Apple Identifies Limited Hardware Issues with 2017 13" MacBook Pros

[DrMacintosh]

Apple has identified logic board and SSD failures in some 2017 13" MacBook Pro models

Quote

Apple has identified a limited hardware issue affecting the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro models with function keys, according to an internal memo distributed to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers late last week. 

 

Namely, when either the MacBook Pro's solid state drive or main logic board experiences failure, both need to be replaced simultaneously. Apple's memo doesn't specify an underlying reason as to why both components may fail in tandem, or what percentage of units may be at risk of being affected. 

Quote

An excerpt from the document, obtained by MacRumors from a reliable source:

"Apple has identified a specific population of MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports) units requiring both solid state drives and the main logic board to be replaced when either has a functional failure. 

A message will appear when either the solid state drive or the main logic board part number is added to the repair of an identified MacBook Pro system. The message will indicate both the SSD and MLB must be replaced when either component has a functional failure."

 

This issue is unrelated to previous select 2016 13" MBP which may have battery failures which were covered by a free repair program. Following their previous examples, these 2017 Macs are being serviced in and out of warranty for free.

Quote

Apple appears to have authorized free repairs for this issue, in or out of warranty. If there is liquid damage or accidental damage, however, out-of-warranty fees may apply. Apple quotes a turnaround time of roughly five to seven days. 

Unless you have pre-existing damage that must be repaired first, you should be serviced for free. Note that this repair, unlike the 2016 13" MacBook Pro repair program, you should not receive a keyboard replacement. So you unfortunately will not be able to kill two birds with one stone with this repair program. 

 

Apple is still yet to officially address the keyboard issues with the 2016/2017 MacBook Pros. 

 

Source: https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/12/13-inch-macbook-pro-ntb-ssd-logic-board-issue/ 

 

[Syntaxvgm]

good thing apple will let me put any m.2 ssd in their products.

[TheSLSAMG]

39 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

good thing apple will let me put any m.2 ssd in their products.

Yea-

 

Oh wait.

 

I personally don't see much justification for this past Apple wanting to corner the market on drive upgrades (which don't exist for newer MacBooks minus the 13" nTB because of course they're soldered on) for their machines.

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

good thing apple will let me put any m.2 ssd in their products.

Apple SSDs are faster and take less space than M.2 drives. Regardless the logic board can also fail, even if the SSD was a standard M.2, you would still be SOL.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, TheSLSAMG said:

 

I personally don't see much justification for this past Apple wanting to corner the market on drive upgrades for their machines.

Apple SSDs are faster and a smaller form factor than M.2s. 

[Zodiark1593]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Apple SSDs are faster and take less space than M.2 drives. Regardless the logic board can also fail, even if the SSD was a standard M.2, you would still be SOL.

Apple SSDs are NVME drives like literally any other M.2 NVME drive on the market. 

 

M.2 can be SATA or NVME (PCIe) though, so it would be accurate to say Apple SSDs are faster than M.2 SATA SSDs. With competing NVME drives, not so much.

 

Does this particular failure kill the SSD in some way? Perhaps sending 12V somewhere where it shouldn't be?

[Syntaxvgm]

10 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Apple SSDs are faster and a smaller form factor than M.2s. 

 

8 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Apple SSDs are NVME drives like literally any other M.2 NVME drive on the market. 

 

M.2 can be SATA or NVME (PCIe) though, so it would be accurate to say Apple SSDs are faster than M.2 SATA SSDs. With competing NVME drives, not so much.

 

Does this particular failure kill the SSD in some way? Perhaps sending 12V somewhere where it shouldn't be?

seems like this failure takes out more than the SSD? Or is it that the drive is now tied to the motherboard? If that's the case, sony did that with the ps3 blu ray drive logic board which is the last thing I can think of that did that.

[ARikozuM]

Transparency would be nice. Regardless of the company, if we can find the cause of failures for a batch or lot (like in animal feed) we will all win. 

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Does this particular failure kill the SSD in some way? Perhaps sending 12V somewhere where it shouldn't be?

The logic board can fail and not kill the SSD, the SSD can fail and not kill the logic board, or one can fail and kill the other. Otherwise the repair program would not cover both components. Unless Apple is just swapping both to be safe since the base mode 13" MacBook Pros have modular SSDs. 

[Humbug]

9 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Apple SSDs are faster and a smaller form factor than M.2s. 

Can you link to a group test?

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, Humbug said:

Can you link to a group test?

No, mainly because I have no idea what that is, also because I am folding laundry. lol

[TheSLSAMG]

15 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Apple SSDs are faster and a smaller form factor than M.2s. 

