I HATE APPLE

I need to replace the battery in my iPhone 7. Do I go the DIY route via ifixit or send it back to Apple? I’m concerned about the quality of the replacement battery that ifixit will send vs what Apple has.

Thx

The phones after the 6 have the screen glued on, so beware! I did a few 5s and 4s with no issues (although it's always a little sketchy with all the tiny screws and adhesive), and then shattered my kid's 6s screen. You either need some kind of hot plate, or just (as I did) take the frickin thing to the mall and pay a guy $60 to do it. Of course mall trips aren't an option right now, so maybe just find a hot plate or hair dryer and be careful.

I know this is old news but I'm usually shielded from the horror of the butterfly keys by using an external keyboard. JESUS, it's an unpleasant experience, at least for a bad multi-fingered but not touch-typing user like me. I've abandoned my word Macbook Air for this old scissor-keyed one just because I literally cannot work on the other. I've realised that it might not be so much the keys themselves as how close together they are. I'm hoping that the new ones are spaced as nicely as the old keyboards as well as having more movement.

aye their pish. what's even worse is if you don't keep your keyboard meticulously clean the keys are prone to breaking (or at least becoming semi-useless) readily.

they're*

ok so i've reset the SMC a couple of times i *think* and this "turning off when i unplug it" is still happening

plus last night with my crappy old frayed lead it didn't recharge at all overnight, so i switched to my good lead (there is a reason i was using the crappy lead not the good lead but it's not worth explaining) and it charged up… nearly. it stopped at 95%.

it still goes off when i unplug it. shd i
(a) let the battery go to 0% and wait for five+ hours and then recharge -- something i read suggested this
(b) shd i try restting the SMC again

it's a 2013 macbook air upgraded to catalina 10.15.3, it's slow and cranky sometimes when i'm doing a lot on it but not usually especially buggy -- this is worrying me a bit bcz if i need a new battery this seems like a bad time to have to take it in somewhere

Sounds like a battery issue. Replace that sh1t

Classic symptoms of a battery that has died of old age (seven years!). You need a new battery. Look the model up on ifixit for instructions on how to replace it. You might have a tricky model but generally speaking it’s very easy. Just screws. Possibly a special screwdriver. The search the model number (“a1488” or whatever) plus “battery” on eBay or amazon. Should be under $100 although I can’t vouch for that in the UK/a pandemic. Don’t forget to pick up the tools ifixit recommend too.

fizzles, have you tried swiftkey?

apparently the latest Catalina update turns some Macs into bricks, so if your computer is useful right now ...

fizzles, have you tried swiftkey?

wondering exactly how long I can avoid Catalina for. The new Xcode demands it, ffs

I'm just gonna skip Catalina. and maybe the next one too? probably didn't need to go to Mojave either, but no problems with it on my 2014 mbp

ok so i checked "battery information" and under condition it says "like calstars sed: replace that sh1t" so that is reasonably categorical, thx 🎶 caek 🎶 thx everyone

*big sigh* here we go i guess 😔

i was going to make hot cross buns today

Make the buns, you won’t solve this today.

first i am printing out all the nonsense i will need in case this aged lump *gestures irritably* dies on me

ok well i've purchased the correct replacement battery (i THINK) and the fancy new designated screwdriver as advised (i THINK) and they won't arrive before friday so HCG here i come

did i also need to get a "spudger"? i feel i can improvise this tbh

A guitar pick will usually suffice. Been a long time since I tried something like this though!

Spudgers are verging on essential on phones (delicate objects and surprisingly large forces required) but you should be ok improvising with a flathead or pick or whatever with a laptop, especially one that’s seven years old. Feel free to post the ifixit link if there’s any steps you’re particularly nervous about. And keep track of all the screws! (Ice cube tray, egg box, etc)

if i have the right page the ifixit seems p straightforward to be honest

(judging by the supplied picture i get a spudger with my new array of screwdrivers, it just doesn't call it this in the spec?)

A spackling knife can stand in for a spudger

spudger sounds like an 80s grange hill character

No, spackling knives are metal and thus conductive, which is unwise for electronic work. Guitar pick ftw

the spec around spudger nomenclature is ill-defined. needs an ietf rfc.

I'm holding off on upgrading MacOS until there's a vaccine

ok so i think i installed my new battery successfully on my own (currently mid-calibration but it is def charging, which the old one wasn't)

holy shit mark! don’t want to jinx it but hats off!

congratulations mark s

has anyone here ever replaced the screen glass on a unibody MacBook Pro? was it terribly difficult?

my mid-2010 model, which I had assumed to be dead for other reasons, seems to be working well except for cracked glass (the display looks fine otherwise)

ifixit describes a really involved process requiring opening the case, but I've seen a guy on YouTube do it by "simply" removing the old glass and installing a new piece

laptop battery now fully charged and re-calibrated so that's a thumbs up

as caek suggested, replacing it wasn't difficult, just a bit fiddly (some of the screws are v tiny and you don't want to drop them into the machinery or down the cracks in the floorboards)

ps i did get a spudger with my specialist screwdrivers but it was not in the end needed

replacement battery operative and robust, i guess i have to put in the work to free up some memory

i: do backblaze fans know any ways to dial down its space hogging
ii: ilxor tips on what i can clear out of ancient garbage which cleanmymac™ fails to dig out

Just archive everything. Throw it in Dropbox and use selective sync.

I've never noticed Backblaze hogging space! Hmm

when i was bothered by the spinny disc like 18 months ago i took it to the tiresome man in hackney road and that was his diagnosis: remove cleanmymac and quit backblaze

i did for a while and things were better but then i decided i wanted both of them for the things they do? also i want a less tiresome man to advise me on my laptop and mend it when necessary

also apps keep quitting unexpectedly that are usually robust: chrome, msil, scrivener

{i never use anything else lol)

mail not msil

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04/report-apple-will-begin-selling-macs-with-its-own-processors-in-2021/

God help us if they're abandoning x86.

did we have this discussion already? once backblaze does it's initial back-up, it's pretty harmless. I've never noticed it doing much at all.

I wouldn't bother with cleanmymac though. I'd run Onyx every now and again, and use appzapper or appcleaner to clear out old applications and their files.

I use daisydisk (mostly because my old license is still good) and use it to dig into where the clutter is hiding but otherwise don’t have anything lording over my files

ppl on reddit having the same problem (some with replies saying "i'm baffled this shd not be happening")
https://www.reddit.com/r/backblaze/comments/9rgacc/backblaze_bztransmit_process_is_chewing_up_almost/
https://www.reddit.com/r/backblaze/comments/aoeb4s/ballooning_wired_memory_usage_from/

we did discuss it before (when i was wondering abt reinstalling it): ppl (= tracer and dan s i think) said it shd not be a problem bcz it's not a memory hog. so i re-installed and it stated to be a problem again. one solution i guess implied by the reddit threads is "simply have less files" which is a thing i plan to make happen. maybe that will solve it. or maybe something else is going on (this is literally all magic to me, if i installed a grasp of how it all works in my brain i wd be getting spinny disk problems in my head)

Having 10% of your disk space free is critical - have you checked that lately?

yes and i do

Grrrr

i plan to empty it further when i can gather the will but

I like Grand Perspective for a visualisation of what is taking up disk space.

http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

have I recommended the ol hurl into the sea recently?

under lockdown i cannot access the sea

Out the window then