Yeah, that and it’s not a sudden failure of the drive when you hit the expected lifespan, but more of a gradual decrease in capacity as individual cells hit their P/E cycle limit (some may be the rated 10k, some may be 100k, some may be 1k), until you eventually run out of space. Once you start seeing the decrease in size one can also mitigate further by decreasing the number of erases one does to the drive to make it last longer.
1 Like
And besides this, a vast majority of laptops are either never upgraded or upgraded once near the beginning of their lifecycle. For me, I’ve always maxed out my machines when purchasing them and never once needed to “upgrade” them until their usefulness was limited and I had to sell it off or give it away in favor of a new machine.
1 Like
“Great for hackers” because of multiple USB-C ports (one of which you also need to use for power, when charging)? Only if those ports work properly; You literally cannot use wifi and USB-C devices at the same time!
All SSD failures (bar one*) i’ve seen personally have been total and instant, probably due to the sudden failure of one of the flash dies essentially bricking the entire drive. I do own one old SSD i think is at the end of it’s flash life though, struggles to write data at a tenth of the speed it should do but reads just fine.
I would say overall that SSDs do seem more reliable than old HDDs, with the caveat they seem to just die with no warning when they do go. As in: “oh dear, my C: drive just disappeared from explorer, that can’t be good…” bluescreen 
The problem with the Mac soldered drive here, is that you essentially wipe out the entire computer as well unless you resort to expensive replacement and resoldering of individual BGA chips.
*Corrupted firmware, bridging the engineering mode jumper and reflashing the firmware resurrected it. There was much rejoicing.
Sounds like that’s an issue with the aftermarket hardware he’s plugged in conflicting with Sierra, not something other people are experiencing.
I think moving to an industry-standard port is a smart idea.
5 Likes
Is anyone else just disgusted by the touchbar, both for eliminating Esc & the F-keys and for its very existence? If they “had” to have a touchbar, they shouldve added it and retained the Esc/F-Keys. But I guess it took more “courage” to eliminate the physical Esc/F-Keys completely.
1 Like
Try watching the video; you quite obviously have not watched all 1+ hour of it in the few minutes since I posted that link. He tries quite a few devices, in fact. And many of those use-cases are how one might expect someone buying a Mac “Pro” (Desktop or Macbook) to use the damn thing. You know, how surveys show they’re actually used…?
Moving to an industry-standard port is a GREAT idea, but only if you actually follow the standard. It’s Apple’s job to properly implement USB-C, NOT the other way around.
1 Like
That’s very true, and I most definitely don’t intend to watch an hour long video of someone unable to use a laptop. But I know how to read user forums and tech websites! It’s not too tough.
4 Likes
In other words, you’re speaking from a viewpoint of willful ignorance. I also you google the maker of the video and/or check out some of his other Mac repair videos. He demonstrably knows far more about Macs, down to the individual chip level, than almost any Apple employee, outside of their engineering department.
How many of your “user forums and tech websites” show you how to troubleshoot/diagnose/replace individual hard-soldered IC failures on a Mac’s motherboard? How many show how to repair fluid damage, down to the IC level? How many personally repair up to thousands of Macs every year? Well?
Yes, Apple is perfect for you (assuming you don’t want to use wifi and USB-C concurrently, that is). Enjoy!
again, for the 99% of computer owners who never crack the case, this is in no way different from the failure of a removable hard drive. It’s broke, your data is toast, and if you take it in for repair, you discover that it’s going to cost a lot of money to fix.
On the other hand, non-removable RAM and SSDs will experience fewer failures from bad connections or corrosion on the pins than traditional upgradable drives and RAM.
Apple sees this as a net win - fewer parts means fewer points of failure, thus lower failure rates, fewer warrantee replacements, and fewer unhappy customers. And it lets them lower the cost compared to a same-specced modular computer (it’s no accident that the new mac mini got a price cut when it got soldered RAM).
The only people who might even remotely consider it to be a downside are the nerds who were servicing thier own computers. And, as noted before, Apple doesn’t care agout pleasing those people anymore.
2 Likes
Researching the background of the video, learning what hardware was used as well as what hardware/software conflicts are causing the issue, and finding out how prevalent the issue is is kind of the exact opposite of “willful ignorance”.
6 Likes
He knows more about troubleshooting and replacing chips than most. He doesn’t understand the software. He has demonstrated this over and over and over in his videos where he makes assumptions about how a Mac based system works in comparison to his Windows based machines. He has made plenty of comments that were opinion based but says them is if someone is stupid if they do the same thing. A lot of these comments come down to the core principles of how Unix (and variants) works vs Microsoft.
Being able to fix a car’s catalytic converter doesn’t inform you about emissions systems or global warming…this guy is doing something similar.
I would put money on the idea that the third party dongle has a chipset that includes the ethernet standard but not exposing the port. I’ve had problems with a dongle in the past doing this where it somehow assigned itself the main ethernet port and I’ve had to spend 30 seconds going into network settings and telling my Mac to disable that ethernet device. And then it works. I do with the OS would be more selective about plug and play on specific devices…
6 Likes
It was a laptop he was repairing for a client. Your failed assumptions are quite clear, thanks! You also just revealed you actually researched NONE of the background of that video, contrary to your silly claim =) .
Hint: The author of said video is a rather well-known unofficial Mac repairman.
And you got your panties bunched over “smack yourself awake with a moldy haddock”…? My, how fragile you are. Were you under the impression I was actually expecting you to bludgeon yourself with a large, rotten fish?
Manufactured outrage fail.
5 Likes
I love using USB multiport for my media box so I can keep the external hard drive for my porn separate from the one for my regular movies, music and vacation photos.
1 Like
So a system that forces you to use dongles, if you want to use more than one USB-C device while plugged in, gets to ignore USB standards, eh, breaking that use case?
Nice.
This is what you took away from what I had to say?
In what way is it ignoring USB standards? The USB standard is that plug and play exists…and you can set a bit to say “Hey! Prioritize This Use…Ignore The Fact I Don’t Actually Exist Except In The Chipset Because Te Manufacturer Used Whatever They Had Sitting Around And Didn’t Disable It”.
it is the OPPOSITE of ignoring USB standards…it is adhering to them. I’m making the case that there are certain standards that I don’t like.
Just say it, you irrationally do not like Macs and will make excuses to slam them. WTF? It’s technology. If YOU don’t like it, don’t use it. I hate Windows…however, I know a lot of people that use this platform productively. I like *NIX, but I don’t have the time to deal with it and prefer that mine is packaged the way Apple does. Why do people have to demean technology that isn’t designed for them. Do you feel smarter as a result? Do you get fan boy points? I’m sure whatever you use is just fine with you and there may be downsides, but ultimately the positives outweigh the negatives.
5 Likes
if the drugstore power adaptor adheres to the spec. Many don’t.
3 Likes
Nope! Now you’re just down to simply trying to gainsay anything I post.
Let’s review:
- I posted a video which shows, in repeated tests by an experienced individual, problems involving using USB-C devices and wifi at the same time for the new MacBook Pro.
- Nungesser responded, “Nuh uh!”, without any backup at all (to this moment).
- I called Nungesser out on that.
- You took issue with that, averring:
- All of the dongles in use were somehow faulty (even though they work on the video maker’s previous MacBook Pro just fine).
- I hate Macs, which is simply your failed assumption.
Less confused now? Ready to try again?
Neither of you has managed to back up your bullshit, sorry. Links? Cites? References? Well…?
Agreed, that’s a bad idea for ANY device, in my opinion. Third-party is fine but make sure it’s a reliable manufacturer.