It's not hard to make a drive smaller form factor when you're soldering it onto the board. As for being faster, proof? If I'm going by the random people online running drive testing software on their Macs, it appears to perform about as well as a Samsung 970 Pro (which as we both know is newer than the MacBook.) Certainly better than most M.2 NVMe drives out there (and certainly any that came out at the time), but what stopped them from putting it on an M.2 form factor PCB (or even Apple's own proprietary Gen. 5A [sweet Jesus the Gen. 5A drive is tiny] connector)? I can only see two motivations for this. One, Apple's seemingly endless pursuit for making devices thinner and two, wanting to corner the market on drive replacements and device repair. I can't say I blame them, but I wouldn't buy a current MacBook at this rate. I get that most users couldn't give two shits about wanting to repair stuff themselves, but I'm not an average user.

[Humbug]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

No, mainly because I have no idea what that is, also because I am folding laundry. lol

I mean a group test comparing ssds proving that Apple dominates.

[79wjd]

13 minutes ago, TheSLSAMG said:

It's not hard to make a drive smaller form factor when you're soldering it onto the board. As for being faster, proof? If I'm going by the random people online running drive testing software on their Macs, it appears to perform about as well as a Samsung 970 Pro (which as we both know is newer than the MacBook.) Certainly better than most M.2 NVMe drives out there (and certainly any that came out at the time), but what stopped them from putting it on an M.2 form factor PCB (or even Apple's own proprietary Gen. 5A [sweet Jesus the Gen. 5A drive is tiny] connector)? I can only see two motivations for this. One, Apple's seemingly endless pursuit for making devices thinner and two, wanting to corner the market on drive replacements and device repair. I can't say I blame them, but I wouldn't buy a current MacBook at this rate. I get that most users couldn't give two shits about wanting to repair stuff themselves, but I'm not an average user.

Pretty much this. Although, I don't believe that the intended purpose was to corner the market -- generally it's going to leave a really sour taste in a customers mouth if they're told they need to pay 70% (or whatever ridiculous amount it is) of the laptop's cost to replace the drive. I think thinness and/or simplifying manufacturing is the real reason.

[DrMacintosh]

19 minutes ago, TheSLSAMG said:

It's not hard to make a drive smaller form factor when you're soldering it onto the board.

Just for reference, the base model 13" MacBook Pros have modular SSDs. 

[Zodiark1593]

3 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

The logic board can fail and not kill the SSD, the SSD can fail and not kill the logic board, or one can fail and kill the other. Otherwise the repair program would not cover both components. Unless Apple is just swapping both to be safe since the base mode 13" MacBook Pros have modular SSDs. 

I haven't heard of a drive killing mainboards, though I suppose if power goes into the data pins, things can die too.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Just for reference, the base model 13" MacBook Pros have modular SSDs. 

The TB 13" has a second fan, which takes up quite a bit of space.

[TheSLSAMG]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Just for reference, the base model 13" MacBook Pros have modular SSDs. 

I edited my original post earlier to reflect this (I found this out while researching Apple's SSDs.) While true, it's certainly a dying trend.

[DrMacintosh]

8 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

The TB 13" has a second fan, which takes up quite a bit of space.

Yes, and? We know why they soldered it on. 

 

1.) saves space, a premium thing inside a Mac

2.) Increases profits up front. 

 

That's really all there is to it. The 13" base models just got modular SSDs because they had to room. 

[Qwertious]

Probably due to a majority of Apple users aren’t that technical to upgrade their own drives hence propertiery connectors. Not because Apple users are retarded and cash loaded

[Bouzoo]

30 minutes ago, Qwertious said:

Probably due to a majority of Apple users aren’t that technical to upgrade their own drives hence propertiery connectors. Not because Apple users are retarded and cash loaded

As compared to your average joe laptop owner? That's some bulletproof logic. 

[DrMacintosh]

4 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

So, you don't have any proof that they are faster?

Just from what I've seen off of drive speed tests. 

[Dabombinable]

53 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Just from what I've seen off of drive speed tests. 

Apple's NVME SSD trade blows with standard M.2 NVME SSD. And its not like they have an exclusive deal for the NAND they use either.
http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-950-NVMe-PCIe-M2-256GB-vs-Apple-SM0256G-PCIe-251GB/m38570vsm25442

[DrMacintosh]

7 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

Apple's NVME SSD trade blows with standard M.2 NVME SSD. And its not like they have an exclusive deal for the NAND they use either.
http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-950-NVMe-PCIe-M2-256GB-vs-Apple-SM0256G-PCIe-251GB/m38570vsm25442

I wonder why I wasn't notified about your quote. Hmmm

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Apple SSDs are NVME drives like literally any other M.2 NVME drive on the market. 

 

M.2 can be SATA or NVME (PCIe) though, so it would be accurate to say Apple SSDs are faster than M.2 SATA SSDs. With competing NVME drives, not so much.

 

Does this particular failure kill the SSD in some way? Perhaps sending 12V somewhere where it shouldn't be?

Some of the Apple SSD's are soldered on directly, although still may use the NVMe interface, so I would imagine replacing the logic board entails replacing the SSD as well.