Recommendation of Speakers for your Mac – Audioengine A2

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Macbook speakers replacement

Audioengine A2

Recently, we have replaced a few Macbook speakers for some customers. The speakers were spoilt due to wear and tear. To avoid Macbook speakers replacement, the best option is to use external desktop speakers for your audio enjoyment. Macbook speakers have smaller domes, which are susceptible to wear and tear. Besides producing better sound, good desktop Macbook speakers also can last for possibly a decade. The Altec Lansing speakers we had lasted for 10 years before it spoilt.

A good pair of speakers that many raved about are the Audioengine A2s. A revised version with a built-in DAC, the A2+ are now being sold instead. The speakers are mid-range multimedia speakers that cross into the audiophile grade. They are encased in glossed MDF wood cabinets, unlike ordinary plastic speakers. They also come with Kevlar woofers and silk-dome tweeters. The RCA and Mini-Jack inputs are gold-plated.

They need a recommended 100 hours of burn-in to sound well, and you need to tweak the setup, such as spacing them equally apart, raising the height to your ear-level, or titling them upwards with speaker stands.

They are available in Gloss White or Black. Comes with 3 years 1-1 exchange warranty. Google for reviews. See audioengineusa.com for more information.

They are available at Horizon Acoustics at Upper Bukit Timah Road Beauty World Centre and Decibel at Sim Lim Square stock them. Google for their contact details.

Macbook Pro Retina sound distortion

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A number of customers have been experiencing Macbook Pro Retina sound distortion issues. Although the Macbook Pro Retina has distinctively louder and better sound speakers resulting in better sound quality, the slimness of the Macbook Pro Retina has resulted in speakers which have slim designs and speaker cones which wear down over time.

Some Apple users have reported that their speakers distort at maximum volume. Our opinion is that any speaker, even the best ones distort at maximum volume, so it is always a good idea not to max out your Mac’s volume. We recommend that you get external speakers for your Mac though. We at Mac Plus use Audio Engine A2+ speakers. They are popular entry level speakers that are popular with Mac users.

Some other recommendations can be found at our founder’s blog at Musings About Life – Sound Category

Macbook Pro Retina speakers typically only spoil after 2 years or more, so most users hoping to get them repaired within the warranty period are out of luck. Macbook Air and iMac speakers do not seem to be affected.

Macbook Pro Retina Sound Distortion

Macbook Pro Retina 15″ Speakers for Mid 2012 – 2014

Pictured above are the speaker replacements for Macbook Pro Retina 15″ Speakers for Mid 2012 – 2015. We have them in stock and they come in a pair. Our stock are sold to us in pairs so we replace both speakers instead of just the affected piece. The speakers go through wear and tear so it is advisable to change both the speakers anyways.

We are able to do Macbook speakers replacements for Macbook Pro Retina 13″ Late 2013 – 2015 models, as well as Macbook Pro 13″ unibody A1278. Contact us for pricing details and stock availability if you are experiencing MacBook Pro Retina sound distortion issues.

Installation takes around 10 mins.

The benefits of solid state drives

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The benefits of solid state drives. Say goodbye to your hard drive!

With solid state technology, you probably won’t need it anymore. Designed to replace traditional hard drives, solid state drives (SSDs) use flash memory to deliver vastly superior performance and durability. Since there are lots of small, moving parts inside your hard drive — magnetic heads, spindles and spinning platters — it’s easy for things to go wrong. In layman terms, you could lose your important data. We have countless of customers who have lost their important school assignments and graphics design work because they did not backup and did not consider an upgrade. Unconvinced? We show you the benefits of solid state drives below.

The benefits of solid state drives

Hard disk drive with small moving parts on the left. Solid state drive on the right – Smaller, lighter, with no moving parts.

Here are four reasons why you will want to consider an SSD.

