Technical writer, teardown engineer, and occasional video host at iFixit HQ in San Luis Obispo, California.
I spend my days taking photos, making guides, doing research, and occasionally tearing down new gadgets. Sometimes I also get to work with the video team, or do some investigative journalism. I’ve been on the iFixit team since August of 2018.
The 2016 MacBook Pro’s faulty display and backlight cables
Education
Two years into my computer science degree at Utah State University in Logan, Utah I was feeling like I wasn’t going to come away from my college education with anything I couldn’t learn on the world wide web. So I decided to end my CS classes when I hit the requirement for the CS minor program, and explore alternate major options.
Enter technical writing. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and consider myself a pretty great explainer of things. The TW program at USU turned out to be amazing, and I spent the last two years of my bachelor’s degree in (almost) pure bliss, learning about communication, rhetoric, UX design, and honing my writing and editing skills.
Skills / repair background
Thanks to a lifelong tech obsession, I’ve owned more gadgets than I can count, and I’ve taken apart more than I’ve owned (don’t lend me your stuff ;). As the designated tech support kid in most of my social circles, I’ve spent most of my life accumulating myriad hardware and software repair experiences.
Peering into the heart of a lifeless MacBook Pro
My time here at iFixit has definitely swung me back to the hardware side of repair, but I do also try to stay on top of all major desktop and mobile OS updates and keep my front-end dev skills at least sort of sharp. Gotta make sure that CS minor doesn’t go to waste. ;)
What else
When I’m not on iFixit.com, I spend my time climbing, cycling, tinkering, and binging internet content. I also love dogs, even though I'm allergic to them.
 |  |  |
My favorite technology
- Blackberry Pearl
- 120Hz iPad Pro displays
- Intel’s NUC computers
- Pebble smartwatches
- Anything else with an e-paper display
- Nintendo Switch
- Unibody MacBook Pros
Daniel, that is definitely one of the drawbacks of our guides! What specifically did you struggle with while reconnecting the battery? I can add a reminder bullet to that step to help people in the future.
You heard correctly! The flash storage is integrated into the logic board and and paired to the T2 chip so it cannot be swapped out, unfortunately. You can see it in step 6.
Sorry Joaquin, that is a confusing sentence! What we mean is “10.13 High Sierra or a newer version of macOS.” So yes, that includes Catalina!
The black screen you’re seeing means that the computer can’t find an operating system on your SSD. Did you already install the new SSD? If you did, then you can follow this Internet Recovery guide to install MacOS to the new drive.
Hey Gigi! It sounds like either your WiFi password isn’t correct, or the computer can’t connect to the internet with that network for some other reason. I would try your password again, and if that doesn’t work you can try to connect using an ethernet cable—or just take it to a friend’s house and try their WiFi!
Bo, that is a great idea! I’ll add that reminder.
pika, try plugging in an external keyboard to input the WiFi password!
Hey robert, the procedure is exactly the same for the 2014 MBA! You can check out our MacBook Air 2014 SSD replacement guide to check for yourself.
Hey Sam! Sorry to hear about your laptop. There are enclosures that let you use a hard drive (or an SSD) as an external drive for easy data transfer to your new computer. If you’re looking for an adapter for the SSD in a 2013 MacBook Pro you can try this OWC Envoy Pro enclosure. Or if you need something for an older 2.5” HDD, we’ve got a silicon enclosure for that, too!
Sorry that your screen doesn’t seem to be working! If you’ve tried disconnecting and reconnecting the display cable already, the next step would be to carefully inspect the connector pins (use a magnifying glass, if you have one). Make sure that none of the pins are bent out of place. If the pins on the display connector and the board socket both look good, then you can take some 99% isopropyl alcohol and carefully clean the both the connector and the socket. Hopefully that will bring your display back to life! If that doesn’t work, some people have had luck with factory resetting their device (via usb from the computer). Good luck!
tiko, these bottom covers are pesky to remove! We don’t have a guide for this 16” MBP yet, but you can check out our guide for the 15”—the procedure is the same. Hope this helps!
Sayfa 1 / 6
Sonraki