New Macs - "airtight?"

[soundude]

I was talking to the tech manager at Best Buy (apple certified repair place now) and he said that the new Macs are largely "Hands off - do not open." Apparently the MacBook has most components soldered onto a single board so upgrades are not possible. The new AIO Macs are very difficult to open. The phrase he said "you have to pop out the glass." And once you do if you don't have the "key" then you've bricked it. Has anyone else heard about these changes to Macs?

 

[pastrychef]

For the last few models of iMacs, gaining access to the internals has meant first removing the glass. CPUs are socketed. Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card are removable at least on the models I took apart. The models that I took apart also had SSD/hard drives that were replaceable. I'm not sure if that has changed with the latest models.

As far as I know, iMac Pros also have socketed CPUs.

I don't know about any "key".

There's not much anyone can do with the more recent MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Everything is soldered so unless you have the tools/skills for SMT work, there's nothing you can do on them other than maybe applying better thermal compound on the CPU/GPU. But I have seen videos of people upgrading RAM on laptops with soldered RAM.

In my opinion, the more recent Apple laptops have come a long way in regards to build quality. I remember back in the days when iBooks were seemingly held together by hundreds of screws.

 

[Gigamaxx]

I think the key is a reset tool used to unlock it after changing components. There was talk of this limiting people’s ability to upgrade the latest macs unless they were certified apple techs.
Louis Rossmann (wears too much eye makeup) mentioned this in one of his podcasts.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

For the last few models of iMacs, gaining access to the internals has meant first removing the glass. CPUs are socketed. Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card are removable at least on the models I took apart. The models that I took apart also had SSD/hard drives that were replaceable. I'm not sure if that has changed with the latest models.

As far as I know, iMac Pros also have socketed CPUs.

I don't know about any "key".

There's not much anyone can do with the more recent MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Everything is soldered so unless you have the tools/skills for SMT work, there's nothing you can do on them other than maybe applying better thermal compound on the CPU/GPU. But I have seen videos of people upgrading RAM on laptops with soldered RAM.

In my opinion, the more recent Apple laptops have come a long way in regards to build quality. I remember back in the days when iBooks were seemingly held together by hundreds of screws.

Yes, I remember my own iBook G3 well. You removed the keyboard with those two sunken screws and got access to the gubbins below. I fitted a wireless card, IIRC. That keyboard was a bit fragile and "bendy" too. I remember repairing my wife's IBM Thinkpad and it was a much sturdier machine all round. Nowadays I suspect the build quality has swapped over.

 

[pastrychef]

Yes, I remember my own iBook G3 well. You removed the keyboard with those two sunken screws and got access to the gubbins below. I fitted a wireless card, IIRC. That keyboard was a bit fragile and "bendy" too. I remember repairing my wife's IBM Thinkpad and it was a much sturdier machine all round. Nowadays I suspect the build quality has swapped over.

Prior to the iBooks, the Pismos were extremely well put together.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I think the key is a reset tool used to unlock it after changing components. There was talk of this limiting people’s ability to upgrade the latest macs unless they were certified apple techs.
Louis Rossmann (wears too much eye makeup) mentioned this in one of his podcasts.

View attachment 426631

That's worrying, isn't it? (Not the eye-make-up particularly). I wonder what the "key" could be? If the warranty was going to be maintained I can understand that any repair has to be done by an Apple-approved engineer, but bricking a machine just because it hasn't been repaired by someone like that, seems very naughty. What if it was actually out of warranty?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Prior to the iBooks, the Pismos were extremely well put together.

Got me on that one. Not a name I've heard of before. Was it something beige from Apple's 90's era?
(Edit: Okay, it's a beach in California ... So sounds like Apple).

 

[pastrychef]

Got me on that one. Not a name I've heard of before. Was it something beige from Apple's 90's era?

PowerBook Pismo from early 2000s.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

PowerBook Pismo from early 2000s.
View attachment 426731

Ah, right. Yes, I've seen them. Is that like an early PowerBook?

 

[pastrychef]

Ah, right. Yes, I've seen them. Is that like an early PowerBook?

I think it was the last of the G3 PowerBooks. It was really great. I had one that I brought to and from work everyday for several years. Extremely solid.