I just finished a flexgate repair on my 15". Thank you so much for this! It saved me a ton of money. The soldering was much smaller than I expected, but I got it working on the first "very careful" attempt. I'm still a little surprised it works like new again, and it is 100% thanks to this video!
Louis Rossmann sent me here. It's great to see here in the UK that people such as yourself are using innovative solutions to a problem Apple shouldn't have had, let alone not address. Keep up the good work and I wish you continued success!
Just came here to say thank you. I've always wanted a Mac but couldn't justify the price. A friend of mine sold me his A1708 for $150 because it had the flexgate issue. I followed your tutorial and managed to fix it. I've never really soldered anything let alone a Mac. I'm so excited I keep thinking I might wake up.
@@ukslmaclab1611 I did like three weeks of preparation while all the tools I ordered shipped to me. Watched this video like a million times. Watched Louis's videos on soldering. Learned to use a multi meter. But I will say, nothing prepared me for how small that ribbon actually is. That thing is tiny. I had no microscope so I used my one plus 7t camera as the microscope. The camera placement made it hard to really see anything so I eyeballed it. Everything looked so messy I was so sure I'd made a mess of things. Decided to put it all back together and accepted that I might need to order a new screen and when I turned it on, it freaking worked. Again can't tell you how excited I am.
@@xenicmark Great! Imagine what you could do with a microscope :D. I think the hardest thing is stripping the coating off the cables without damaging the tracks.
You did it with out a microscope? that's awesome tellme how. :) i'm having some issues as well but i think is more likely the dustgate cabe (the larger cable)
@@danield6079 I cannot tell you how I succeeded. I was an amateur and my hands shake like crazy. I used my phone in macro mode as a microscope. I assume you can achieve similar results by just zooming in if you have a good phone camera. The trick is in properly stripping the ribbons. That requires so much patience. Took me like 4 hours because I was being super careful not to damage the wires. I only had one ribbon and a replacement would take weeks to arrive. So take you time. If you do this part properly, the rest of the video should be easy to follow. Make sure to use a good quality soldering gun, wire and flux. There's a 90% chance you will mess it up though. So if you can find a repair shop, I'd recommend that. Also the display ribbon is pretty forgiving. I've seen people just solder all the wires together and get it working. (Usually with loss of brightness control) I'm not sure about other ribbons though. I had that MacBook for about a year after that with no problems until I traded it in for an upgrade. Still works I think because I left the dude I swapped it with my number in case the problem came up again and he's never said anything.
Fantastic Matt. Yes your FlexGate solution with the enamel wires was a great way to bring life back to these ridiculously expensive screens. However this solution is so much better IMO. Thanks for sharing you wisdom and knowledge .
Well done. I always thought I'd like to join the replacement flex without running jumper wires, and this seems like a great solution for a lasting repair
At the first time I made this repair, i thought let's face the solder joints together with a longer flex, but then I was thinking about this huge 180° turn and this could be a problem. So I just face them normally , made some solder bridges and stiched them together with wires. 4mm loner cable and now I need to wait and test. Thank you for your video and effort to make this public!
Im still learning myself and Yes you can get away with much less solder, in fact all you really need to do is lightly tin the tracks so that thet change colour! Always check for shorts still though.
damn, i'm in California. Need this done... had this flexgate issue for 3.5 years. I was only able to use the macbook for 1.5 years before it went to shit.
Excellent tutorial, Matt! Was looking forward to it. Neat professional job. Never done one of those yet though, I usually get things escalated to the Senior advisers and they get 2017 models replaced for me as well LOL. With my old trusty Hakko FM-202 I would probably leave a little exposed edge with solder so I can run the tip on the actual solder oppose to the top of the cable to avoid any cold joints but with JBC Nase and it's variety of pencils it should not be a problem I suppose. I am preparing myself to drop some cash on the JBC though, it's been a challenge running 0.009mm jumpers on iPhones with my hakko, I think I overgrew it :)
Thanks mate, Yes the NASE-2 is an amazing bit of kit and is saving me alot of time and frustration soldering. Thats a good idea about leaving a bit of the track exposed at the end and you can manually solder each track to be sure. Because there is such a large surface area solering 2 large area of tracks together I dont think cold joints will be an issue here.
@@akrenramrek They were doing it as courtesy basically, had to be approved by the Senior adviser after some arguing. It was never a simple straight forward process. It might work now too but You have to be persistent. Requesting repair as the end customer vs repair shop might help also.
Thank you very much for sharing the repair! The truth is that it shows a lot of quality in your procedure. You are wonderful. My 15" Macbook Pro (A1707) has been glitching for a while (like interferences) and now when I past 30 degrees open it just shows a white screen with lots of vertical thin lines (like a barcode). Is this also a Flexgate problem and is it repaired the same way on the same cable? I have seen other shorter cables for my model than the backlite ones and I am not sure if the procedure is the same. Thanks in advance folks!
