Archive for the ‘Mac’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/02/05
TL;DR: the [Wayback/Archive] Self Service Repair – Apple Support parts are very expensive; having an expert solder them is way more affordable
Last year, [Wayback/Archive] Official (by_APPLE): Mac mini (2024) Repair Manual : r/macmini already had the part numbers for Mac Mini M4 SSD upgrades which I put in this table (staggered staggered to emphasise the M4 and M4 Pro differences) with prices for the M4 upgrades after receiving back the return credit (which I still need to figure out what you need to return):
Mac Mini M4 SSD upgrade part numbers
| Mac mini (2024 with M4) |
|
Mac mini (2024 with M4 Pro) |
|
|
661-43668, 256GB
|
USD 263.12 |
|
|
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661-43669, 512GB
|
USD 251.12 |
661-43672, 512GB
|
|
|
661-43670, 1TB
|
USD 439.12 |
661-43673, 1TB
|
|
| 661-43671, 2TB |
USD 748.00 |
661-43674, 2TB
|
|
|
|
661-43675, 4TB
|
|
|
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661-43676, 8TB |
|
NB: If anyone can provide a Mac Mini M4 Pro serial, I can amend the table with those part prices as well.
It also had these links:
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Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, Mac, MacMini, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/02/04
For cleaning an Apple Silicon MacBook there were already solutions to either disable the keyboard or to blacken the screen:
- [WaybackSave/Archive] GitHub – shauninman/Little-Fingers: Little Fingers lets you lockdown keyboard and trackpad input with a globally accessible keyboard shortcut (open source)
- [Wayback/Archive] folivora.ai – Great Tools for your Mac! KeyboardCleanTool blocking all keyboard and TouchBar input. (free download)
- [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – jacklandrin/OnlySwitch: ⚙️ All-in-One menu bar app, hide 💻MacBook Pro’s notch, dark mode, AirPods, Shortcuts (open source and available as [Wayback/Archive] only-switch — Homebrew Formulae)
In Version 2.3, Only Switch brings a new feature, Screen Test. It provides a pure color view in full-screen mode, you can check dead pixels via it. Press the left and right arrow keys, the color will change from black, white, red, green, and blue. This functionality also can be used for screen cleaning, as you can see the stains on the screen.
For keeping a Mac turned off however, there hadn’t been a solution for a long time.
Now there is, but you need to have the most recent update of macOS Sequoia 15 by adding a nvram BootPreference setting: [Wayback/Archive] Prevent a Mac laptop from turning on when opening its lid or connecting to power – Apple Support
Via
- [Wayback/Archive] Fefes Blog: [l] Satire und Realität sind nicht mehr unterscheidbar. Heute: Apple.
- [Wayback/Archive] Für Tastaturhygieniker: So bleibt das MacBook beim Öffnen aus | heise online
- [Wayback/Archive] Created a Keyboard Lock App for Safe Cleaning—Seeking Your Thoughts and Feedback! 🚀🔧 : macapps
--jeroen
Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/06
Having used the fully loaded Intel 15″ Retina MacBook Pro machines (the ones without dreaded touch-bars or butterfly keyboards – note the IBM ThinkPad 701 butterfly keyboard – also known as TrackWrite – was perfectly fine) from 2015 for 9 years, it was finally time to upgrade to an Apple Silicon one, but again: not the touch bar models.
My work is mainly CPU and disk intensive and often based on remote logon to more powerful equipment, so GPU cores and performance only marginally matter for web-browsing and local electron based applications (hello vscode!).
