I saw a post of someone that got his 2016 MBP´s display replaced and the new display had the fixed flex cable. Since apple apparently fixed the "flexgate" problem in the 2018 model and my MBP was manufactured in late 2018 I'm hoping they included those new displays in the nTB models as well. I guess I´ll have to open my laptop if we want to find out.
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Macbook Pro Flexgate discussion [Merged]
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https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18271733/flexgate-display-problem-macbook-pro-apple
Getting attention on The Verge. Great!
No response from Apple despite multiple attempts to publicly comment - NOT great
The last paragraph, also not great:
"I don’t blame Apple for Flexgate. Design problems can and do arise. But the company ought to live up to its own aspirations by acknowledging the issue and treating its customers fairly."
...If Apple is not to blame, who is? The end user? Samsung? Microsoft? Give me a break
Getting attention on The Verge. Great!
No response from Apple despite multiple attempts to publicly comment - NOT great
The last paragraph, also not great:
"I don’t blame Apple for Flexgate. Design problems can and do arise. But the company ought to live up to its own aspirations by acknowledging the issue and treating its customers fairly."
...If Apple is not to blame, who is? The end user? Samsung? Microsoft? Give me a break
this is great news! I really hope they make a video about this and no just that post
Any evidence that 2017 MBP nTB model (one that was NOT updated in 2018) might have a longer cable IF manufactured in Q3-18, so well after new 2018 TB models went on sale? That's the model I have. Haven't experienced the issue yet and if what I'm thinking might be true, would give me some hope, otherwise it's just a matter of time before it shows.
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You'd have to look for someone that has done a teardown or look at repair statistics.
I personally could not deal with potential reliability issues - I need my MacBook Pros to be rock solid reliable when I need them and that's why I carry two with me. If one did fail, I could use the other until I got it repaired or replaced it. I think that those of us that use our MacBook Pros to earn a living feel the same way (in that it just has to work). This stuff with holding the MacBook Pro at an angle and spraying compressed air into it is a non-starter for me. No new MBPs for me until they release it and it is shown to be reliable (I would give it six to nine months after release). They should be easy to buy after that time.
I have the same model as you and it was manufactured in Q4-18. The only way to find out is to open the laptop. If I had the tools I'd do it myself.
I think tha our machines have the problem already solved, but there is only one way to find out.
Just figured you guys would find this interesting. My late 2016 MacBook Pro had been messed up with vertical lines and pinkness for a good few months now. First Genius Bar appointment I was met with a $475 repair cost I just didn’t wanna swallow at this point. Went in a few days ago and a genius threw it into repair under the screen coating program and it appears it went off without a hitch, granted I think everyone from back then had at least a little of it, so I’m really happy to be getting a new screen for my baby.
Yes I read this somewhere, maybe even this thread. Good they do things right on the second try. I do want to hope they implemented the new flex on 13 nTB (2017) models manufactured June-18 and beyond as they are still being produced. We can only know when we open and see right away, or wait till the problem manifests itself later (hope not).
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Totally agree and hope our machines won't have this and for everybody else I hope Apple acts on this soon.
Until we have proof of a measured length cable on the replacement screen or an admittance from Apple do not assume this has been addressed or fixed with a revised part.
To someone who has had their laptop fixed and thinks they have a longer cable - take it apart and measure it or send it to ifixit and let them do it.
UNTIL THEN this problem has not been addressed.
Is the verdict even out whether or not the longer cable resolves flexgate? Too soon to tell, right?
I'm sure it probably helps but is it actually the silver bullet?
I'm sure it probably helps but is it actually the silver bullet?
Nope. It’s built into the display. Apple quietly lengthened the cable by 2mm in 2018s so Apple is aware of it, whether they admit it or not. I’d like to hear them try and BLAME the 2018 on the screen manufacturers! Like they couldn’t get 2mm shorter ones! So yeah, document, document, document. Creating a work history at Apple Store is the best way to get things covered. People keep opting out of AppleCare but I’ve put it on every device it was offered over the years and when I walk in, especially armed with knowledge of what the problem already is, and sheer numbers of people affected, print outs of GPU or Kernal panics or Bridge OS crashes from T2 chip mysteriously left out of new 2019 iMacs you know, just like 2mm longer cables in 2018, THEY know.
Sadly take your pick, T2 chip with multiple daily to weekly Bridge OS crashes unsolved since Jan 2018 iMac Pro release + total elimination of data recovery ports for the SSD from the board or reliable 2017 T1 chip that pretty much fixed everything about the 2016 Models while adding 10bit H265 HEVC hardware acceleration necessary for almost all native 4K streaming like Netflix 4K and needs 7th Gen iGPU to confirm the HDCP 2.2 DRM compliance as well, but have the 2mm shorter display cable.
