You can retain older hardware and there's always the Hacintosh path, although for many of us the latter is unacceptable due to potential reliability issues and contractual obligations given a Hacintosh is a breach of Apple's T&C by default.
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2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar keyboard issue
- Thread starter sultanoflondon
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You can retain older hardware and there's always the Hacintosh path, although for many of us the latter is unacceptable due to potential reliability issues and contractual obligations given a Hacintosh is a breach of Apple's T&C by default.
Q-6
I'm holding onto my 2013 Macbook Pro for as long as it lasts. I have tried Hackintoshing a few rigs before, but eventual issues forced me to turn around.
Only practical solution for those that don't care for Apple's latest & greatest. The obsession with thinner for the sake of it is now little more than an exercise in diminishing returns. Performance, practicality, usability all very much compromised, personally I give up, unless Apple introduces a new product akin to the new iMac Pro we're firmly stuck with a depreciating consumer product...
The other alternative is to switch platforms as Apple is either not interested or incapable of delivering to it's users with higher demands in a portable format. Right now I don't know anyone using the new MBP in a professional role, their either holding on, or already moved on...
Q-6
I can already hear Tim Cook spin this during WWDC into - people don't want "regular" computers anymore, they want iPad Pro. Meanwhile people really prefer older design.
I'll just tune in saying that my Late 2013 model is working flawlessly over 4 years later. While at that, over 450 charge cycles and battery health is at 85-87%. Not many new Apple Devices can boast such track record, yet we'll hear in June that "People love them and we have received wonderful feedback".
I truly feel sorry for those of you who've had issues, but to be fair, as far as aleging that this means that Apple is terrible and the macbooks are junk, you gotta remember that MILLIONS of people own this machine and gere we have a handful of people with bad experiences.
For those of you with issues that had to pay or were basically tirned around; Don't accept that. Call and speak with the relations team. I've had a couple of unacceptable correspondence with Apple and it never NOT gets taken care of once I've spoken to them.
As far as the 2017 15" Pro I own. My issues are that the TB3 ports are worn down after only a couple of months so the cables don't click in anymore and just slide right out. Even just typing will walk the charging cable out.
Sometimes it won't charge when I plug the cable in. I have to unplug all parts of the charging chain amd plug it all back in with varying differences in what connects first and it will just randomly start to charge.
Sometimes while watching YouTube, it will flicker.
I'm not saying that Apple's keyboard issue is very minimal, but with the past class action lawsuits, if the 2017 keyboards were that bad, or become as bad, I'm sure there will be a mass out cry. I also believe that a good portion of people who've had these keyboard issues, eat around the mac and get food particles or whatever else may be on their hands, in the keys. So I am curious as the the number of keyboards that mess up, with no help.
For those of you with issues that had to pay or were basically tirned around; Don't accept that. Call and speak with the relations team. I've had a couple of unacceptable correspondence with Apple and it never NOT gets taken care of once I've spoken to them.
As far as the 2017 15" Pro I own. My issues are that the TB3 ports are worn down after only a couple of months so the cables don't click in anymore and just slide right out. Even just typing will walk the charging cable out.
Sometimes it won't charge when I plug the cable in. I have to unplug all parts of the charging chain amd plug it all back in with varying differences in what connects first and it will just randomly start to charge.
Sometimes while watching YouTube, it will flicker.
I'm not saying that Apple's keyboard issue is very minimal, but with the past class action lawsuits, if the 2017 keyboards were that bad, or become as bad, I'm sure there will be a mass out cry. I also believe that a good portion of people who've had these keyboard issues, eat around the mac and get food particles or whatever else may be on their hands, in the keys. So I am curious as the the number of keyboards that mess up, with no help.
There is literally no video evidence of any of these MacBook Pro keyboard failures on youtube and it's been two years. The top videos that are supposedly double presses have someone pressing once and resting his fingers on the keyboard. As in he is literally pressing the keyboard twice and thinking it is double pressing.
The keyboard is shallow and you can easily press it twice.
like look at this video of a supposedly defective machine, but if you resize the video and look at how he presses, he starts not even pressing the button but pressing on the aluminum you can see the button not come down and then up at all. The stupidity is strong here.
these 'double-presses' and what not are literally users who need to take those 'how to use a Mac' classes they have for seniors.
The keyboard is shallow and you can easily press it twice.
these 'double-presses' and what not are literally users who need to take those 'how to use a Mac' classes they have for seniors.
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I know this sounds crazy, but try a different cable. Mine did the same thing and it turned out that the USB-C cable was the culprit, not the port. . .
You ignore everything except the part were he moves his finger to the key and the first try to strike. No single click should easily produce a double click (Using it wrong.... ****ing please...). No evidence on youtube, go actually try searching and setting the filter to last year, you get some hundreds.
