Is it futile to try use a donor display?
So, I naïevely purchased a cheap-as-chips A2485 mbp with the logic board removed, with a view to buying a cheap identical mbp with a cracked screen, to make one working fantabulously cheap mbp.
Subsequently reading this Sostituzione dello schermo del MacBook Pro 16" 2021, I came to think: great! My plan should work! If there's a guide for this, and iFixit sells the parts (on rare occasion, when they come up), then surely this is a viable solution 🙂
However... I've since stumbled across this post Display issues on MacBook Pro 14" M1 - Shadows on Screen
The updated first answer gives me a strong impression that any attempt to replace the display with a donor (not sourced directly from apple) would essentially be futile, due to the apparent need for system calibration to pair it to it's body.
There is a caveat in that second post, insofar as desoldering a couple of specific ICs and transplanting them onto the new display should get around the apple calibration/serialisation issue. However, I attempted to shop around little ol' New Zealand to find someone to do such a repair, found a repairer who works with someone who apparently has the full schematics for this model of mbp, and has experience with this sort of repair, and this is the response I got from them when asking if they'd do it:
"this type of job is beyond their capabilities. It’s mainly due to the schematics of the board, security that Apple puts on its logic boards & the complexity of it (High risk of it not working) & they don’t think it would be a successful job"
So, back to my original question: is it an exercise in futility trying to use a donor display assembly (that is not sourced directly from apple) to replace the display of a broken A2385 mbp?
Or is there some solution to my goal here that I haven't thought of (aside from getting a new logic board from apple instead)?
Thanks for any and all help!!
Update (03/18/23)
Currently, I have in my possession a 16" 2021 M1 Macbook pro A2485, which I *think* is missing the logic board only (bought of trademe (NZ eBay equivalent))
I want a functional 16" 2021 Macbook pro A2485
I believe the cheapest solution is for me to purchase an identical model (A2485) MBP with a broken display, and have my current display assembly, which I believe is perfectly functional, transplanted into an otherwise perfectly functional MBP with a broken/malfunctioning screen. I currently have my eye on a A2485 with the auction closing in a few days, to enable this - *if* I can get a repair combining the two, to actually work
Alternatively, I believe another solution would be to have a matching, functioning logic board with paired touch ID transplanted into my current MacBook shell, such as this one MacBook Pro 16" (2021 A2485 M1 Pro) 10-Core CPU/16-Core GPU Logic Board with Paired Touch ID Sensor . I am under the impression that this will be more expensive (I do not have the liquid-damaged logic board to exchange through apple's self-service program), but obviously that depends on how much a A2485 MBP with broken display ends up costing me, so that may not necessarily be the case
So as far as I can tell, my options are as follows:
Option 1: attempt possibly futile display assembly transplant from Mac with no logic board to Mac with broken screen
- Find ways from iFixit big brains to make this less likely to be futile 🙏 🤞
Option 2: buy logic board with paired touch sensor to transplant into my current Mac with no logic board. Hope that iFixit big brains tell me if this is a dumb idea/ how I can make it work without it likely going 🍐-shaped
Option 3: %#*@ it all to hell, throw the beautiful MacBook I have in the trash/ on a $1 reserve auction for some poor soul to go down the same rabbit hole/ dead end as me
A final note/ question on Option 1:
Is it somehow possibly to do something like do display transplant without T-CON transplant, and also intentionally break something isolated like a lid angle sensor, then go to an authorised apple repairer to have intentionally broken sensor repaired, and then in the system calibration post-repair, apple inadvertently fixes the display serialisation/ non-matching T-CON?
I'm probably showing just how naïeve I am with the above suggestion - maybe the lid angle sensor is a dumb example and there's a better part to try that on with, maybe the authorised repairer will notice a display mis-match when attempting the repair and refuse service, maybe the system calibration post- authorised repair will only work for said repaired part, or maybe apple will pick up the non-apple-sourced display on calibration and not complete it. I dunno. But figured it's worth throwing out there! Thoughts?
Or any other suggestions for me avoiding going nuclear on option 3? Thanks!!
Questa è una buona domanda?
2 Commenti
Defiance is Futile! You will be Assimilated! As the Borg stated to Captan Picard
Support the Right to Repair! We can fight but only together! Yell and scream at the law makers show up at the hearings in mass!
Captan Picard did manage to defeat the Borg we can too!
da Dan
Haha gold. I won't take the Borg of apple's system configuration lying down! We must fight the good fight! Freeeeeedom!! ⚔️
da Tui Smith