  1. They’re more durable.

    Hard drives are mechanical. They contain small moving parts which continuously move creates heat, which is a leading factor in hard drive failure. As SSDs do not have moving parts, they’re more reliable and more vibration/shock-resistant than traditional hard drives. They are also more resistant to common drops, accidents, and wear and tear since they do not have the small, susceptible parts of traditional hard drives. If you happened to drop your laptop and it had an SSD installed, your screen would probably break before the SSD. That’s SSD durability.

  2. They’re faster.

    Without moving parts to slow your computer down, SSDs are about 16 to 100x faster. SSDs offer instant-load performance, meaning faster boot times, faster application loading times, and better system responsiveness.

  3. They’re lighter.

    Since SSDs weigh less than hard drives, they’re more mobile-friendly and they help make your laptop easier to carry. With lightweight components and solid construction, SSDs are better suited for the rigours of constant travel.

  4. They’re more efficient.

    Since SSDs have no moving parts, they require less power to operate, which means you’ll get longer battery life. They’re even quieter, too.

Referenced from Crucial’s website.

Why wait? Contact us to get your SSD upgrade!

Macbook Pro Keyboard Replacement. Cheap isn’t always good.

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Actual photo of a Macbook Pro 13-inch keyboard replacement taking place. The keyboard of Macbook resides underneath all the components of your Mac. It is secured by numerous screws or rivets, depending on the model of the Mac. To replace the keyboard, the entire logicboard assembly has to be removed. Then close 100 screws have to be unscrewed and screwed back in. The back light and other components then have to be reinstalled. The work is very time consuming and tedious. Apple Authorised Service Providers do not just replace the Macbook Pro keyboard.

They replace the entire top case with consists of the aluminium faceplate with the keyboard screwed in place. The good thing is that it is easier and less time consuming to replace, but customers end up paying a lot more for a Macbook Pro keyboard replacement.

Macbook Pro keyboard replacement

If you have no love for your work, you can probably skip 10 – 20 screws and the customer won’t be able to tell the difference. The backlight might also be misaligned, resulting in uneven lightning of your Macbook keys. Cheap isn’t always good.

We have had a few customers who came to us because after minor replacements by other Mac repair shops run by foreigners, their Mac was not able to boot up. The shop in question charged them for the replacement part and offered no compensation or solutions as to why their Macs does not work after the repair. Another customer who brought her Mac to us because another repair service was not able to repair her Mac. After opening it, we realised that the microphone cable was broken.

At Mac Plus, we love our work. And we bother to put back all the screws by hand, without missing any screws. We are careful with your Macbook, and we don’t scratch or damage them. This is what differentiates us from the competition. If we ever do damage any components, we will replace or repair them for free. Do contact us for your Mac repair needs.

Compatible Solid-State Drive upgrades for Macs

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Compatible Solid-State Drive Upgrades for your Mac

For those wanting to speed up your Macs, Solid-State Drive upgrades for Macs to replace your traditional hard disk can be one of the best upgrade you can ever do. Macs are notoriously reliable if you take good care of them.

However, not all SSDs are provide the fastest performance for certain Macbook, Macbook Pro, and iMac particularly those with Nvidia MCP79 chipset. If you decide to install a SSD by yourself and choose the wrong drive, you could end up only achieving half the data transfer speed your Mac is designed for.

You can check which chipset your Mac has by going to About This Mac>System Report>SATA/SATA Express.

Solid-State Drive upgrades for Macs

A compatible SSD will show the same Link Speed and Negotiated Link Speed

When you have one of these Macs and you install a Solid-State Drive (SSD) with a Sandforce chipset, you might face an issues where your transfer speed decreases be half as the chipset and the drive you have is incompatible. The Mac will show a negotiated link speed  of either 1.5 Gigabit if your Link Speed is 3 Gigabit (SATA 2) or 3 Gigabit if your Link Speed is 6 Gigabit (SATA 3). Macs before 2011 uses SATA 1 or 2, and later Macs uses SATA 3, which is faster.