I am so mad at apple right now, my first time of owning MacBook and this 😡😡😡. It's so stupid to design a hinge of a machine that will ultimately play a critical role in someone's professional life😡😡
Great tutorial lucky me i have a lot of cracked screens stashed away. I was able to salvage a cable from one of those for a short notice repair. Working great so far!
Phuket My Mac video sent me here. Both videos are well done. I don't own any Apple products. Never heard of Louis Rossmann. Just kidding, Louis is a nice guy but he didn't send me here. Excellent splice technique. I may try to imitate the splice on other ribbon cables.
@UKSL MacLab : Has a same issue with my one, got my 13” 2017 with Touch Bar, it perfectly works but when I reached the about 40-50 degrees it freezes and gets line on the screen in a bottom of the screen actually. The strange thing is when I close down and gets back to around 30 degrees it works perfectly again.. I managed the work with no lines and freezes, it took a 2 days and the way I did is open it up very very gently very slow and carefully. I’m sure it is fixable somehow.
Hi Greenfish, unfortunately that doesn't sound like Flexgate which only affects the LED Backlight and WebCam cables. The backlight is only the device that lights up the screen and doesnt affect the picture ie Lines, Bands, Ghosting, Colour Hues etc. This is more a break in the LCD Cable and unfortunately cant be replaced with this method and so a replacement screen assembly is required. Thanks, Matt!
@@ukslmaclab1611 Thanks! So is more likely the LCD flex cable which is probably fixable but a completely different process. I’ll have a look again under the microscope to see is there any dent or bend or something in a LCD flex. I’m sure it won’t need to change the whole screen itself, I’ve seen a few footage how to change the LCD layer by layer looks really difficult, maybe there is a way or method to fix just the LCD flex actually just the part of the flex which is broken. Thanks anyway:) great video
@@ukslmaclab1611 Why can't this same method be applied to the LCD side cable? Is it not the same ribbon style cable but mirrored? I'm genuinely curious as I face the exact same issue
￡37.07 | 10 Sets For Macbook Pro 13'' 15'' A1707 A1706 A1708 LCD Front Camera Backlight Cable Set 821-01270-01 821-00602-03 a.aliexpress.com/_mrV6NX1 These are the ones I used in the video. You buy them in batches of 10. They should be on eBay too.
Great video, I have the same issue with my 2018 MacBook 15 inch. At the repair shop, they said they can fix it for $350 which is quite expensive, what do you think how much they should charge for job like this? Btw I’m from US
So you decided to join Rossmann Repair group or (Mac laptop repair specialist) In this video we will cover the fallowing: -How to dress properly for work. -how to fallow all safety procedures. -How to behave during work hours and toward your coworkers. At the end of the video your instructor will gladly respond to any questions you may have. Ok let's begin
This is happening with 1 of our 3 MacBook Pros. I've had it for years but the problem just started. Going to request Apple fix this for free or done with Apple altogether.
Hello i have also this problem on MacBook and i want ask what tools you use to fix your MacBook. You can write me what tools i need to buy for fixing my MacBook? Thanks!!!
Great tutorial - thank you. Suspect I might stuff it up if I tried this myself. Any suggestions for a shop in Sydney, Australia who could do this fix? TIA
Hello, I'm planning to have an ''operation'' on my MacBook and unfortunately I don't know what thickness of copper wire to buy? I found 0.1 or 0.02 mm on the Internet, will it be one or the other?
Hi how much is the cable I have 2017 with touch bar if that makes a difference. Apple want more than the thing is worth, especially as you have said it’s apples fault selling faulty goods
Does the jumper solution with UV Mask Break after some time? For ne the jumper solution seems Like the netter fix. Am I wrong with that opinion? And why?
Well, im not sure it could be called "permanent solution". Newer macbooks got problem with TCON data cable which is much harder to repair once it fails. There is also camera cable with the very same issue. I've seen dozens of macbooks with stagelight + random camera malfunction in the same stage. Basically this is only a temporary solution which will last untill other cable fails and as Pinkbar flexgate (2018-2019) shows, it might happen pretty soon.
horizontal tiny and vertical big stripes. When i close to like 30 degree top case, big vertical lines was missing, tiny horizontal pink-green lines not. I clean crumbs near flex lcd cable, and it help to solve problem with big vertical lines, but not solve the problem with horizontal lines. I make a video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lYg-6R1a7tc.html Thanks.
