stores are also vastly bigger, have impeccable interior designs and are better stocked with Apple inventory. This means you can almost get any Apple product in their store. All these contribute to a good shopping experience.

We at Mac Plus are a little ambivalent about the opening though. Here is the low down of what to expect, and our very own predictions based on insider information.

The Good

1. Singapore’s Apple Orchard Road Store will focus on the retail experience

According to eagle-eyed netizens, Apple Singapore has been hiring service personnel for the store since Nov 2016. As on now, 17 May 2016, the jobs postings consists of solely service personnel. Positions for Apple Certified Technicians were not available.

Apple Jobs in Singapore

Apple Jobs in Singapore

According to an source close to an Apple Authorised Reseller that Mac Plus had dealings with, Apple Singapore primary focus in Singapore is sales and frontline service quality, not repairs. They were aware of the poor service (rated 2 stars on google) that Apple Authorised Service Providers are providing, but did not take active steps to address the issue.

2. Promotions such as Back to School and education pricing will finally be available in Singapore’s retail store

Apple’s well know Back-to-school promotion typically bundles free accessories with the purchase of a Mac at educational pricing. The promotion typically runs every year, but for students or MOE teachers in Singapore, the only way to get a Mac with an educational discount is through the online Apple Store or the Campus Stores in NUS, SMU and ITE Central run by Sapura. The marketing efforts by Sapura is so lacking that we could not find a list of all the campus stores in Singapore anywhere on the web.

Apple Back to School Promotion 2016

Apple Back to School Promotion in 2016

Calls made to Apple Singapore using the 1800 number are picked up by Singaporeans (Updated 10 June 2017)

It is nice to at last speak to Singaporean Apple customer service officers who better understand our Singlish English. The last we made a call regarding our purchase, although we could not get an exception to ship our iMac faster, the customer service officer was at least polite and was understanding. Even though she said the estimated date of delivery is the fastest possible date Apple could deliver, our iMac actually arrived one day earlier! Hopefully their friendliness will equate to better product knowledge. When we texted one of Apple’s Mac specialist, we were wrongly told that the iMac 5K Retina 27″ Mid 2007 had SSDs that are soldered. That is not true. Both the iMac 4K 21.5″ Mid 2007 have SSDs that are slotted in, not soldered on.

The Not-So-Good

1. Apple technicians or Geniuses might still misdiagnose the issue your Mac is having due to their testing methods (Updated 8 Dec 2017)

Apple support has traditionally performed diagnosis of hardware issues using their in-house testing software. We have some of the exact software as well but rarely use them because the software will fail to detect a variety of issues. We went to the Apple Orchard Road store lately on behalf of one of our customers to check his Macbook as part of our concierge service. The Apple Genius was attentive and polite. He ran a software test on the Mac and concluded that it was working fine and the issue was a glitch.

When we brought it back to perform our own in-house testing and found out that the charging circuitry was spoilt. All USB-C ports were all faulty. Plugging in a simple USB Ampere metre to the USB port would have detected the issue, but we are guessing that the Geniuses probably are only allowed to use Apple “Authorised” tools. Our guess is since Apple has made everything wireless and are not allowed to use anything other than Apple manufactured devices, they cannot even test the USB-C port by plugging in a PC optical mouse to see if it lights up.

2. Pricing of Apple products will still be higher than in the States

This is a no-brainer. Products sold in Singapore has traditionally been higher than those in other countries such as Canada or the States. We do not expect things to change. If you wish to see where is the cheapest country to buy a Mac, check out this cool website that shows you the cheapest places to purchase Apple products.

3. Repair services are likely still outsourced to Singapore’s Apple Authorised Service Centres

This is a prediction based on the fact that Apple Singapore did not recruit any technicians or technical support engineers. Our source told us that the reason why Apple Authorised Service Centres provide poor diagnostic services and have perpetually misdiagnosed and over-charged customers is due to the fact that they hire more customer service personnel than technicians. Most of the diagnosis are made by untrained customer service personnel. The Apple Authorised Service Centres do not have enough technicians who are able to provide accurate diagnosis.

