⟐ Commented May 23, 2026 at 8:25 MST

But here is the question: without microsolder experience/ability, is there something else I can do than pay $200+ for a reflow job? For example, one microsolder tech recommended that I pop the logic board (all by itself, disassembled from the laptop) in an oven at 450 degrees for 5 minutes. If that’s safe to do, I’d much prefer that to a $200 repair, as long as I don’t risk destroying the whole thing.

You microsolder wizards out there, what would you recommend? Or where would you recommend that can do the repair for cheap? I’ve already replaced the laptop, so now I’m just repairing to resell.

Thanks in advance.

⟐ Commented May 22, 2026 at 8:20 MST

I bought this MacBook Pro M1 refurbished in 2024. After one year of use, it suddenly showed those shadows on the bottom of the screen (like on the 1st pic), pretty similar to the Flexgate encountered on the previous generations. As I was still under warranty from the refurbisher (Okamac), I sent them the computer and they replaced the screen. But when I got it back, the screen looked fine but was squeaking when I opened it, was pretty hard to open, and was misaligned from the rest of the body by about 1 or 2 mm when closed.

So I took it to a local repair shop, and after disassembling it, they told me that apparently the screen wasn't screwed back tightly enough. After they remounted it, the squeaking noise was gone and it wasn't that hard to open anymore, but it was still slightly misaligned from the body when closed. It also seemed that there was a very thin, dim shadow at the bottom of the screen, but it was really thin so I just ignored it.

A few months later, the webcam stopped working, and the Touch Bar started to take hours to turn on (the screen of the Touch Bar was black, but it was still working before turning on). Now the Touch Bar is still working, but it sometimes stays extremely dim for several hours.

The screen itself worked properly for 8 months, but a few weeks ago the Flexgate-like shadows came back (like on the first pic). After the first appearance, I just closed the screen and opened it back up, and it went away. I then continued to use the laptop for several weeks (opening and closing it several times every day) before it came back. It did this several times, but every time it went away immediately after I closed and opened the screen back up. One time, it even went away without touching the lid: the screen went into standby as I was taking a picture of it, and when I clicked the touchpad to turn it back on, the shadows on the bottom of the screen were gone.

One week ago, the screen again went into Flexgate mode, this time not with the shadows on the bottom of the screen, but with the very bright spotlights that you see on the 2nd pic. I thought the screen was fried for good, but after closing and opening it again, it was gone. It's now been a week since I haven't closed the laptop at all (I slightly adjusted the screen several times and it didn't do anything). This situation is not very sustainable for me since obviously I intend to use my laptop as a portable device.

So my questions are :

is it Flexgate, like on the previous generations? (I did some research; I know that the cable itself can't be fixed and I just can't pay 600€ to replace a screen that's already been changed 8 months ago. Also, I haven't found any testimonies of someone having Flexgate on two different screens a few months apart on the same computer - particularly since the longer cables of the A2338 model are supposed to be more durable. Also, the fisrt time I got the "flexgate" issue, it wasn't intermittent)

Could this be another issue entirely, linked to the dead webcam and dim Touch Bar, that could be more easily fixed?

I really hesitate to bring the laptop to a repair shop for now because if it's indeed Flexgate, I'm afraid I will break the cable for good if I close the lid again to move the computer.

⟐ Commented May 20, 2026 at 11:02 MST

I am an amateur so bear with me. I started trying to repair this Macbook Pro some time ago. Its my own.

Today I disconnected and connected the motherboard due to some work in the power button / touch id (There is another post related to this.

So, that is a short summary and what happened now is that when I reassembled the computer and turned it on I notices that the touch bar was not showing anything so I turned off the computer and looked inside to have a look at a connector on a cable that I messed up a year ago (Sadly I was not as careful back..). While examining the cable and connector and touching it I noticed some smoke(?).. I thought that I imagined it.. Then I see sparks and a tiny fire! I rush to disconnect the cable from the connector and disconnect the battery..

Here I am now, with two questions:

1. Where does the touch bar get its power from? I cant figure it out by myself.
2. What is this connector that I messed up used for and did I burn a fuse on the MB? How should I proceed?

⟐ Commented May 18, 2026 at 14:19 MST

⟐ Answer edited May 17, 2026 at 12:21 MST

I’m facing a frustrating issue with my MacBook Pro M4 (purchased Feb 2025, AppleCare expired) and wanted to see if anyone has encountered this or found a workaround.

