Things break all the time, and we all have different ways of dealing with broken goods. It’s our job at iFixit to encourage people to consider fixing these things instead of throwing them out. Whether they do it themselves, give it to an independent repair shop, or go back to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for repair services doesn’t matter. What does matter is having all of those options available, including DIY. So imagine the frustration of running into a repair roadblock, intentionally placed there by the OEM, to prevent DIY and franchise-independent repairs.
More and more, we’re seeing this happen through software locks like parts pairing. For the uninitiated, parts pairing is a particularly egregious anti-repair tactic, especially when employed in critical infrastructure like agriculture and medicine.
While investigating murmurs from our community, we identified a potential parts pairing issue affecting screen swaps on the 14” MacBook Pro M1 and M2 devices. While parts pairing interferes with True Tone on all models, of particular concern is the artifacting that appears on all screen swaps on the 14” models.
It’s puzzling that this would happen at all, especially since the 16” models appear to accept donor screens without any artifacting. What’s more, our community members report that OEM screens bought through Apple’s Self Service Repair program will also present the same artifacting right up until System Configurator is deployed. The fact that Apple’s OEM screens are presenting the same symptoms suggests that this is a software issue.
While that solution remains under lock and key in Apple’s System Configurator, independent repair shops are reportedly transferring the ICs on the TCON boards from a donor screen to the new screen as a fix for the problem since the calibration data and serial numbers reside on those ICs.
Of course, this repair will only work if the ICs from the original display are still intact. Only then can the individual ICs be removed by applying a controlled amount of heat (too little and the solder won’t melt and too much will burn the IC), reball the ICs, and install them on another screen by again carefully applying heat. Needless to say, this type of repair is well beyond the average DIY’er.
We reached out to Apple three weeks ago for a comment or explanation as to what might be going on here. In the meantime, we posed the same question to Hector Martin from the Asahi Linux project. As someone who reverse-engineers Apple’s systems day in and day out, he’s the go-to subject matter expert:
That’s 100% a matrix backlight calibration issue.
[…]it all seems to be mostly automagically handled by the [Display Coprocessor (DCP)] firmware and the panel/TCON. My understanding is there has to be both some sort of factory calibration and some sort of running aging data store to keep the backlight consistent over time.
It would be very much appreciated if Apple could help document these things and provide tooling to do things “right” that works for things like swapping parts between machines, but it’s definitely not a case of deliberately making repair difficult. It’s more like nobody at Apple puts any effort into making repair easy (because that’s not something they’re told to care about / spend time on).
Hector Martin, Asahi Linux Project
So here we’re presented with an alternative possibility to parts pairing, a far more likely narrative even. The higher ups at Apple simply don’t care. Let’s be clear though: they care about what they make, they assign massive manpower and resources to maximize the user experience, and they are uncompromising in their demand for quality. They just don’t care about anything that happens outside that narrowly defined focus. And DIY or independent repair, and the maintenance of hardware outside the Apple ecosystem, falls outside that focus.
I have to admit, what I see on the screen could definitely pass as a calibration issue. Nothing about it has the clean, typically Apple-like approach of warning you about a disabled feature. It just sorta kinda doesn’t work properly. Does disabling True Tone constitute parts pairing? Yeah, probably. Does this artifacting issue? Given what we’ve learned, probably not.
Regardless of whether this is a calibration issue, a software bug, or parts pairing, we must ensure that the problem is corrected lest manufacturers start using such incidental failures as de facto parts pairing mechanisms designed to prevent repair. It’s not like Apple is the only device manufacturer using calibration tools—some Samsung and Google components also require calibration. But unlike Apple, Samsung and Google have made at least some of their calibration tools available to the public.
We get it, not every manufacturing process can be controlled within a narrow tolerance and these screens appear to be an example of that, where to achieve the best picture quality requires the additional step of calibrating each and every screen. And kudos to Apple for going the extra mile, they are masterful at squeezing every ounce of performance out of their hardware (it’s not just the screens, examples abound). That doesn’t preclude public access to calibration tools and, intentional or not, it’s not a reasonable justification for preventing DIY repair.
For now, while you can still repair your 14” MacBook Pro either through the Self Service Repair program or an indy repair shop, DIY repairs of the 14” MacBook Pros will have to wait for Apple to release the software fix. Unless you want to go off and learn BGA soldering.
Apple can resolve this issue by pushing an update, releasing the calibration firmware, or at least allowing DIY’ers to call in and use System Configurator through the Self Service Repair program. Our hope is that Apple will choose to do one of these things voluntarily. With Right to Repair legislation sweeping the nation, they soon may not have a choice in the matter.
14 Comments
Apple allows users to call in and use their System Configurator just like you suggested. See step 3 on Apple's website:
https://support.apple.com/self-service-r...
Or are you talking about people using parts sourced from a third party? I have no idea if Apple would be willing to remote in and pair the screen for you using System Configurator like they do if you purchase the part through their self service repair program but I would think not. This kind of crap needs to be illegal.
sapphirescales - Reply
You only gain access to the tool after buying the replacement display, it is not accessible to anyone else, nor accessible after the one time use.
The tool should be made available so salvaged (used) parts can be used.
While many people see this as a issue now, wait until Apple drops service and parts support! Your system lifespan is often much longer! As an example I still have a working 2012 MacBook Pro which is still quite workable! I should be able to get at least four more years of use.
We can’t continue to be a throwaway society and allowing companies to perpetuate it, a green company needs to practice Reuse before Recycle!
Dan -
@shahramm
Shahram, well written!
While the 14” is your focus, the displays technology used is also present in the 16” models as well. I’m suspecting there is a lot more 14” models sold so it’s just the ones we’ve seen so far. You may want to express that here.
The underlying local backlight control logic is the root issue in this odd screen effect. TrueTone is part of the rear camera system so the ambient light temperature is measured to color balance the camera as well as the displays color during the evening hours when the indoor light shifts from the cooler blue sun to the warmer reds of incandescent light.
A virgin displays camera (Intel systems) won’t work without calibration, which is why we push used displays in these models and as Apple won’t be supporting Intel based systems under the self service program there is no DYI option for these folks as you can’t get to the older calibration tool.
The M series systems get the double whammy!
Dan - Reply
@shahramm I love that you looked into this! It's been on on my radar to sift through all of the parts run through System Configurator during repair and decipher exactly what this is "configuring" for any given part and where that config data is stored. I did a whole whack ton of research about this for a post regarding the Lid Angle Sensor used on the 2019 16" MacBook Pro. Ultimately I decided, the same thing—it's calibration.
I suspect for many parts, that's all there is to it. Calibrating. I'm not sure why they couldn't differentiate that from processes used to pair Touch ID and Face ID components. But I suspect the "they aren't being told to" is reasonable. I have run System Config countless times, it looks almost identical on the outside no matter what part was replaced. There's no indication at all of what's being done. It's entirely likely it's the same thing just with checks for the various parts. Why write five programs when you could write one?
Alisha C - Reply
I ran into the same issue with my MacBook Pro 14” repair. I purchased a replacement screen off eBay. It works perfectly save the artifacts mentioned above. Took it into an AASP and asked them to calibrate. They said it needs to go to repair depot. Repair depot sent it back and won’t do the calibration. Tried reaching out to self service repair and they won’t do the system configuration because I didn’t purchase the screen from them. So seems like another way Apple is locking us out of self service repair. So much for environmentally friendly Apple.
Jason A - Reply