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Must originate in a censored country
I got numerous hits, that and most Mac orientated forums have numerous threads & posts on the same subject. Bigger factor for me is the members especially those who have fervently supported Apple and it's direction with the MBP only to fall victim of the keyboard failing. Some of the same member's have even recanted frank discussion with Apple representatives and yes the keyboard is problematic and deemed a significant issue, more so the 2016 than the 2017.Hopefully Apple will resolve the issue for 2018 as above anything else it's not good for business, certainly not the customers. The keyboard's failing is exasperated by the design resulting in the top case needing to be replaced which adds up to a lengthy repair by Apple standards, and more unhappy customers...
As for repeat failure IMO the failure mechanism is partially related to high operating temperatures, therefore those with heavy workloads may very well incur multiple failures of the keyboard's, and we do see parallels. I seriously doubt the same group are spending their time eating breakfast over what is effectively a significant factor of their livelihood
Q-6
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Just first 15 seconds of that video and I've seen about 10 times this person pressed arrow down and there was no effect. He actually did press it - just put on your headphones and you can hear the button moving with each press.
I agree with you - people have perfectly working keyboards and come here just to complain. I only wonder why nobody did that before 2016.
I've already searched youtube and I've found nothing. Please post here because if there were literally hundreds of them I would of found one by now.
The video I posted is proof that some people are doing double presses on accident and thinking their keyboards are broken. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic.
At certain parts of the video the button does not go up and down he starts pressing on the metal right beside it. It's extremely easy to see. Please put on some glasses.
vemac wrote (regarding USB-c):
"As far as the 2017 15" Pro I own. My issues are that the TB3 ports are worn down after only a couple of months so the cables don't click in anymore and just slide right out. Even just typing will walk the charging cable out."
Just to be clear about it, the ports are NOT "thunderbolt3" (even though they can OUTPUT to tbolt3). They are USB-c, using the USB-c form factor.
This makes me wonder about the overall "robustness" of the USB-c port design, insofar as day-to-day usage is concerned. Is it a connection design that won't hold up over long term usage?
All the more why I'm happier that when I had to "make a choice" between the 2015 design MBPro (with USB-a ports) and the 2016 (with USB-c)... that I chose the 2015 !
"As far as the 2017 15" Pro I own. My issues are that the TB3 ports are worn down after only a couple of months so the cables don't click in anymore and just slide right out. Even just typing will walk the charging cable out."
Just to be clear about it, the ports are NOT "thunderbolt3" (even though they can OUTPUT to tbolt3). They are USB-c, using the USB-c form factor.
This makes me wonder about the overall "robustness" of the USB-c port design, insofar as day-to-day usage is concerned. Is it a connection design that won't hold up over long term usage?
All the more why I'm happier that when I had to "make a choice" between the 2015 design MBPro (with USB-a ports) and the 2016 (with USB-c)... that I chose the 2015 !
Thanls for the tip, but Apple sent me a new Apple cable and charger, and then a belkin cable. Still does it. Really weird.
Hmm. Well damn, looks like you’ll have to send it in for service. That’s unfortunate. I’m assuming those ports are part of the logic board as well.
Yea I do. Sucks cause I use it for work every day and they said I could have a loner mac at first, but then retracted that. Good thing is, they gave me a mophie, or whatever that brand is, battery pack to use when it's not working. It works for the battery pack 100 percent of the time, so that makes it even stranger to me.
I owned a piece of garbage that Apple calls a 15” MBP for a year. Then I sold it because of the keyboard. Actually, I had 2 machines; Apple replaced the first (2016) one because it kept crashing. Then I got sick of the rubbish keyboard on the replacement machine they sent me in may last year....
* The first key to play up was the S key.. the compressed air trick worked, but it shook my confidence in the product because I’ve never had such a problem with any keyboard before, let alone one that cost this much! Having to keep a can of compressed air on hand to deal with dust/crumbs - how ridiculous!
* Now for the kicker..!!. I’d just eaten a mandarin & went back to my machine to resume typing. Turns out that I had some juice on my finger tip & it got on the edge of the C key. Not a lot, but enough to matter. I wiped it off immediately with a tissue, but the key started sticking. Then the space bar (next to the C key) stopped working properly.. It stopped clicking & instead felt like thudding on a dead piece of plastic. To cut a long story short, Apple ended up replacing the keyboard to fix the problem. However, after they replaced the keyboard, they rang to tell me the TouchID went faulty, so they had to order the ‘replacement part’ for it... Turns out they had to replace the whole logicboard to fix the TouchID.!!
So not only did they replace the keyboard top case (including battery & trackpad), they replaced the logicboard as well...!! When I picked it up, they gave me an invoice for repair for $1702.85 AUD..!!! Lucky it was under warranty.!!
When I got the machine home with the brand new keyboard, I noticed after a couple of days that the left command key would intermittently stop clicking nicely & feel spongy instead. Not often, but it was there.
At that point, I flipped out. I had lost all confidence in the machine & how much I could end up needing to spend on repairs (a small fortune) after the warranty expired.
So instead of demanding a refund from Apple, I sold the stinking thing instead.
Never again Apple.!!! I have now gone back to Windows!! While my new Lenovo isn’t as flash as an MBP, it has a wonderful keyboard.!!
