it's probably worth saving that laptop if u don't need a faster machine right this second.
i think that's the thing...i just got this new mac mini, and i'm only planning on using this mbp for another 2-3 years before getting a new one.
but Iโve done MacBook surgery tons of times and that would be the trickiest Iโve ever done
i have only done it a handful of times, but i still aspire to be good at that kind of stuff some day, so i guess it makes me more willing to take a small risk on it, because the tradeoff is feeling good about reaching a new PR for mac-craftiness
― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 02:43 (three years ago) link
MacBook Pro = Honda Accord
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 02:43 (three years ago) link
KM, no chance you can ride this out until you can buy a new M1 machine?
― Nhex, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 03:05 (three years ago) link
already got one! i'm using a mac mini as my main computer these days. the 2014 MBP is more of a recovery operation, but it really would be handy to have a functional laptop. i've had a lot of power-related incidents recently, and really, other than that it's still chugging along, so i'm thinking replacing the battery would get me the rest of the way until i get a newer one a few years down the road?
― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 03:16 (three years ago) link
ah, gotcha. so if this explodes you're still OK
― Nhex, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 03:41 (three years ago) link
I had my own come to Jesus moment with a battery replacement for my 2015 MacBook pro some months back. It ended up that because of things I'd changed in the machine, neither Apple nor any of the other local repair shops would do the battery replacement for me. So it was either I do it or it doesn't get done. I opted to postpone the surgery myself, because it seemed like a huge pain in the ass, but I imagine at some point between now and battery failure I may reconsider.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 03:50 (three years ago) link
I remember the brief window of glasnost from Apple around the early Intel MacBooks when they went to more standard connectors and fasteners and easier disassembly, then the skies started to cloud over when they went to unibody construction. By the time of the retina models it was back to "fuck you buddy" to those of us who wanted to do any fixes or upgrades.
― assert (MatthewK), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 05:10 (three years ago) link
2014 macbook pro, 15" retina. the battery is at 2000 cycles. if it's not plugged into a power source, it can crash anytime it gets below 50%, and it goes from 100% to 50% in like 20 minutes, depending on what you're doing. Not only that, but the OS itself seems to be telling me that there's a problem. REPLACE BATTERY SOON, it says.
Exactly the same model as you, and same issues (except I'm "only" at 985 cycles). I can't import into Lightroom on <70% battery any more (it's the convert-to-DNG step that kills it), launching Chrome can also trigger a shutdown if the battery's <40%. It's perfectly happy to pootle along for 1.5-2 hours on battery without these kind of spikes. I'm sure rendering video in DaVinci Resolve or iMovie would kill it too, but I don't go near video editing without AC power. The only time it's left the house in the last year is when my daughter borrows it for video/graphics school work, and she takes the power cables, so no great hardship being mainly AC.
Resigned to a paying for a professional battery replacement some time in the next six months. Whenever I do the first couple of repair steps on the Apple site, it shows me a handful of still-trading affiliates within a few miles, so once we're out of lockdown I'll book it in. I read Josh's tale of "we gotta swap out the things *you put in there* too, a thousand dollars please" in horror, but I think mine is as supplied.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 12:23 (three years ago) link
Um, where does it show the cycle count?
― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 12:56 (three years ago) link
System info - About This Mac, then System Report, choose Power from the list of categories
― assert (MatthewK), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 13:02 (three years ago) link
I too have the same model with the same battery woes. I'm waiting for the second iteration of M1s. (M2s?)
― calstars, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 15:13 (three years ago) link
pretty incredible though that after 6 years the machine is still usable for a 1-2 hour stretch doing basic things. You'd never see that on a PC laptop.
― calstars, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 15:15 (three years ago) link
My wife is currently using a 2013 MacBook Pro (with SSD) to do design work with the latest versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Safari all running at once. I'm not going to say she hasn't met a spinning beach ball but she seems to be not complaining too much. I keep asking if she wants us to buy a new one but she hasn't bitten so far.
Sorry, wrong thread.
