Flexgate Repair Cost is $200*

Flexgate effects 2016-2018 MacBook Pro, Models A1706, A1707, A1708

Symptom of Flexgate is the loss of screen backlight when opening the screen past an inch or two open.

Here is a video of the issue and how we fix it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Io12ffvD0

What is Flexgate:

As with most Apple products there is a design flaw. This one affects the screen and / or webcam in the 2016-2018 MacBook Pro line. The flex cable that powers the screen backlight, and the one that powers the webcam are to short to survive the screen being opened more then 90 degrees on a regular basis. Symptoms of this are, as you open your laptop you see the screen come on as normal but the more you open the screen at some point the image goes dark. If you take a strong flashlight and shine it at the right angle into your screen you will see that the image is still there just not lit up anymore. You can read in this service article from Apple that they say this affects "a very small percentage of 13-inch MacBook Pro displays". This is an outright lie by them. Every single MacBook Pro from 2016 to early 2018 both 13 and 15 inch machines are affected by this. Apple did offer to replace the entire display (on 13-inch screens only) to an upgraded design that will not suffer from this but as you can see from the article time has run out for almost all machines.

How I Repair It:  

The repair is both easy and very complex at the same time. The easy; I cut off the broken part of the flex cable and solder a new longer one on. The complex of it is that the cable needs to be cut exact and in a placement that does not see any flex for the new joint. The wires used to connect the old to the new are 0.002 inches in diameter. In comparison a human hair is on average 0.005 in diameter. After the repair the rest of the flex cables get cleaned of any dust that found it's way into the area, the fans, heatsink, and entire inside of the machine will be cleaned and dusted.

Why Choose PS Electronics Over Apple:

First, cost. Second, data. Apple, for any service like this, will reformat your device. Meaning you will have to either restore from backup or reinstall all your programs from scratch when you get your device back. With my service I do not touch your data. For these older machines I do not even need your OS password to start up and test the device. So all your data stays on the machine and is safe. Best practice is ALWAYS keep a backup! Always remember, your machine can be replaced if lost in the mail or destroyed, without a backup your data will never come back.

*Price is for one cable repair, either the backlight or the webcam, the cost for both in the same service is $300 however due to the makeup of the flex cables it is rare that the webcam cable breaks.