4. Calls made to Apple Singapore using the support page’s call back system will be handled by Apple Care advisors in India (Updated 10 June 2017)

Support calls made to Apple Singapore used to be routed to Apple Australia. The benefit of having calls picked up by them is that Apple Australia’s Support Centre consists of Apple Advisors and Apple Product Specialists who are directly employed under Apple. They are more aware of Apple’s support options and are able to make the call to offer product replacements for free even though they are out of warranty in exceptional cases (terms as exceptions).

Since last year, calls made to Apple Singapore’s support telephone via the call back system are likely outsourced to a call centre in India. The disadvantages are that the staff in India are not able to order any “exceptions”. They consists of only Apple Advisors who are not qualified to order any exceptions. All such requests have to be processed by Apple Product Specialists housed in Australia. They will usually direct you to your country’s Apple Authorised Service Centres. The many times we called, they were not able to put us in touch with the Apple Product Specialists in Australia.

So if you have a product that just failed a few days after the warranty has expired, it may be difficult to get a replacement without paying additional fees. Hopefully this might change after the Apple Store opens her doors to the public.

So what are your hopes and wishes for the new store? Do comment on our Facebook page.

Enabling Night Shift in Sierra 10.12.4 for Unsupported Macs

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MacOS Sierra 10.12.4 introduced a new feature called Night Shift. For the uninitiated, Night Shift is a mode that adjusts your display’s colour temperature “of your display to the warmer end of the color spectrum after dark.” However, some older Macs are not supported. In this article, we will help you to implement Night Shift feature for older unsupported Macs.

According to Apple’s article, “studies have shown that exposure to bright blue light in the evening can affect your circadian rhythms and make it harder to fall asleep. Night Shift uses your computer’s clock and geolocation to determine when it’s sunset in your location. It then automatically shifts the colours in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum. In the morning it returns the display to its regular settings.”

Night Shift was introduced in macOS Sierra 10.12.4 and is controlled by the CoreBrightness.framework and you’ll need at least one of the following – or later – Mac models:

  • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (Late 2013 or newer)
  • Apple LED Cinema Display
  • Apple Thunderbolt Display
  • LG UltraFine 5K Display
  • LG UltraFine 4K Display

There’s no reasonable explanation from Apple why older models are not supported as their hardware is perfectly capable of supporting Night Shift. An Internet user Pike has found how that the feature is controlled by the CoreBrightness.framework file and has illustrated how the filesystem can be patched to enable Night Shift feature for older unsupported Macs. It is a little technical and may not be for the faint-hearted.

An easier method, supplied in the form of a patch can be found here. Here are the exact step-by-step instructions:

First, turn off System Integrity Protection (SIP).

  1. Reboot your Mac into Recovery Mode by restarting your computer and holding down Command+R until the Apple logo appears on your screen.
  2. Click Utilities > Terminal.
  3. In the Terminal window, type in csrutil disable and press Enter.
  4. Restart your Mac.

Open up the Terminal app found under your Applications>Utilities folder.

In terminal, cut and paste the following:

cd /tmp; curl -o NightPatch.zip https://codeload.github.com/pookjw/NightPatch/zip/master; unzip -o NightPatch.zip; cd NightPatch-master; chmod +x NightPatch.sh; ./NightPatch.sh

When prompted for the password, type in your user password.

That’s it. You should be able to find the Night Shift toggle in your System Preference>Display.

  1. Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Displays.
  2. Click the Night Shift tab.

Night Shift feature for older unsupported Macs

 

 

The Truth Behind Macbook Pro Retina LCD Replacements

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Macbook Pro Retina LCD replacement. One of the Mac repair many Mac owners would not want to do. Such a replacement may be needed due to a cracked LCD caused usually by accidental drops. The repair is expensive. What is worse still is that there are varying prices and options presented by different Mac repairers. Repairs can range from $400 to $1000, depending on the quality of the LCD, the skills of the technician replacing your screen, whether you get the LCD replacement from independent repairers or with Apple Authorised Service Providers, and whether the LCD is an an OEM part, or original Apple part.