Whenever I open the lid—especially after it has been idle—the system behaves as if it’s under extreme thermal stress. It forces itself into sleep mode repeatedly (around 3 to 7 times in a row) before finally stabilizing and going back to normal.

There is no actual overheating, no high CPU usage, and no excessive fan noise.

After digging into the diagnostics, I managed to isolate the root cause. A specific thermal sensor, TDv (appearing as TD23 in the SMC logs), is stuck giving a false, static reading of 81 degree celsius. This erroneous spike is clearly causing the system to panic and force immediate sleep states to protect the hardware.

A factory reset did not change anything, as the issue is driven by this faulty sensor reading. I've attached my powermetrics logs and the diagnostic dump below.

Has anyone dealt with a single rogue sensor failing like this on an Apple Silicon Mac? Is there any known software method or tool to ignore/override a specific sensor input before I resort to a hardware repair?

Any insight would be highly appreciated.

Plaintext

**** Thermal pressure ****
Current pressure level: Moderate

**** Thermal pressure ****
Current pressure level: Sleeping

**** Thermal pressure ****
Current pressure level: Moderate

**** Thermal pressure ****
Current pressure level: Sleeping

**** Thermal pressure ****
Current pressure level: Nominal

**** Thermal pressure ****
Current pressure level: Heavy

**** Thermal pressure ****
Current pressure level: Sleeping

TD23 , 81.000961
TDVx , 81.000961
ftlx , 81.000252

⟐ Commented May 16, 2026 at 9:11 MST

Recently I bought a1707 macbook with screen flex cable problem and bios locked

I thought I could fix it but I failed (the flex cable is cutted) plus I tried to fix bios with ch341 but I guess this failed too (ic not responding error)

But after reassemble macbook it's not turning on

Did this repair while battery cable is unplugged so think is not shorted

USB meter says 19.6v 10~20w 0.5~1a and no keyboard or track pad respond or light

Plus I assume display will not work bc of cutted flex cable

Tried:smc reset/unplug charger and press power button for 10sec and plug/nvram reset

If have any kind of solution pls tell me

Thank you for reading long text :)

⟐ Answer accepted May 16, 2026 at 4:58 MST

⟐ Answer accepted May 15, 2026 at 17:49 MST

⟐ Answer edited May 14, 2026 at 6:22 MST

I noticed that every time I boot up now the lock icon shows up on the screen.

I did some research and found out it is a EFI / Firmware locked. I’m not sure exactly which one is the proper term or if both mean the same thing. Anyways, I have a spare MacBook Pro, same year, same kind of model and was wondering if i could just pull out the logic board from my spare system and put it into the system which is locked?

Would this eliminate my problem and have the ability to use my device? I really hope I can get an actual answer and not some sad person telling me its stolen and to give it back.

Thats not the purpose of this site now is it?

⟐ Answer accepted May 14, 2026 at 0:38 MST

I plug it to this 2013 2013 A1502 and it is charging but there is no light showing.

I tried with other chargers and it is the same, rarely getting a light that stays on.

SMC & PRAM resets, Pins are nice and clean, chargers not getting hot, laptop has a new battery with 2 cycles, Basically the laptop is charging normally but there is just no light on the charger. What goes? Going bad charging board? I guess I need to swap one over and see if that made any difference? It seems to charge for a minute or 2 at no more than 10w before it displays connected but 0w charging.

⟐ Answer accepted May 12, 2026 at 5:56 MST

⟐ Answer accepted May 11, 2026 at 14:47 MST

I appreciate the comments here; thank you! What actually worked: I downloaded a copy of catalina .dmg and used Balena Etcher on linux to burn it to a thumbdrive and booted the thumb drive by holding the Option button while powering up. I was then able to launch the terminal from the installer's menu bar. From the terminal, I was then able to run: nvram AutoBoot=%00 and this disabled that behavior (power on when power cable connected / disconnected). This command is only available in the MacOS image, so this was the missing step to be able to get access to it. Thank you!

⟐ Edited by author May 11, 2026 at 7:48 MST

I have MacBook Pro M4 A3112.(Nov'24). this is my first Macbook.

Initially display screen had some damage, so got the screen replaced and i notice both Wifi and Bluetooth has stopped working.