― Alba, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 15:29 (three years ago) link
Yeah, it's still fine for my ideal rainy day hobbyist-pretending-its-his-job scenario of editing a few dozen photos at a local cafe (sadly not currently an option), tethered to my phone's 4G. This 2013-vintage HP Ultrabook has been a great office workhorse (better since W7>W10), but if I take it out of its dock it will die within minutes. As I've discovered to my cost when trying to take a Zoom meeting in the garden.
xp
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 15:34 (three years ago) link
my laptop (and the previous one) has never *not* been plugged into the mains and that kills the battery regardless. (after 3 years it's complaining about being at 44% of capacity even when fully charged). i took the battery out of the previous laptop in the end, it was just dead weight, but this one isn't removeable.
― koogs, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 15:47 (three years ago) link
I never know where I am with battery health advice. Folk wisdom about it seems to have been challenged by advances in technology, or just differences between machines/batteries.
When my dad's Macbook battery died I advised him to stop leaving it plugged in all the time and unplug it at night at least. But I've lost faith in that advice and I think it's too much hassle for him to remember anyway.
― Alba, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 15:56 (three years ago) link
I thought devices were supposed to be smart enough these days to taper off charge to yr battery as it got close to capacity, and not to touch it all if you were at 100%? So, in theory, you shouldn't be shortening battery life at all if you're always on AC? I guess heat is a factor. I dunno.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 16:13 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I think you're right, but not sure how far 'these days' goes back. I think his MacBook (a cast-off of mine) is about 2010 vintage.
― Alba, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 16:16 (three years ago) link
yeah - modern chargers - especially fancy-pants ones like Apple makes - are supposed to automatically drip charge and stop as you get to 100%
― Nhex, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 16:21 (three years ago) link
IIUC itโs not the chargers. Itโs the electronics in the laptop in front of the battery, so you donโt need an expensive charger for that.
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 16:36 (three years ago) link
Find a 3rd party repair shop. I bet they do the battery replacement for ~$100.
― DJI, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 16:58 (three years ago) link
Plus the cost of the battery, I'd guess
― Nhex, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:52 (three years ago) link
The battery itself costs ยฃ90/$90. Maybe cheaper to businesses/in bulk. But I'm happy to go with an authorised reseller/repair shop and get the warranty. As far as I can tell, they all charge the Apple price. Saving a few quid to go with a local guy seems risky in the long run.
― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:54 (three years ago) link
I've used the dude at the mall to do a few iphone batteries and screens and it went great...
― DJI, Tuesday, 9 February 2021 18:56 (three years ago) link
right but look at the ifixit instructions for batter replacement on an iphone compared to KM's mbp
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 19:03 (three years ago) link
this guy is the best and the prices are fair(er than apple), but battery replacement is probably a little beneath him https://www.rossmanngroup.com/
oh no, he does battery replacement
https://www.rossmanngroup.com/battery-not-charging/
i suspect with shipping to NYC the local apple store is going to be cheaper
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 19:04 (three years ago) link
love this guy (his politics vids are suspect)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF82VA-Z96Y
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 19:07 (three years ago) link
FWIW, I just had a similar situation with the battery in my 15" 2017 MBP and bought the MacFixIt kit (Apple wanted $199, a local shop was going to charge $350, so I went for the kit) It does suck and is time-consuming but the MacFixIt guide was great (the comments on each step were valuable). I did it, it worked out OK, and it's one less thing to worry about until the Apple-processor MBPs finally ship.โ Elvis Telecom, Monday, February 8, 2021 6:23 PM (yesterday)
It does suck and is time-consuming but the MacFixIt guide was great (the comments on each step were valuable). I did it, it worked out OK, and it's one less thing to worry about until the Apple-processor MBPs finally ship.
โ Elvis Telecom, Monday, February 8, 2021 6:23 PM (yesterday)
Hey look at that humblebragging chump up there. If you just calmed down and waited you could have had it done for free.
Apple to replace batteries on 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros unable to charge past 1%https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/02/10/apple-to-replace-batteries-on-2016-and-2017-macbook-pros-unable-to-charge-past-1
Apple has identified an issue that renders 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models unable to charge above 1%, saying it will replace compromised batteries for free.Outlined in a support document on Tuesday, the problem also triggers a battery health status warning that indicates "Service Recommended." Apple says a "small number" of 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro computers are impacted by the issue.
