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#macbookpro#butterflykeyboard#righttorepair

We need to talk about failing keyboards on these new Macbooks.

Louis Rossmann

2.6M subscribers • 10 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Louis Rossmann, owner of Rossmann Repair Group
  • May be out of date. The tools, versions or practices it shows have likely moved on.
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

614K views8 years ago2 recommendations

HardwareTools and practiceElectronics

Louis Rossmann explains the design flaws of Apple's butterfly keyboards and demonstrates why they are extremely difficult and expensive to repair.

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Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Pointed to as a clear explanation of the repairability issues and design flaws of Apple's butterfly keyboards.

ballenfon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion”

Louis Rossmann has examined these issues in detail on his electronics repair YouTube channel: link to this video (I disagree with the level of his vitriol against Apple, but I appreciate his deep teardowns and clear explanations. He just doesn't seem to understand how valuable the Apple software is vs. Windows to those who need or appreciate osx.)

ru999golon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Apple’s repair kill switch hasn’t been activated yet”

Apple intentionally builds their keyboards in such a way that it is incredible difficult to replace, the amount of skilled labor required doesn't make it profitable to just replace the keyboard. Its eye opening seeing a keyboard replacement being performed: link to this video Who is to blame for letting it get so far? I think its not just Apples fault, its governments fault not regulating them and consumers fault for still buying and even defending their practices (which you can very well observe in this thread).

verisimilitudeon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Apple Sued an iPhone Repair Shop Owner in Norway and Lost”

His comments about the keyboard in the current MacBook Pros are particularly apt: link to this video So, even a person holding 1 (2, 3!) genuine Apple keyboard(s) in their hands likely still couldn't do the repair -- they'd have to get a new top case. Out of warranty, I've heard it is a $500 repair. That seems to be a direct consequence of ignoring repairability (the maintainability ship sailed long ago).

shabbleon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion”

If it's just a keycap (and maybe even the butterfly mechanism) that shouldn't be too bad. link to this video (from about 5:20) talks a bit about what's involved in an actual keyboard replacement, if you ignore some of the histrionics. I think from what I've heard that for actual replacements, Apple will swap out the whole 'top case' subassembly, which could be a 4-500$ part if it's not covered under warranty.

shawnon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Apple’s repair kill switch hasn’t been activated yet”

Keyboards, on the other hand, are now impossible to repair. link to this video Interesting. I can edit my comment after it was vouched. Hmm. I could exploit this loophole. But I won't – yet – because I care about HN.

onepremiseon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Appl Still Hasn’t Fixd Its MacBook Kyboad Problm”

louis Rossman did an episode on the macbook keyboard problems: link to this video It's insane what a mac user must go through even to attempt to repair this themselves. Another reason it's important to support right to repair, link . There's also a lawsuit for the keyboard defects: link