Modern Vespa

I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) that was issued to me at work. I've been transporting it in an OGIO Tech Vault backpack that was given to me by my director. It has a padded laptop compartment in it.

Last week Thursday, I was taking a desk chair home, and I placed the backpack on the seat. I was pushing the chair ahead of me, and the backpack ended up rolling forward off of the seat and landed on the concrete floor. It fell about 12-16 inches. I picked it up and headed home.

The next day at work, I powered up the MacBook and saw the first attached image.

I immediately powered it off, waited a bit, then powered it back on. Same result. I grabbed an external monitor and keyboard and connected them via the USB-C ports, and was able to use the computer.

I told my supervisor about it, and he said we'd have to check with the office manager on Monday, as she was out that day.

On Monday, I showed her the computer, and as we were discussing it, I partially closed the lid, and saw the screen act normally. She said she'd talk to our Director about it, and see what we could do. I also called an IT contact person and was told that they would replace it with a MacBook Air, but they were out of MBAs until the next school year, so I'd get a Dell laptop. Since we didn't get the MBP through IT, we can also look into getting it serviced.

I did get on an iMessage chat with Apple support. They had me reset the SMC, which didn't help. They also had me reset the NVRAM, which also didn't help. They said I'd need to have a tech look at it.

Over the last few days, I've noticed that the open angle that allows the screen to work is getting shallower and shallower.

My best guess is that when it hit the floor, the internal conector between the screen/lid and the motherboard was knocked loose. I'm guessing that all that needs to be done is to open it up and push the connector back in place. If it were my personal laptop, I'd have already ordered the pentalobe tool to access it myself.

The Office Manager placed a service request with IT. The tech came out, looked at it, and took a pic of the serial number. He's going to check to see what service options there are for it.

My Director said that if our IT can't fix it, I should take it to the Apple Store and have them give me a quote on repairs. As long as it's under $1k, she'll pay it. If it's over $1k, she'll get me a new one. According to the Apple website, a new screen for this model runs about $450, so hopefully the repair costs are much less.

So my question is this: Am I most likely correct in thinking it's a connector issue that can be easily fixed?

And if it IS a connector issue, would a somewhat mechanically inclined person such as myself be able to do it without risk to the computer?

Never done it personally, but you have to love YouTube.

One thing he mentioned that makes sense is checking the video with an external monitor as well. From what you've said already I'd expect it would work fine, but that's troubleshooting.

Yeah, I was thinking about searching for videos or "teardowns" later on, depending on what I hear back from IT.

And yeah, the video out works with the external monitor with no issues at all, as long as the MacBook is closed.

Yes. Though the lid not opening is also cause for concern. I'll say a qualified probably. But even I'm squeamish about opening stuff with small, delicate connectors. It could all go south in a moment.

I'm not quite understanding your statement. The lid does open (see attached pics in original post). I have a scar on my knee from the CD-ROM drive on my first home desktop computer.

I mainly used it to play audio CDs, and had it set to auto eject when the CD was finished. One day, the disc ended and ejected, but I was focused on something else and forgot about it, working happily in silence. Then the phone rang in the other room, and I pivoted in my desk chair to get up to answer it. As I did, my knee raked across the open CD tray, gouging it pretty bad. I also knocked the tray off the track, so it wouldn't retract. I tried to pop the tray back on the track, but it wouldn't go. So I removed the drive and opened the drive case. I was able to get it back on the track, but broke a ribbon cable when working on it, so I ended up having to replace the drive.

The wound on my knee was deep enough that it left a scar, but not so deep as to require stitches.

Sorry, I misread your statement about the shallow open angle. I missed the part about the angle being necessary for it to work.

I replaced the whole lid assembly on my daughter's M1 Air. Refurbished 2nd hand but looked new. Not too hard, hinges were a bit fiddly.

Update to an M series if you can. Big performance boost from the Intel Macs.

I still have flashbacks about replacing the hard drive in my Graphite Clamshell MacBook. <shudder!>

The angle is getting shallower every time I open it.

I have it set up with an external monitor (HP EliteDisplay E231) and an old Apple Bluetooth keyboard (the one that takes two AA batteries). I already have a Magic Mouse 2 for it. I also ordered a 15.6" USB-C portable monitor for it so that I can use it at home. It should arrive this afternoon. This setup should allow me to use it until either our IT can get it fixed, or until I can take it to Apple to get it fixed. I'd love to have an updated MacBook, but since it's provided by the school district, I take what they give me. If I was a full-on Designer, and not just a printer operator, they'd get me one. As it is, this one is almost more than I need. Almost.

I cheerfully send my broken and out of warranty Apple hardware to iResq in Iowa - at least, those which I can't DIY. (My DIY track record on MacBooks is about 60%. This, I would send out.)

https://www.iresq.com/

Decades of satisfied service from them.

Because I work for a school district, and it is a district computer, I can only use approved vendors. (People actually went to prison due to shady deals back in the day.)

Our IT can't (won't) repair it, and suggested reaching out to our outside printer/computer repair vendor.

I emailed that vendor, and learned that they do not work on Apple products.

I asked the office manager if there was a way to pay ourselves and get reimbursed, and she said no.

As of now, she's reached out to some of her district contacts to see what can be done.

One possible solution is something we've done in the past when we need something from a company that isn't an approved vendor. We find an approved vendor that is willing to purchase it and resell it to us (at a markup, of course). If that vendor I reached out to is willing to pay Apple for the repair, and then charge us, that would still be cheaper than buying a whole new MacBook. It seems silly to me to pay several hundred dollars more to replace it than to get it repaired. Especially since they are public funds.

For now I'm lugging around a 2-lb external 15.6" USB-C monitor and Apple Bluetooth keyboard so that I can use it whereever I am. I have a 23" monitor with USB-C cable on my desk at work to use it there.