In this article, we will show you the different kinds of LCD replacements available and how to decide which kind to go for if your Macbook Pro Retina LCD is spoilt. Let us first understand the construction of a Macbook Pro Retina LCD assembly. These kinds of LCD assembly are used in the Macbook Pro Retina 13″ and 15″ from 2012 – 2016, as well as the Macbook 12″ with Retina display.

There are 3 kinds of LCD replacements in the market – 1. OEM inner LCD replacement, 2.OEM LCD assembly replacement, and 3.original LCD assembly replacement . The image below shows the construction of the Macbook Pro Retina LCD. The Macbook Pro LCD assembly actually consists of 3 separate components – the Macbook Pro top aluminium cover, a backlight and a LCD panel. See the picture below.seperatecrosssection1. OEM inner LCD replacement

In a situation where the LCD is not badly cracked, an OEM inner LCD replacement can be done. In this kind of repair, only the outer LCD panel is changed. The cracked LCD panel heated and loosened from the strong LCD sticky tape that adheres the LCD panel to the aluminium cover. A replacement LCD is then glued and assembled back. No matter what your repair shop says, such repairs will always use OEM LCD screens manufactured by third parties. Some of these third parties may be companies manufacturing for Apple, but they are strictly considered non-original, though the resolution is the same as the original and the colour reproduction is quite similar. Such a repair requires an experienced technician with fine micro-motor skills, as any puncture of the backlight by the cracked glass shards of the LCD might result in imperfections to the finished replacement. Any puncture of the backlight will be exhibited as white light streaks when the LCD is turned on.

adheredPros:

  • Cheapest type of repair
  • Same resolution as an original Apple Retina display

Cons:

  • When the backlight is not adjusted well, there might be visible slight light leak at the corners of the LCD
  • Colour gamut is not as wide as the original LCD
  • Might have brightness variation from the original
  • Not suitable for severely cracked LCDs

2. OEM LCD assembly replacement

These kind of LCD assembly replacements comes with an OEM LCD panel pre-assembled onto the aluminium covers. The covers are usually sourced from Macs with spoilt LCD panels. The LCD panels are removed from the old Macbook Po Retina LCD assemblies, and are replaced with new OEM LCDs.

It is suitable for customers who want to have new aluminium covers as their Mac has very badly dented and unsightly aluminium covers, or that their Macs have very badly cracked or shattered LCDs. The prices are higher than OEM inner LCD replacements, and depending on where the repairer sources their parts from, such parts also might suffer the same issues as inner LCD replacements, namely colour and brightness variation as well as light leak issues. We have observed that some of these LCDs have light leak from the Facetime cameras, resulting in purple tinges in the photos or videos being taken with the Facetime cameras. Some unethical repair shops pose off such reassembled LCD assemblies as original Apple LCD assemblies to earn higher margins.

Pros:

  • Mint condition aluminium covers
  • Same resolution as an original Apple Retina display

Cons

  • When the backlight is not adjusted well, there might be visible slight light leak at the corners of the LCD
  • Colour gamut is not as wide as the original LCD
  • Might have brightness variation from the original
  • Light leak from Facetime cameras resulting in purple tinge in videos and images
  • Unethical repair shops pose off such reassembled LCD assemblies as original Apple LCD assemblies

3. Original Apple LCD assembly replacement

These are the best type of replacements. Original Apple LCD assembly replacements are new, untampered with, and has the exact colour gamut , brightness and resolution of the Retina LCDs that comes with Macbook Pro Retina that are sold in Apple stores. These assemblies are from Apple’s factories and have protective films on the front and back of the LCD assembly.

originalretinaLCD

Original Macbook Pro Retina LCD

Notice that such assemblies comes with serial numbers, barcodes, quality control stickers (Gamma PASS), and protective plastic coverings for the LCD cable. They also come with new rubber pads that adheres to the inner LCD hinge.