The one you can certainly rule out is 2016 8 bit Skylake MBP b/c speakers pop, 1st gen butterfly, shorter display cable, but basically just having to do a hybrid decode of 10bit H265 that still puts more on CPU despite graphics driver updates than claims made and until Metal 2 in High Sierra was entirely a software decode (decompresss & play) done entirely with a CPU load 50X H264.
Translations: You can use brute horsepower to do 10bit H265 even on an Ivy Bridge but with 50X CPU load to play that same 50% smaller H265 1080p video file you’ll be hard pressed to not affect battery life. (4K is pointless on a 2K Retina laptop btw, just makes CPU also have to transcode and downscale resolution to 2K while decompressing still giant 60GB file sizes) so even if you have 4K external monitor, definitely don’t mirror display on 2016!
I’d save in 1080p and let monitor do the upscale (again not mirroring, extend display) while being able to stream at even smaller 10bit 1080p H265 birate. Just make sure you match Chroma and refresh rates or upscale will look like garbage. Done right, it’s basically just doubling pixel density and basically indistinguishable from native 4K, even on a Roku Ultra if you Roku required 4K60HZ HDMI port on TV and go into Roku hidden menus and match up Chroma to 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 etc.
I’ve yet to upgrade my 1080p TVs b/c my Bravia gets so many compliments 10 yrs later, but 90% of people complain of upscale results are using 4K30HZ HDMI ports on TVs with same Roku requiring 4K60HZ and not matching Chroma etc. I now have a 4K HDR Apple TV and lack of mKv support (meant) my server having to decompress and demux and extract the MP4 and THEN reencode and COMPRESS video before sending (encoding 10bit x265 is even MORE taxing on a CPU than decoding, so my QNAP TS-451 Intel Dual Core Bay Trail J1800 w/Intel 4000HD while having Intel Quick Sync (hardware acceleration for H264) couldn’t handle 10bit x265 demux and re-encode and I had to use Infuse 5 as workaround because is supports mKv and about every audio and video codec patent because it pays for them! Recently though, Intel must of down some graphic driver software changes or “something” allowing to “direct play” mKv to get sent and demuxed by much more capable A10X chip, because I now and able to stream x265 mkv using PLEX. PLEX was also rebuilt from ground up and could be something on their end but Roku supports mkv and about every 10bit x265 HEVC in existence uses software that packages as AAC mkv? That’s why I felt forced to go Roku ultra (or Nvidia shield) but Apple TV interface and remote is so dang good that now that it’s demuxing mkv differently somehow, I’m finding it hard to go back to Roku Ultra. My CPU monitor definitely sits @5% instead of 98% so it’s direct playing at least until it hits the ATV 4K somehow!
(I know I went above and beyond question but so tired of people thinking native 4K is necessary. Even 2160p 10bit HEVC movie is 60GB so my 18TB NAS RAID 5 volume would only hold 275-330 movies! Meanwhile 6TB NAS drives costing $250x4 and cost of NAS itself has it costing $2000 to store 275 native 4K movies even in smaller files 50% smaller than H264! I now save and store 1080p in 50% smaller files and bitrate also then shrinks so things streams like a dream, and can even handle more remote streams out of the house to family and friends. If they want to upscale, their streaming boxes or 4K TV can upscale it and done right is so much more efficient and inexpensive.
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Not exact assembly but display cable is still a built in ribbon cable that runs over the hinges. So answer is “most likely” much like fact all 2018 models Air, MBP, (new) mini have T2 chip ARM coprocessor that has been crashing machines multiple times daily to at least weekly and lost work during many Bridge OS crashes (new OS made to communicate between ARM instruction set and Intel X86.) Since Jan 2018 Apple has know about this in $4500-$15000 2017 iMac Pro! Yet continued to put in every 2018 model without finding a fix and interestly 2019 iMac refresh REMOVED the T2 chip! So 2017 T1 chipped 27” 5K Quad Core iMac with user ungradeable RAM door or 2019 27” iMac with identical RAM access is still the only safe bet! Personally RX 580 only GPU capable of VR so I’d get that or look toward Vega 48 $350 upgrade!
Now 2019 21” iMac also has T2 removed but the RAM is a pain to upgrade yourself and best spend extra for 27” and upgrade RAM yourself. If needing a laptop I’d dip back to 2014 15” MBP b/c 2015 technically has 1st gen butterfly with “island” chiclet layout, hybrid keyboard. 2014 15” still has PCie 3.0 x 4 SSDs whereas 2014 13” only 3.0 x 2 SSD and Quad Core 15” with Dual graphics will keep you pertinent and bit more future proofed. No keyboard or Display cable issues, still benches 14000 vs marginal 1600 in 2018 MBPs which have 2mm longer cable where Apple hoped to fix the issue but it’s not looking like it worked! Just like a certain keyboard memebrain idea? Hmm....
Too soon, the older cable took at least a year if not longer to fail, and since the bend in the newer longer cable is not as extreme, the wear and tear is reduced. The longer cable may have fixed it long enough to out last the life of the laptop. No one really knows.