What exactly is the issue, if they'll give you another computer if the repair costs via Apple are over $1k? I see the concern with throwing too much money at a 2018 laptop. It is probably within expectations to need a new battery, too.

I also understand the view that a 2018 Macbook Pro still has a whole lot of kick left in it. If the Apple repair price is unreasonable, but you want to do the right thing by your school district, why not find an Apple-savvy repair vendor and get them approved?

iResQ seems to do a ton of educational and government repairs (they're veteran-owned) so they're undoubtedly familiar with approval bureaucracy.

(Again, I'm not affiliated with iResQ. Although I am a veteran.)

While it is a 2018 model, it sat in a box unused until it was issued to me in January 2020. I only used it sporadically until the last year or so.

Regarding getting a vendor approved, it happens through a bid process, and involves filling out a 54-page form.

A couple of updates/comments.

Apple is an approved vendor for purchasing computers, but not for repairing computers.

We're in the process of remodeling our department, and my Director was going around with a handheld vacuum sucking up spiders while on lunch break, and happened to be in my area. We got to talking about the MBP.

She heard back from The Powers That Be and said it would cost too much to repair it. So she's going to get me a new MBP. She further said that she's wanting to get away from desktops, and as people's computers need replacing, she's going to get laptops for us - either PC or Mac, depending on what our needs/uses are.

She's going to get me a large monitor, and external keyboard and mouse for it. She said that she'll get me the mid-range MBP, so that it can handle Creative Cloud.

And since the nature of my work requires it, we don't have to wait until July for the new budget money. So I should have it in the next few weeks (probably mid- to late-May).

I'll then get rid of my old HP EliteOne all-in-one PC and external monitory. Since all my files are on either Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, or OneDrive, file access shouldn't be an issue.

As an added bonus, I asked what would happen to my current MBP. She said that she wouldn't give it to IT, so it would just sit here collecting dust. She said if I wanted to keep it I could, as long as I return it if/when I quit/retire. I can keep it at home, as long as I keep up with it. When it does finally stop working, I'll simply bring it in to the office and let them dispose of it properly.

Yet Another Update:

Still waiting on budget approval. Most likely I'll end up waiting until the next budget (July) for the new MacBook to be ordered.

I've been using the MacBook by plugging it into the external monitor and keyboard, and it's been working fine. When I went on my trip up to Wisconsin, I brought it with me to my MIL's in Arkansas, and left it there in case my wife needed it. When I got back to Arkansas, I saw that the backpack hadn't moved at all from where I'd set it, and she confirmed that she hadn't needed it. Made the trip back to Dallas with no issues.

When I went to set it up and use it at work on Wednesday, nothing happened.

Well, that's not entirely true. The mouse cursor would move around the monitor, but the monitor was entirely black - nothing was being displayed other than the cursor. I thought maybe the computer thought it was an extended desktop, but the cursor would not move beyond the four edges of the external monitor. I opened the MacBook and reached in to power it off and noticed the purple bars were still there. I powered it off, let it sit a minute, then powered it back on, closing the lid after doing so. Nothing changed with the external monitor.

I spoke with my director about it, and she said it might be an issue with the monitor, since we had power surges due to the heavy storms over the weekend. I said I'd try my USB-C monitor with it and see if that worked.

I tried all of the USB-C ports on the MacBook and none of them behaved any differently from the others. I did notice that when I turned off the Apple Magic Mouse the on-screen notification of the mouse turning off (or back on when I turned it on) would appear at the center bottom of the monitor. But nothing else would appear on screen - just the mouse notification and the cursor.

I let her know the results of my test, and we agreed I'd continue to use the HP desktop until the new budget funds arrived.

I just did some research, and found out that it's probably caused by a problem when updating the OS (it auto-updated to Sonoma 14.4.1). I did a few of the things that were recommended on the Apple Discussion boards to try to get it to work, and got it to boot into Recovery Mode (Command + R). I was lost at this point, but ran Disk Repair. That only took a minute or two, so I told it to restart, and it's now functional again.

I took the MacBook Pro to an Authorized Apple Repair center on Friday to get an estimate for fixing the screen issue. We were hoping it was just a loose connector.

I received their estimate today: $874.16, including tax. This includes $174 for labor and $632.54 for a new display.

I think I'll pass on repairing it because I can get a new M2 MacBook Air for $899 with the education discount.

I still have it so my wife can use it at home, but I found out I can install Adobe CC on her iMac as one of my allowed installations, and I have the 2023 MacBook Pro from work to use for my stuff. Eventually I'll probably get my own MacBook Pro or Air for personal use.

I just hate to see an almost perfectly good laptop go unused due to something as minor as a monitor issue.

Just use it a a home server for other connected things

I would, but it belongs to my employer. They've replaced it with a new MacBook Pro, and said I could continue to use it at home if I wanted, as long as I bring it back if I ever leave, or if they ask for it back.

If the repair was going to be around $300 or so, I'd pay for it myself. But if I need to spend the price of a new MacBook Air to have it repaired, I might as well get a new MacBook Air for home use instead.

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They did respond to my email declining the repair, and said they'd see if they could source a used display for a more reasonable price, and will get back to me.

No logic as to why they do not decommission it as scrap, as they have replaced it already, some employers are strange, and they wonder why they cannot keep staff, my lad is a DSI in a notary company, he has now changed to leasing laptops from ASUS so anything breaks a new one is sent asap, and everyone is happy, saves on buying a new computer park that is outdated in a few years anyway, and no scrap to deal with.

Like you, I don't think your problem is the display, though after replacing the display, and refitting the display ribbon cable, the display would work. Question is, is the misplacement of the cable to the motherboard or the display? I have replaced maybe ten Dell displays, it's not fun.