Mac upgraded with incompatible Solid State Drive achieving only half the transfer speeds

The Samsung 840 Evo has issues as well. It uses a MEX controller.

If you have one of those Macs, the most compatible product is Crucial. The older BX100 uses a Marvell controller. The current BX200 uses a Silicon Motion controller. We have installed a lot of Crucial users without issues.

The newer Samsung 850 Evo and newest Evo 750do do not appear to have such issues. If you have a Mac that is older than 2011, we still recommend Crucial SSDs for both reliability and cost savings.

Read more about the issue here.

Do check out our current range of Solid-State Drive (SSD) upgrades for your Mac.

Dispelling the “dunk in rice or blow with hairdyrer to revive Macs or iPhones spilled with liquid” myth

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If you have a water damaged Macbook, it is ALWAYS a bad idea to put it into rice. The internet myth is that rice will absorb moisture from your gadget, and you have a chance of getting it working again.

The fact is, leaving your gadget in rice is the same as leaving it out in the open. If fact, leaving it in the open might help with evaporation even better. This method sometimes works because some people get lucky, or the amount of water spilled is minute. The fact is, most of the time, your device is too tightly sealed for water to escape throughly, and leaving it in a close container allows for corrosion to set in.

Water damaged Macbook logicboard

Eww! Corrosion on a Macbook Pro Logicboard.

Using a hair dyer is worse. The air from your dryer usually isn’t strong enough to blow the liquid off the device, especially when the covers are still on. It pushes liquid further into the crevices of the device instead.

If you spill liquid on your Mac, the best thing to do is quickly shut it down using the power button, with the lid open at 90 degrees, invert the Mac and let the keyboard rest on a cloth on the edge of your table if you are not able to send it to a repair shop immediately.

The next thing to do is to contact a reputable repair centre that specialise in repairing liquid damaged Macs.

At Mac Plus we have been able to repair almost all water damaged Macbook Pro, Macbook Air and Macbook Retina. There were two which we did not manage to repair as the owners sent in their Macs after leaving the Mac un-repaired for a month. The corrosion was too widespread and invasive.

Contact us if you need reliable Mac repairs, Mac SSD upgrades and Mac RAM upgrades. We provide Wifi signal issue solutions as well.

See our Facebook: www.facebook.com/macplus.sg for our 5 star reviews!

What to do if you spill water on your Mac?

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What do you do if you accidentally spill water or liquids on your Mac? Many people’s first response if their Mac shutdowns down and refuses to boot is that they have a  water-damaged Mac, has suffered a short-circuit, and that is it permanently damaged and requires an expensive repair, such as a logicboad replacement.

Indeed, this is what Apple Authorized Service Providers would probably tell you. They will probably tell you that your logicboard, which is the main component inside your Mac is damaged and requires a $800 – $1000 replacement.

They are not wrong per se, but the damage can be easily reversed. MacBooks that have suffered water spills may have corroded parts, but they can be easily revived by chemical washes and by doing component level repairs on the board.

Using industrial cleaning machines with the right chemicals, corrosion on the logicboard can be cleaned off. The board is then flushed with 100% alcohol to remove any water, moisture and impurities. It is then left to dry. The board is tested and any short-circuited chips on the logicboard are replaced.

At Mac Plus, we have a high rate in reviving Macs that has water spilled on them. One customer even spilled beer on his Macbook Pro Retina (ouch) and was glad he didn’t have to buy a new one!

So, what should you do the next time you spill water on your Mac, or any other gadget?

  1. Remove all power, such as the magsafe connector
  2. Wipe dry the liquid as much as possible
  3. Shut it down immediately
  4. Do not turn the device on again
  5. If you are geeky, remove the backplate, battery, and dissemble your Mac
  6. Send in it to a professional repair shop that explicitly states they do chemical washes and logicboard repairs. Some shops might offer logicbaord replacements and charge you a higher price for it.

One of our customer brought in hers, which was declared dead by the service providers. The board even has algae on it. It was eventually revived by Mac Plus.