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And there are other cables running to the display as well. What do those cables do? Have they been lengthened or strengthened? So far were seeing other issues besides the "stagelight" problem that is related to cable flex - is that a separate cable, the same cable, and if so, where is the other cable failing. it is length or something else?
Repeating: this has not been resolved yet, as far as any of us know replacement screens are not getting a longer cable because they have not been measured yet. Until Apple admits the problem, or a replaced screen cable is measured, the problem has not been resolved.
Based on what data besides your imagination?Apple probably sells more high end computers than all other makers combined. Are we talking about Microsoft who’s surface books had return rates of 20% in 90 days and some of the highest failure rates in the industry? Or razer who sells just a small bunch of laptops which are traditionally plagued by heat issues? Dell seems to be doing fine with XPS line, even though their forums are also full of complaining users (issues with GPU, coil whine etc. etc.).
Wake up. Everyone has issues. The grass is not greener on the other side.
Once again... Please provide your source for these claims. When I go to various sites and read customer reviews I see mostly happiness about the Surface Line. And the Book 2 is an Amazon Choice. Given that Microsoft is new to the hardware game they seem to be doing quite well. How long has Apple been making computers?
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Su...s=gateway&sprefix=Surface+book,aps,179&sr=8-2
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Everyone does have issues. My daughter bought an Asus RoG last year. Great laptop but it has issues. She looked at a number of companies and wanted something with the fewest issues. After she had it for a while, a static charge fried the headphone jack. It's known to happen. So she uses a USB adapter now. I've had laptops with defects but I've had them fixed if they were spotted during the warranty period.
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Microsoft hardware is doing very good now, but it took them years to get the surface business out of red zone (note past tense used in my post), e.g.: https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/14/16142490/microsoft-surface-consumer-reports-memo-return-rates And even with their current success, their tablet+computer revenue is 25% of Apple's Mac revenue only, which gives you an indirect idea about sale numbers.
About Razer: their entire revenue in H1 2018 was lees than 4% of Apple's Mac revenue in the last quarter. You can guess yourself how much actual laptop hardware they sell.
As to Dell and Razer issues, I'll let it to you to browse their forums.
Well I have used both Dell and Razer as well as Microsoft. And Consumer Reports has been suspect for quite some time now. They really have no idea about tech or cars. In the end, yes problems happen. I know that, what matters to me is how the company handles them. I have been disappointed in Dell not because my Alienware had an issue, but because they refused to acknowledge it and do the right thing. I had one issue with one of my Surface products, but Microsoft didn't play "dumb" (We never heard of that) and took care of the issue and apologized, telling me this is not the experience we wanted you to have. Contrast this with Apple pretending like they don't know what is going on, and charging their customers for a flaw they are well aware of.
I wanted to buy a 2016 Mac to replace my 2012, but no freaking way!
I completely agree with you. And that is one of the reasons why I am using Apple, both professionally and privately. I really have no idea what kind of history you had with them so that you think that they "play dumb", but that is quite in contrast to what the vast majority of consumers experience. There is a reason why Apple has consistently been among the top tech companies in regards to customer satisfaction year after year.
I am happy that you have had a good experience, but the forums both here and at Apple are filled with users complaining that when they take their computers in for a known issue, the usual response is: "We never heard of that" or "We haven't seen that." This is the exact response users got when they complained about the keyboard, flexgate, staingate, and the whole gpu fiasco. It is usually a denial on Apple's part until the class action lawsuits kick in.
In the end, yes problems happen. I know that, what matters to me is how the company handles them.
I think both of you are actually right, apple costumer experience its great at stores when you have common problems or something when bad that was caused by the user but when it comes to more Serious issues like the listed above they just play dumb it seems like they're told to just act like they haven't heard of it because clearly they already had a lot of cases like this in the stores
I think both of you are actually right, apple costumer experience its great at stores when you have common problems or something when bad that was caused by the user but when it comes to more Serious issues like the listed above they just play dumb it seems like they're told to just act like they haven't heard of it because clearly they already had a lot of cases like this in the stores
I have a 15" Pro 2017 (manufactured in February 2018), I have opened the case and it seems to me it is already using the updated longer cables.
I attached pictures. The zoomed-in image was taken with the lid completely opened.
Attachments
Looks promising. But until the flex cable is measured we can’t confirm the problem has been resolved.
Sorry, I do not agree. I don’t want to disassemble the screen because it is simply unnecessary.
I think we just need more pictures of the cables that broke and the kind of curvature they had at maximum stress.
The issue is due to a insufficient radius of curvature, if we can see the radius of curvature has changed (we need more proofs of machines of various manufacturing dates, so please help), there is no point in measuring the cable, which is impractical for the average user.
Ifixit measured the cable because they saw a much better curvature, hence they wanted to check if the cable was different, but the cable doesn’t fail because it is short, it fails due to flexural stress with an insufficient curvature.