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Hi, I have a working MacBook in poor condition and found the same model in good condition but blocked. I want to swap all the components, so just the motherboard and the power/touch ID button, since the button is serial-locked to the motherboard. Is there anything else that's serial-locked, or will everything work after the swap?
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I'm sorry, but welcome to the painful life of Parts Pairing and Activation Lock. Unfortunately the Logic Board is the brains of a Mac. Without it, the Mac is a piece of metal. So, Apple has block logic boards from being replaceable. Now, I do know it is possible to remove Activation Lock. You have to remove the T2 Security Chip and then solder a new one. You then have to use DFU Mode to re-flash the firmware. But, this process is extremely complicated. As far as I know, if you replace the Touch ID, you will never be able to use it again, all thanks to Parts Pairing.
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@jadonlyon Hi, thank you for answer. Maybe I explained it wrong. I got working and unlocked Motherboard from pretty much almost destroyed MacBook. And I want to buy the same MacBook in good and working condition. And then put the working, unlocked motherboard in the body instead of the locked one. Also with the powerbutton. So Everything will work(I think, would it?).
@kicmer - I think you are right. From what I can tell, this machine does not have too many issues with parts pairing. Since neither of us are 100% certain, I would recommend making sure you can return the working Mac so you don't waste any money. I apologize for misunderstanding :)
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Your MacBook model suggests it supports True Tone. All displays with True Tone support are paired to the logic board and swapping them will disable the feature entirely.
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@guard3 Thanks, still better display with disabled True Tone then none display :)
A lot of the old Macbook Pro with a Touch Bar have issues. It flickers or blinks. But I'd still consider those because there are solutions to the flickering.
For example you can go to Settings -> Keyboard and customize the Control Strip. Then you remove the items one by one. I detailed how to do it in this article: https://blog.clemstation.com/best-3-solu...
Of course the new Macbook won't have this issue moving forward.
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