irvbromberg

No, according to Apple the M1 “unified” memory architecture requires that RAM be installed at the factory. No later upgrades are possible.

Applies to models that tilt and that have a circuit breaker: Upon accessing the breaker from the underside of the stand, I found the white wire disconnected. Apparently the wire was under tension when the user tilted the head upward, until it finally broke. I reattached it, but used solder and heat-shrink tubing to insert an extra thumb-length of wire to prevent tension when tilted. Now it works perfectly.

Oops, I didn't notice your paragraph "After a little while I noticed a really acrid, burning-electrical-insulation-type smell, which seemed to be coming from the MagSafe connector itself. This seems to have become ever so slightly discoloured, so I put it down to a short in the connector itself, and discontinued using it." So clearly something was burnt out. Nevertheless, would replacing the I/O board also solve the problem (at considerably higher cost) if dirt were present and the cause of a poor contact -- is a new female MagSafe connector present on the replacement I/O board?

No, I don't agree with any advice that suggests that there is a problem with the adapter nor with the laptop. First you need to consider the solution that I describe below: In my experience, the most common reason why an adapter with MagSafe connector fails to light / charge properly is because of dirt collected on the female (laptop) side of the connector, all along the inside corners of its rectangular outline. This dirt prevents the adapter's male connector from sitting properly and establishing and maintaining a good contact. Prove this by taking a suspected defective AC adapter and trying it on a new, clean laptop. It works right? The Apple Store "geniuses" do this all the time, without thinking through and realizing that the problem is dirt on the customer's own laptop! What's the solution? Use a magnifying glass to take a good close look at those inside corners of the female MagSafe receptacle on the laptop, and carefully clean out any dirt that is there. A sharp, thin instrument works best. It may...

What are you referring to? Digital audio output is available from the various types of USB ports that most of their devices have. If I understand correctly, the iPhone and iPad Lightning port only has digital audio output, and requires an adapter to expose an analogue audio output suitable for earphones or headphones (assuming that the device doesn’t have a headphone jack).

There must be a reason for including one or two fans, even though not required in other M1 devices. I wonder if Apple increased the M1 CPU clock rate for higher performance with one fan, and increased it further with two fans? I guess that this will become evident in M1 CPU benchmark testing.

It looks like my several comments are more than 3 years too late for those who commented previously. Oh well…

Why disconnect the display assembly? Well, you really need the display assembly to lie flat on a table while you work on it. With this model MacBook when the display is opened all the way and laid flat on a table the laptop’s body will be at about a 45 degree angle relative to the table, and would be a challenge to securely support while you work on the display. If you do have a good way to support the laptop then it’s still important to remove the battery to prevent it from accidentally getting powered on.

It’s hard to control where a heat gun blows. An alternative that is easier to control and confine to the target area is a microwave heated heat-retaining bag, such as the iFixit iOpener. Similar microwave heating bags are sold by drugstores.

The suction cup won’t be able to attach well if glass is cracked beneath it. Use clear packing tape to cover the crack(s) — this helps the suction cup hold well and helps prevent further breakage of the glass.

Don’t use glue. Use double-coated tissue tape, also known as adhesive transfer tape, which applies like a double-sided adhesive tape, but after you peel away the outer covering layer all that is left is a thin adhesive layer. Easy to cut to length and shape to precisely apply to the frame for the glass will adhere to. The adhesive should be a low surface energy acrylic adhesive, such as 3M 300LSE:

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/a...

Another that I’ve used several times is 3M 9448A but the description says “formulated to hold well even in high temperatures”, which might make it harder to replace the glass again:

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/a...

USB-C also can handle much higher current and much faster data rate than Lightning.

Lightning plugs have all of their contacts exposed, and users inevitably touch them, depositing skin salts and oils that together with the electrical current over time causes corrosion of the plugs and the device’s internal contacts. USB-C ought to be much more reliable in the long term because users can’t casually touch any of the contacts. Lightning cables also have an extremely high failure rate at the point where the cable attaches to the connector, with broken conductors and/or insulators.

More specs on xeon W-2140B microprocessor:

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/xeon_...