There are also some original Macbook Pro Retina LCD assemblies that do not come with such stickers. LCD assemblies that do not come with serial number stickers might also be original Apple parts, except that they are procured from different sources which we are not at liberty to reveal.

Pros:

  • Original resolution, colour gamut and brightness
  • Your dented aluminium cover is replaced with a new one
  • Perfect rubber trim
  • Usually does not have purple fringe issues

Cons:

  • Expensive

So how do can we tell if the LCD panel replaced by a Mac repairer is original or not? There are 3 ways you can tell if the LCD assembly a shop offers you is original. The price, whether there are serial number stickers and protective plastic caps for the LCD and WiFi cables, the brightness adjustment and automatic brightness sensors.

1. Price

Price is not the most accurate indicator, but a low price definitely means the LCD replacement is a re-assembled part, even if they replace the entire aluminium cover. Original Macbook Pro Retina 13-inch assemblies typically costs $660 – $750. Original Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch LCD assemblies typically ranges from $750 – $850.

Shops that do replacements at $750 for a 13-inch and $850 for a 15-inch might be a ripoff, but any repair shop that offers an original brand new Apple Macbook Pro 13-inch LCD assembly at a price lower than $660 might be replacing a re-assembled OEM LCD assembly. The cover is probably not brand new but looks as good as new, and the inner LCD itself is an OEM part. That said, Apple Authorised Service Providers do replacements at around $1,000, so any shop that offers a lower price would already be a good deal in a sense.

2. Presence of LCD stickers, barcodes and protective plastic caps on LCD cable connector and WiFi antenna connectors

Original Apple Retina LCD assemblies may not come with such labels and plastic caps, but those that do have them, especially when all the mentioned parts are present, are most likely original.

3. Brightness Adjustment and Automatic Brightness Sensors

The brightness of OEM LCDs tend to be brighter than the original LCDs even at the lowest brightness setting. Brightness adjustments of original LCDs are very minute whereas for OEM LCDs, the brightness will suddenly change from very visible to totally dark, when the brightness is at the lowest visible setting. OEM LCDs may also not adjust the brightness of the LCD quickly even when the automatic brightness setting is set in the System Preferences>Displays>Automatically adjust brightness. One way to test whether a screen is original or not would be to cover the entire Facetime camera with your hand. The brightness of Original Apple LCDs will swiftly dim once the sensor right beside the Facetime camera is covered up.

We know of repair shops who do not tell their customers the LCDs they are replacing are OEM parts. In fact some shops only have OEM LCD inner replacement services or OEM LCD assemblies. Do be careful when choosing a LCD replacement for your Macbook Pro Retina.

Of course, we unabashedly will recommend you give us a try if you have a Macbook that needs a screen replacement.

Apple uses water damaged boards in Apple refurbished devices

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We discovered evidence of Apple Authorised Service Providers using water damaged boards in Apple refurbished devices sometime back. We withheld from publishing our findings sooner. We were not sure if the board that was replaced on our customer’s Mac was repaired and supplied by the Apple Authorised Service Provider in Singapore or it is a company practice adopted by Apple in general. It appears that it is a company practice that Apple adopts for devices sent in for repairs and refurbished products that may be put on sale.

We discovered this issue after a NUS student sent in her Macbook Pro Retina 2014 to us. After our diagnosis, we determined that it may be due to a video issue. We advised her to pursue the issue with Apple Singapore to see if they could escalate her issue to the Mac specialist for a free replacement. Her Mac was just out of warranty for about a few months and there were other users with Macbook Pro 15″ with similar video issues. She managed to secure a free logicboard replacement, which to her dismay, failed again after 6 months.

She brought her Macbook to us for a diagnosis again after having a bad experience with the Apple Authorised Service Provider. We were appalled to see water stains – signs of water damage on the board. Apple eventually refused to replace the board as her Mac was repaired for free and does there is no extended warranty.

This issue has been confirmed by Dr Jessa Bethany Jones. She has relationships with people from the famous iFixit company and is a trusted repairer in the independent repair community. Her video detailing what she discovered is shown below.

