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Apple claims keyboard fix is permanent...

K

kjvmartin

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 11, 2016
353
613
Detroit
I had a 2016 ntb Macbook Pro whch had repeated issues under AppleCare. They replaced it with a 2017 MacBook Pro six months ago. My left shift key gave out, so I had to take it in to the Apple Store again today.

They are sending it out for repair, again, and claim that as of one week ago they have been replacing the keyboards with a new and updated design which should no longer fail.

I hadn't read this anywhere, so I thought I would share it.
 
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You’ll find out eventually if that’s true, one way or another.

Personally, I lean towards calling BS, because somebody, somewhere within Apple would have likely leaked some sort of internal document that announced such a thing. I suspect that it’s a rumour that’s going around within Apple, intentional or not. Anyway, even with that theory, time will also tell.
 
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duervo said:
You’ll find out eventually if that’s true, one way or another.

Personally, I lean towards calling BS, because somebody, somewhere within Apple would have likely leaked some sort of internal document that announced such a thing. I suspect that it’s a rumour that’s going around within Apple, intentional or not. Anyway, even with that theory, time will also tell.
Click to expand...

I am very skeptical, indeed. When I was switched from the '16 to '17 they claimed that the '17 was improved and should have no further keyboard problems. This was not true. I asked him why they keep replacing it with a part that doesn't last. This manager said that there's a definite change in all 2017 MBPs being sold as of one week ago and all replacements as well.

I am also shocked that it wasn't announced more publicly, if true.
 
I got my 15" MacBook Pro 2016 back on Wednesday with a new, replaced keyboard. One key failed two days later. So unless I got an old replacement part, the keyboards are still as fragile as they have been.
 
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I bought a new MacBook a month ago. Everything's fine now. Are these keyboard problems something that develops over time or have they fixed it on the 2018 models?
 
Nothing has been fixed yet, as far as it seems. Timeline also isn't quite clear. Some appear to have zero issues, for some (like me) keyboards fail in about 3-4 months (on my fourth, failing keyboard now, waiting to get it replaced again).

To be honest - expect your keyboard to fail sooner rather than later. With the new 4 year warranty at least it is only the time you are losing and not money.
 
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537635 said:
Nothing has been fixed yet, as far as it seems. Timeline also isn't quite clear. Some appear to have zero issues, for some (like me) keyboards fail in about 3-4 months (on my fourth, failing keyboard now, waiting to get it replaced again).

To be honest - expect your keyboard to fail sooner rather than later. With the new 4 year warranty at least it is only the time you are losing and not money.
Click to expand...

Any particular keys or random?
 
Random, sometimes more than one, but mostly upper half. Now I have letter "j" sometimes registering twice. Mostly when typing fast, so half of my passwords cannot be entered, unless I type them really slowly.
 
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537635 said:
Random, sometimes more than one, but mostly upper half. Now I have letter "j" sometimes registering twice. Mostly when typing fast, so half of my passwords cannot be entered, unless I type them really slowly.
Click to expand...

Ok. Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out on mine.
 
It is possible that they actually do have a new improved design and that is why they have launched the keyboard repair campaign.
 
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Riveting keyboards to the chassis also seems illogical. :)

This has precedent. They did the same thing with the Radeon graphic cards a few years back. Just replace with the same failing part until time runs out. Only this time this will cost much, much more.

It is much easier to make a new, better keyboard for a new laptop. Here they are limited with the design specs of the existing computers. So everything needs to stay within current size margins. Not an easy task. I would speculate it might even be impossible.

I do hope as many people as possible use this extened warranty and have their topcases replaced as many times as possible (and required). Maybe this will be a lesson to start making stuff more modular.
 
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This is interesting.

One has to wonder though if they would have offered a repair programme if they didn’t have a fixed version? So it could be true.
 
Ya know, Apple CAN produce a keyboard that works on a MacBook, as they did in 2010, for example.
Maybe they might dust off the blueprints for those models.


They did, I tell ya......they did
 
Expobill said:
Ya know, Apple CAN produce a keyboard that works on a MacBook, as they did in 2010, for example.
Maybe they might dust off the blueprints for those models.


They did, I tell ya......they did
Click to expand...

And they did. I am living proof. I am typing this on a 2010 MBP 17" that I purchased new 8 years ago. Zero issues.
 
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kjvmartin said:
This manager said that there's a definite change in all 2017 MBPs being sold as of one week ago and all replacements as well.
Click to expand...

Doubtful. The battery for my topcase replacement has a manufacture date of March 21st. This was sent out last Sunday, received back on Thurs.

10f4bvq.png



I guess there is some possibility that the battery sat around on a shelf for several months before the topcase was built - but Apple has a fairly tight supply chain so I gather they would try to turn any BOM into a serviceable part ASAP.

My take is the manager is just assuming this is the case because Apple released a service bulletin, probably making the leap that they wouldn't have done it without a fix in place first. I think Apple just decided to get a handle on the bad PR caused by the class action suits. Keep in mind it is an open 4 year, from-date-of-purchase warranty that will fix any recurring issues.

There also was a patent put out there some months back that seemed to be a possible fix insofar as making the switches more resilient to debris, have a hard time believing they would rush out that change so quickly, but they may be working to get it into a Gen III keyboard this fall or whenever the next MBP update is.
 
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baypharm said:
And they did. I am living proof. I am typing this on a 2010 MBP 17" that I purchased new 8 years ago. Zero issues.
Click to expand...
My MBAir 2010 has a great keyboard, too bad the 2015 charger decided to stop charging a week ago.
Seems to me if one thing works, the other won’t!
 
Expobill said:
Ya know, Apple CAN produce a keyboard that works on a MacBook, as they did in 2010, for example.
Maybe they might dust off the blueprints for those models.
Click to expand...
They were producing great keyboards up to 2015 on the MBP, so its not like they suddenly forgot. It was due to their desire to make the laptop even thinner, now they have an expensive mess on their hands, including 3 class action suits.
 
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I think the most expensive mess will be replacing thousands of topcases... batteries, trackpad, OLED touchbar, fingerprint reader. And of course the broken keyboard. I would speculate that for some people this will happen multiple times in the 4 years lifespan of the computer.

I do hope that people replace as many of these keyboards as possible. If you do 3+ keyboard replacements I believe it will start to make more sense to just replace the whole laptop. Or this being a good incentive that they try to do a proper fix to the current keyboards (although I think that's gonna be difficult).
 
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