Going from 4 hyperthreaded CPU cores (8 parallel threads) to at least 8 full CPU cores, I didn’t want to pay full price like back in the days, and wanted it to be less than my car (EUR ~4000), so these links helped me find refurbished ones in The Netherlands:
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Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, M1 Mac, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Tagged: 21771 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/12/05
After installing my Apple Silicon MacBook, I found out my machine had gotten named automatically in two different ways:
- readable name Jeroen’s Macbook Pro
- full name Jeroens-MacBook-Pro
- local hostname Jeroens-MacBook-Pro.local
- actual
hostname Jeroens-MBP
- HostName from
scutil
A few reasons I dislike that:
- Having 5 different names for the same machine creates a mess
- They chose for me where I like to choose myself
- They use spaces, quotes and hyphens where I like single a complete word
- They use mixed case where I like single case (preferably lower case) as not all other computers handle mixed case well
Finding out how to fix all this was a tedious job as I had to keep refining queries:
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Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, ARM Mac, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacBook-Pro, Power User, Terminal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/11/23
April 2024 this bug was reported: [Wayback/Archive] chrome crashes when command + shift + i is pressed on a new tab [333424895] – Chromium
That one was fixed, but it looks shortcuts like Command (⌘) + Shift + I still break Chrome when used on a tab pointing to a web-site.
Hopefully the original fix at [Wayback/Archive] Fix crash in sharing menu (5449679) · Gerrit Code Review will help people fixing the standing issue as well.
Related (I plan to file a bug report when the number of my open tabs is closer to zero from the current 200+):
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Posted in Apple, Chrome, Google, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/08/24
Video: [Wayback/Archive] Mac Studio Storage Upgrade – Made EASY with Custom Parts – YouTube
Tweets in [Wayback/Archive] Thread by @dosdude1 on Thread Reader App
- Just finished an awesome upgrade on an M1 Mac Studio, upgrading the stock 512GB of storage to its maximum of 8TB. Thanks to Gilles of Polysoft Services reverse-engineering and designing a custom storage module PCBs, I was able to perform the upgrade with ease!
- Be sure to check out my video of the complete upgrade process, found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDFCurB3-0Q
The PCB are by [Wayback/Archive] Polysoft – centre de services à Tours/[WaybackSave/Archive] Gilles AUREJAC (@gillesaurejac) / X Hopefully, they will be available for sale soon.
Tweet images:
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Posted in Hardware, iMac, M1 Mac, Mac, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/04/08
One of the odd things with Apple computers it that firmware updates are part of the MacOS updates.
From this Dutch thread:
[Wayback/Archive] WheelieNick on Twitter: “@jpluimers Welke firmware precies weet ik niet maar je moet er vanuit gaan als je naar iets wat boven high sierra staat wil gaan dat je altijd eerst naar high siërra moet. Niet van normaal siërra naar big sur bijvoorbeeld. Ik doe trouwens altijd tussenstappen, dus van high siërra naar”
I have bumped into this myself where I skipped an upgrade, then the Mac would not recognise certain media formatted with Apple File System – Wikipedia using intermediate versions of MacOS.
The intermediate versions of MacOS had introduced some firmware changes the newer MacOS version upgrade did not apply.
–jeroen
Posted in Apple, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacMini, Power Mac, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/03/13
The links found via [Wayback/Archive] macos kernel_task high cpu dual screen – Google Search were daunting.
In the end, the issue ways way easier to fix than I thought: open up your Intel MacBook (you need pentalobe screwdrivers for that), then with some compressed air, clean the dust (especially from the fans).
This post saved my day [Wayback/Archive] kernel_task takes up 500% of my CPU when plugging in external monitor – MacBook Pro 15″ Retina Display Mid 2015 – iFixit
Things I haven’t tried yet:
- Cleaning out more free space from HDD
- Using plain HDMI cable into the HDMI cable port
- Taking MBP apart and cleaning any potential dust
…
I faced the very same issue that you guys are facing and based on input from another forum decided to get my 2016 MPB fans cleaned out.
This made an immediate impact where when I connected my external display to the MBP.pre-cleaning, it would overheat causing the fans to spin at 6000 rpm or thereabout and the kernel_task would eat up 500%-900% of the CPU rending the system unusable.
This simple cleanup of the fans has allowed me to connect the monitor with no kernel panic anymore and even though the fans run around 5000 rpm now the CPU and GPU are running around 10 degrees cooler now.
The same picture is in [Wayback/Archive] macos – MacBook Pro high CPU with external monitors – Ask Different.
An even dirtier MacBook was at [Wayback/Archive] External Display – High CPU Usage – MacBo… – Apple Community.
Links that were interesting but unhelpful:
–jeroen
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Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 