Didn't you end up removing the coating on _both_ sides anyway (and that way could see alignment)? So is the folding strictly neccessary? My apologies if I missed something, watched twice but stuck outdoors in sunlight so might be missing some finer visible detail in the footage.
On one side there is a layer of black coating covering the copper tracks and on the otherside there is a black coating covering a see though flexible sheet. You cant really scrape through this sheet and even if you did the strength in the cable would be lost.
@@ukslmaclab1611 Aaah! Your information here together with now having watched it in more favorable surroundings, this explains why I didn't pick up on "the deal" before. So that transparent sheet layer is basically the structural substrate, 8that the otherwise quite fragile flex cable is deposited/etched on, or fused onto? If so, I guess _in theory_ you could scrape through a section/band of the old cable, not at the cut end but for a rough example, starting 5mm "in" from the cut. Then scrape through that plastic substrate on the new donor at its cut end, solder, then add your adhesive between the two cable sections, at that remaining 5mm where both are fully intact and now overlap. That part of the new bit of cable would be quite fragile right at the solder joint area, but it's sandwiched onto the other cable section that still retains its substrate intact. And like the way you did it in the video, the solder joints themselves wouldn't be what mechanically anchors the two cable pieces together. I'm kinda sh*t at explaining my thoughts without visuals, but hopefully you get what I'm trying to "illustrate" in words. I'm probably forgetting or missing something, so if you would care to share your thoughts on this idea, I woul would appreciate that very much. Edit: Made a (VERY) rough sketch: imgur.com/a/7e9Eh8i
No understand what you mean, so that the cable is the right way from the beginning and the cables are joined back to front. That could work if you could get through the substrate layer without damaging the copper tracks. They are quite delicate and without the substrate that they are fused/mounted to I imagine they would move all over the place making it difficult to line up. I will try it next time though!
@@ukslmaclab1611 If you have access to volume, U guess a little bit experimentation is possible. I aready see a potential weak point in my idea here (beyond it being more work and more risk, digging through that substrate). Which is, we kinda need to use superglue or epoxy to anchor the cables together with that method. Because flex is ok, but if we use a flexible adhesive or tape between them, and the force is pulling rather than bend/flex, then it would still be pulling directly on the solder joints. Now with the tracks _very_ fragile. This because with my idea, we no longer have that little "give" to work with, that the fold-and-loop-back in the cable in your method affords us.
Where can I buy the replacement flex cable? I was going to proceed with the jumper solution but this one seems better. I was not able to find the spare though
What if at some point you decide to install a new screen instead of the mod? how do you still connect it to the mainboard if you soldered the flex directly into it?
Does this repair works for my macbook pro 2018 13' touchbar? My screen is showing pink vertical lines (I have on my video) . Apple is charging me 800$ and i only have the laptop for 1 and half yesr only. im so mad.
Hi, no sorry this isn't flexgate. Its a common fault though that we are trying to find a solution to. At the moment the only solution is to change the LCD or entire display assembly.
@@ukslmaclab1611 unfortunately it does. mine is exactly the same size and year as in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4hQT-B4p-4U.html same issue. (id guess you will have more such requests in the next years.)
I have a MacBook Pro Touch Bar 2016 13 inch, suddenly my screen start showing a black bar in the middle, i think my screen is fine because the black bar disappear when I’m near to close the MacBook, I think is the flex. I’m not a electrician so I don’t if can fix my screen or I need to buy an entire screen to switch.
This isn't flexgate but its caused by dirty and grit getting trapped down into the screen flex cables at the bottom of the screen. They puncture through and stretch the copper tracks cracking them. These can sometimes be fixed though. Are you in the UK?
I’m too far from UK, I’m from Colombia but I’m trying to fix my MacBook, maybe if I dissemble the screen I can clean the flex and find a solution, I don’t want to buy a new screen because is a bit expensive
How much do you charge to do this work? My A1707 has this issue and am told to replace the LCD screen that costs a fortune. Appreciate your response. Can you repair this and send it back by courier - am in India
thank you so much, i tryed to fix a 15" but, now after 4 cables, i have all time the same result, display working but seems every 2. led only lightning. now i got another 15" from another client, bute again, already replaced the 3. cable but all times i got the 2.led effect? what i do wrong? , please help, with a known good display all is working good.
I have MacBook Pro 2016 13 inches A1708 model with Flexgate issue and Apple refused to repair it saying that this serial number is not covered by the extended warranty lol
@@ukslmaclab1611 I’m located in Ukraine. Maybe a half year ago I approached official representative store of Apple here and they said they my serial number is just not on the list of extended warranty 💁♂️😭 I found a guy here who might fix it using your video, sending laptop to UK from Ukraine is not a cheap deal or there are cheap ways?