* The first key to play up was the S key.. the compressed air trick worked, but it shook my confidence in the product because I’ve never had such a problem with any keyboard before, let alone one that cost this much! Having to keep a can of compressed air on hand to deal with dust/crumbs - how ridiculous!
* Now for the kicker..!!. I’d just eaten a mandarin & went back to my machine to resume typing. Turns out that I had some juice on my finger tip & it got on the edge of the C key. Not a lot, but enough to matter. I wiped it off immediately with a tissue, but the key started sticking. Then the space bar (next to the C key) stopped working properly.. It stopped clicking & instead felt like thudding on a dead piece of plastic. To cut a long story short, Apple ended up replacing the keyboard to fix the problem. However, after they replaced the keyboard, they rang to tell me the TouchID went faulty, so they had to order the ‘replacement part’ for it... Turns out they had to replace the whole logicboard to fix the TouchID.!!
So not only did they replace the keyboard top case (including battery & trackpad), they replaced the logicboard as well...!! When I picked it up, they gave me an invoice for repair for $1702.85 AUD..!!! Lucky it was under warranty.!!
When I got the machine home with the brand new keyboard, I noticed after a couple of days that the left command key would intermittently stop clicking nicely & feel spongy instead. Not often, but it was there.
At that point, I flipped out. I had lost all confidence in the machine & how much I could end up needing to spend on repairs (a small fortune) after the warranty expired.
So instead of demanding a refund from Apple, I sold the stinking thing instead.
Never again Apple.!!! I have now gone back to Windows!! While my new Lenovo isn’t as flash as an MBP, it has a wonderful keyboard.!!
Uh huh. And you registered here just to post this today?
Forgive me if I don’t believe a word you wrote.
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Yes, I absolutely did, because reading through this thread was deja-vu for me. Just wanted to share my experience/opinion, as a consumer so enraged with Apple's latest MBP. You're welcome to believe it or not.
I've had two iMacs, MacAirs for my wife/kids & the old 2009 Macbook I'm typing on now. They've all been very good machines. Never had a single problem with any of them.
But I wouldn't go anywhere near Apple's latest MBP again... It's a lovely machine - it ought to be given it's cost - apart from it's rotten keyboard, which it's pretty clear many people have had similar experiences to me. I don't mind the very different feel of the keyboard, but it's reliability & resilience to the everyday dust/crumbs/muck that any keyboard should be able to handle is poor. So for work, it's back to Windows for me....
Here's the invoice Apple sent me for the repair work... Pretty outrageous for a machine I put in to fix a C key & spacebar huh?....Just lucky it was under warranty.... Oh and I was 40 cents out.. my bad...
Yes, I absolutely did, because reading through this thread was deja-vu for me. Just wanted to share my experience/opinion, as a consumer so enraged with Apple's latest MBP. You're welcome to believe it or not.
I've had two iMacs, MacAirs for my wife/kids & the old 2009 Macbook I'm typing on now. They've all been very good machines. Never had a single problem with any of them.
But I wouldn't go anywhere near Apple's latest MBP again... It's a lovely machine - it ought to be given it's cost - apart from it's rotten keyboard, which it's pretty clear many people have had similar experiences to me. I don't mind the very different feel of the keyboard, but it's reliability & resilience to the everyday dust/crumbs/muck that any keyboard should be able to handle is poor. So for work, it's back to Windows for me....
Here's the invoice Apple sent me for the repair work... Pretty outrageous for a machine I put in to fix a C key & spacebar huh?....Just lucky it was under warranty.... Oh and I was 40 cents out.. my bad...
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I mean, you‘re literally posting this in a thread about MBP keyboard issues where the OP and several other people point out and share their experiences about these issues, and there are numerous threads like this if you just look at the similar threads at the bottom of the page or type „keyboard MacBook Pro“ in the search function. I have no idea how that accounts to „I‘ve found nothing“ to you, you must literally have found at least one such thread because you are commenting on one.
Instead a single random video of someone who might have confused a double press for a keyboard issue during a small part of a video somehow proves that these issues aren‘t a thing and that people are just using it wrong? I mean no offense but that‘s not a very nice thing to say to people who just shared their experiences about having their $2000+ machines failing on them.
What exactly has you so enraged? Apple (according to you) replaced the parts required to fix your machine, under warranty. Period. What more do you feel Apple owes you? A personal apology from the CEO?
This forum is not representative of the entire user base of the 2016/2017 MacBook pro(s). Apple sells millions of machines and there are what? 100 people on here who claim to have had problems? That’s not a large number at all in the grand scheme of things. There are even fewer than that complaining about the 2017 model. My 2016 had issues with the keyboard, and so I returned it and picked up a 2017 model.
Saying that you are enraged over something as trivial as a repair.. man, go take a walk or spend time with the family. There are a lot more important things to put your passion into than that.
Out of interest are there any issues with 2015 MacBook Pro keyboards? If they develop a fault because of the different mechanism is it just a case of Apple replacing the faulty key, or does the whole top have to be switched like in the 2016/17 models?