We feel the need to blog about this as the general public feel that only Apple is ‘qualified’ to repair Apple products. Besides introducing proprietary pentalobe screws to prevent casual users from opening up their iPhones, Apple even tried to prevent independent home button replacements from being performed by locking down iPhones.

Their reasoning is that paying a premium for repairs done by them will ensure that the parts that are replaced will be brand new original parts. This signals to people the impression that that replacements done at Apple will be superior to those repaired at your local quality independent repair shop.

As shown in our findings and the video, this might not always be true. Independent repair shops can be more professional than Apple Authorised Service Providers. Consumers deserve the right to know what they are getting. Unfortunately the right to repair bill has failed in New York, so premiums for repairs done at Apple is here to stay.

In the meantime, do contact us for quality reliable Mac repair needs. We are able to perform component level repairs so that expensive logicboard replacements are not necessary in most cases. We will never replace your logicboard with a water damaged board that has been repaired. Replacement logicboards from us are either brand new or used but have not been repaired in any way.

Resolve iMac 27″ tilting issue

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In 2012, Apple redesigned the iMac with a slimmer form factor. The new iMacs from 2012 onwards have thinners sides which measures only at a few millimetres. While the design is stunning, users have been posting in forums about the iMac 27″ tilting issue and hinge issue. The iMac tilts forward involuntarily after a few months to 24 months of usage. The screen can no longer be adjusted to its normal position.

Given Apple’s supposed track record for durability, the cause for this issue is surprising. Guess what? This tilting issue occurs because Apple used weak plastic L-shaped spacer to secure the spring mechanism!

iMac 27" tilting issue and hinge issue

Some owners of 27″ iMacs who are affected and have dissembled their iMacs to attempt DIY solutions were appalled that Apple used plastic L-shaped spacer to secure the spring mechanism as the entire hinge, the nuts and the spring were made of strong metal. Apple even used an excessive amount of 9 screws on the bottom and 6 screws on side of the hinge to secure it to the iMac to prevent the hinge from dislodging, but used plastic to hold the spring!

The plastic that Apple used does not even appear to be strong ABS plastic. Some users the iMac 27″ tilting issue and hinge issue is a conspiracy by Apple to earn more money for repairs. This issue seems to plague only the 27″ iMac models. The possible reason is because the iMac 27″ hinge needs to bear more weight than the 21.5″ iMac, so the 21.5″ iMac appears unaffected.

Users from Mac Rumours forum have been discussing the issue for sometime. We are able to replace the hinge with a version that has stronger ABS plastic to resolve the iMac 27″ tilting issue and hinge issue. So far, customers have not had issues with the tilting after replacement. Do contact us if your iMac is facing this issue.

This is what can happen to your Mac if you spill water on it

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This is what can happen to your Mac if you spill water on it. This is an actual photo of a customer’s MacBook Air logicboard that we are trying to save. The customer who sent it in to us spilled water on his Macbook Air, but was not aware, and continued to use his Macbook Air for weeks.

This is what can happen to your Mac if you spill water on it Water damaged Macbook Air

This is what could happen to your Mac or iPhone if you spill water on it and put in rice for days. Contrary to popular notion, rice does not do much in reviving your water damaged Macbook or iPhone. It might take away some moisture but the water can start to corrode your logicboard. If your Mac can start after a spill, you might be doing some kind of electroplating on your logicboard without realising it can fail to the extent of beyond repair.

Most spills on Macs when sent to us in a timely fashion can be rectified. Don’t turn it on again or you risk short-circuiting it, making repairs harder.

We have successfully repaired almost 100 percent of water damaged Macbook that were sent to us within 1-2 days. Those that were beyond repair were typically because the users continued using them for weeks or months, without realising their Macs were already growing mould.

Do bring your Macbook Pro, Macbook Air for servicing with us as soon as possible after it has come into contact with water or beverages. The success rate depends a lot on the amount of time liquids have been left in the Mac.