The question:
What generations of the 12" retina MacBook have interchangeable parts, and which ones are they? I'm not sure if they'll actually approve my repair because it's 7 years past the purchase date, even though the support person said they would. 2016/2017 keyboards are around 50% cheaper on eBay than the 2015 keyboards. According to Wikipedia, 2015/2016 are both butterfly gen 1 while 2017 is butterfly gen 2. Are the 2016/2017 keyboards electrically incompatible with the 2015 boards? I'm assuming the butterfly gen doesn't matter since 2016 and 2017 are different butterfly gens but apparently compatible. What about the display and battery? I'd really like to be able to swap the board into a 2016 Rose Gold case and display because I absolutely love the pink color of Rose Gold, but I don't know if a 2016 display can work with a 2015 board.
Some backstory to my question:
I bought a base model space gray 2015 12" MacBook for $150 on July 14 and it arrived yesterday, July 19. It's in decent cosmetic condition but the keyboard is wrecked. The tab key fell off at some point, and the s, v, b, d, r, n, c, x, z, and space keys don't work at all unless pressed extremely hard at the perfect angle for several seconds, even though they press/feel fine. The h, left shift, caps lock, and right command keys work "fine" but don't press at all, so they're still more difficult to use. Most keys repeat to some degree, but Unshaky (mostly) fixes that. I knew the keyboard didn't work when I bought it but the price was low enough that I figured a cheap top case would make it a decent machine once I swapped it, but I also knew it was a major risk because the seller made it sound like there were other major issues. Thankfully, everything else works fine, though the battery (414 cycles) is at 39% health and has swollen enough to make the bottom left case bulge, and the display hinge seems a bit loose. All easily fixable at home though. Anyways, I made an appointment for Friday to have the keyboard replaced even though it's past the 4 years of the free program; I was told by the online support person that an exception can be made due to the severity of my problem. I think it only worked because I chose to do the chat from my MacBook and so the chat was a mess. Here's an excerpt of it:
(not exact but from memory)
8:20 PM - Sally (Support Person): Hi Caleb, you seem to have a problem with your keyboard.
8:20 PM - Sally: How are you doing today?
8:22 PM - Me: I'd eetterrr if mykeyoar woke
And the whole chat went like that. She'd send a message and I'd take forever to pound out an error-filled reply. Anyways, that's the backstory.
What generations of the 12" retina MacBook have interchangeable parts, and which ones are they? I'm not sure if they'll actually approve my repair because it's 7 years past the purchase date, even though the support person said they would. 2016/2017 keyboards are around 50% cheaper on eBay than the 2015 keyboards. According to Wikipedia, 2015/2016 are both butterfly gen 1 while 2017 is butterfly gen 2. Are the 2016/2017 keyboards electrically incompatible with the 2015 boards? I'm assuming the butterfly gen doesn't matter since 2016 and 2017 are different butterfly gens but apparently compatible. What about the display and battery? I'd really like to be able to swap the board into a 2016 Rose Gold case and display because I absolutely love the pink color of Rose Gold, but I don't know if a 2016 display can work with a 2015 board.
Some backstory to my question:
I bought a base model space gray 2015 12" MacBook for $150 on July 14 and it arrived yesterday, July 19. It's in decent cosmetic condition but the keyboard is wrecked. The tab key fell off at some point, and the s, v, b, d, r, n, c, x, z, and space keys don't work at all unless pressed extremely hard at the perfect angle for several seconds, even though they press/feel fine. The h, left shift, caps lock, and right command keys work "fine" but don't press at all, so they're still more difficult to use. Most keys repeat to some degree, but Unshaky (mostly) fixes that. I knew the keyboard didn't work when I bought it but the price was low enough that I figured a cheap top case would make it a decent machine once I swapped it, but I also knew it was a major risk because the seller made it sound like there were other major issues. Thankfully, everything else works fine, though the battery (414 cycles) is at 39% health and has swollen enough to make the bottom left case bulge, and the display hinge seems a bit loose. All easily fixable at home though. Anyways, I made an appointment for Friday to have the keyboard replaced even though it's past the 4 years of the free program; I was told by the online support person that an exception can be made due to the severity of my problem. I think it only worked because I chose to do the chat from my MacBook and so the chat was a mess. Here's an excerpt of it:
(not exact but from memory)
8:20 PM - Sally (Support Person): Hi Caleb, you seem to have a problem with your keyboard.
8:20 PM - Sally: How are you doing today?
8:22 PM - Me: I'd eetterrr if mykeyoar woke
And the whole chat went like that. She'd send a message and I'd take forever to pound out an error-filled reply. Anyways, that's the backstory.