Shortly before the 2020 pandemic lockdowns started, I bought a 2019 MacBook Pro 16”. It was a nice machine and served me well as my daily driver until 2024, when I retired it and switched to a Framework laptop running Fedora Linux. I knew I was coming to the island where there’s no Apple store and I wanted a machine that was easier to maintain and was less dependent on proprietary software and services.
I kept the MBP intact, and fired it up occasionally to test my software on macOS or to answer support questions for my Mac-using friends. It never failed me and I didn’t give it a lot of thought.
A couple of days ago, I had a friend whose Chromebook keyboard was failing and I offered to let her use the MBP. I dusted it off and… the keyboard wouldn’t work. I did all kinds of troubleshooting, resetting the SMC and NVRAM, wiping the OS and doing a clean install of macOS (using an external keyboard). No dice.
I’m hoping to build my workbench tomorrow, then I’ll have a place to disassemble the MBP and see if just re-seating the keyboard connector will help. Friends on TidBITS Talk suggested that a swollen battery could cause those troubles, which is a good thing to be wary of, though there’s no external evidence of battery swelling. I’ll have to check it out carefully when I open it up.
Would it be worth replacing the battery ($130), the keyboard ($244), or both? Likely not, particularly if I can re-purpose the now-quite-valuable 64 gigabytes of RAM.
—2p