Outlined in a support document on Tuesday, the problem also triggers a battery health status warning that indicates "Service Recommended." Apple says a "small number" of 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro computers are impacted by the issue.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 04:36 (three years ago) link
Huh, I was being prompted to update to Big Sur 11.2.1 last night and that supposedly resolves the 2016-17 battery warning from a software PoV. But I guess this is actually a hardware issue.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 10 February 2021 12:26 (three years ago) link
Ok I'm newish to macs - I've used them before at work but am a PC guy really and have been working from home on PC for the last two years; now they've provided me with an imac. For the last two days (maybe I should wait longer before complaining), when I start it up in the morning I find that in Chrome I've been logged out of all the websites I was logged into, including gmail, even the ones where I definitely had 'remember me' checked. I don't have any cookies blocked except third part cookies in incognito mode, which I'm not. Any I HATE APPLE reason why this might be happening?
― ledge, Thursday, 11 February 2021 08:40 (three years ago) link
maybe you've got some weird build of the OS that your work has provided that clears cookies or something? idk, never experienced this
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 11 February 2021 13:24 (three years ago) link
Probably not Apple - sounds like domain control from your administrators forcing the setting. Does it save your tabs etc on Windows?
― Nhex, Thursday, 11 February 2021 13:53 (three years ago) link
Big Sur has not allowed me to save one password in Chrome since I updated.
(Or more likely, Chrome hasn't allowed me to save one password since Big Sur came along.)
Either way, Chrome still asks if I want to save the password, I always say yes, and then .... nothing happens.
I'm still on High Sierra at home where everything's cool with this Chrome.
― pplains, Thursday, 11 February 2021 14:12 (three years ago) link
Stop using chrome. Firefox is better these days. And safari is great if you donโt care about extensions.
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:25 (three years ago) link
sounds like it might be a chrome + big sur thing, will download firefox and see what happens.
tangentially, what's the deal with this window that pops up when you install an program showing the app icon and an arrow and the application folder icon. finally figured out it's asking me to do something, so i dragged the icon into the folder. nothing seemed to happen. i've already installed a few other programs without doing that step (i thought it was just a non-interactive window just showing me what was happening), they work and show up in the applications folder.
― ledge, Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:40 (three years ago) link
lol itโs this insane metaphor left over from the days of the classic macos where an installer creates a โvirtual diskโ that you copy your app from. the folder that you drag the icon to is a shortcut to the applications folder on your hard drive. it looks like nothingโs happened but it has copied the app to your hard drive. you can then โejectโ the virtual disk from the finder ๐
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:49 (three years ago) link
― calstars, Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:06 (three years ago) link
I bounce back and forth between Chrome and Firefox. Firefox and one of my CMS sites has a "handshake" problem that loops without end. Chrome gives me notifications from Hangouts, which my company uses as its "Slack."
They're both great and they both suck and they're both better than whatever shitty desktop Safari is trying to pull.
― pplains, Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:43 (three years ago) link
things increasingly don't support firefox, things like web skype and web zoom, probably a camera / mic thing.
i also have weird problems in firefox with london transport zoomable map and the three website, which just look like the text settings are all wrong.
― koogs, Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:46 (three years ago) link
i'm still a heavy Firefox user (Tree Style tabs for life) but still have to use Chrome for a lot of work stuff
― Nhex, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:17 (three years ago) link
I only use Safari and I think using another browser on Mac is kind of ridiculous tbqh
― Canon in Deez (silby), Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:22 (three years ago) link
I have a lot of Chrome extensions unavailable on Safari that I use for work and some for fun. But yes, otherwise, Safari runs best.
― Alba, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:37 (three years ago) link
Chrome is where I do google apps and a couple of other work things that donโt like safari. Safari for everything else.
― American Fear of Scampos (Ed), Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:57 (three years ago) link
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Thursday, 11 February 2021 20:31 (three years ago) link
What on earth do you need to โsyncโ
― Canon in Deez (silby), Thursday, 11 February 2021 21:50 (three years ago) link
History, open tabs
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Thursday, 11 February 2021 21:56 (three years ago) link
Safari syncs to iOS, and you can sync bookmarks and passwords to Chrome on Windows now (but not tabs/history)
― stet, Thursday, 11 February 2021 22:05 (three years ago) link
the last thing i need is more unread tabs following me around!
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 11 February 2021 22:06 (three years ago) link
I need a couple of slightly obscure Firefox feature for work: ability to install fake certificates in a sandboxes environment (not the keychain) and isolated containers not just โthe browser and incognito modeโ.
― ๐ ๐๐ข๐จ (caek), Thursday, 11 February 2021 22:16 (three years ago) link