I took back to the repair guy who helped to replace the screen, but he has no clue why Wifi and Bluetooth are not working.

please find the attached the screenshots and photos I took as part of initial diagnosis I could do.

Please advise, what could be the issue and how to resolve this ?

Thanks

RB

Hi @danj

I did reformat whole Macbook and reinstalled OS. Seems issue still persists.

I connected the MacBook to my router using Rj45 cable with the help of connector so I can access wired network connection to internet.

However I tried to do offline diagnostic and I got the error CNW001 . Have attached screenshot.

Power charger wasn't connected to macbook when I ran the diagnostic so the error PPP020 can be ignored in the image here, as I see the MacBook is working fine when charger is connected.

Let me know what option i have to resolve this CNW001 error.

I am using wired connection for Internet for now, not a substantial solution.

Thanks

RB

I used an Ethernet cable and was able to connect to internet.

The pic was taken with ethernet cable on !

⟐ Commented May 10, 2026 at 18:25 MST

Basically, is my Anti-glare coating worth removing and if it is, which method is least likely to cause damage? Also, is image quality affected other than the anti glare properties if I were to remove the coating? Like a loss in color accuracy or something like that.

UPDATE

I used some Kirkland signature baby wipes to remove the layer but it was taking forever. I used Clorox wipes and that seemed to work too. Overall took about 30-45 minutes to remove the majority and about more than an hour to get it all off completely. To make sure it’s completely off use a flashlight and point it at the screen.

⟐ Commented May 09, 2026 at 20:09 MST

⟐ Answered May 08, 2026 at 0:05 MST

I am looking for a quick, viable solution to the Apple "StainGate" issue, one that does not take hours. We are looking for an in-house solution that can remove the coating "assembly line" style while the screen is left in place.

I have read through various iFixit forums, but am looking for a faster, easy to repeat process.

Issue: When using certain cleaners, the anti-glare coating becomes permanently "blotched". Apple is aware of this issue (see first link below) and has extended the warranty on the laptops with this issue, however this is not a solution for us (many of the units fall out of this extended warranty).

The other solutions we have seen are people removing the blotched antiglare coating with metal polish, however, when we tried this solution it took repeated applications and was an extremely slow process (see our tech note below). We even tried it with a hand held buffer as well as various solvents.

This was from our tech:

The process take a lot of time. Quite tiring

I tried it on my Macbook (2014 Retina 13") Though it does work (I used rubbing alcohol and Peek like the video) some parts came of really slow.. took dozens and dozens of applications, after an hour or so maybe 15% was done. Next day I continued, but this time I pre-wiped the screen with Bison Magic Wipes (for paint removal) after another hour doing Wipes->Peek rubbing->Ethanol cleaning the whole screen was smooth as a baby butt :-) The magic wipes really loosened the coating. Also while doing it the screen looks terrible.. just be patient and after a few hours it will look great!

And that’s just for one unit…

See: Apple Extends Free Repairs of Anti-Reflective Coating on Select MacBook and MacBook Pro Models

One person said what worked best for them was Peek Metal Polish (actually also polishes acrylic, etc) followed by rubbing alcohol for removing the anti-glare coasting. Also PolyWatch for the fine screen scratches. But again, these processes were too time intensive.

And:

• YouTube: MacBook Retina Screen Anti-Glare Coating Removal Cleaning Scratch Stain Problem Fix
• YouTube: Macbook Pro Screen Staingate Problem - Removing the Oleophobic Coating

Any input would be welcomed.

Thanks!

⟐ Commented May 06, 2026 at 8:45 MST

I suspect the issue may be the battery ribbon cable, which I’ve already ordered, but I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this or knows what the problem might be.

Thanks in advance!

⟐ Commented May 05, 2026 at 5:06 MST

I’ve searched everywhere: online stores, marketplaces, spare parts sites… nothing reliable, nothing in stock, nothing that I can actually trust.

This tiny cable is literally the only thing stopping me from fixing my MacBook. Without it, the device is useless. I really don’t want to replace the whole machine over something like this.

Does anyone here know where I can find this part?
Even used or refurbished would be totally fine at this point.

Any help would seriously mean a lot.

⟐ Answer edited May 05, 2026 at 1:50 MST

Im not getting any sound from the speakers either but if I connect and bluetooth accessories it works straight away. The fans are also always on high speed.

Please help any solution is highly appreciated.

⟐ Commented May 04, 2026 at 14:46 MST