According to an internal document at Apple obtained by MacRumors and Motherboard, it appears the Cupertino company does not like it when you open your MacBook Pro laptop and repair it. Also, they don’t want you to take it to a third-party repair service. They would rather have you visit only an Apple Store near you or any of their affiliate third-parties.
Apple is reportedly using a proprietary system configuration software that will verify the repair workmanship. Should the Apple service Toolkit 2 not be run after the repair, the MacBook Pro will remain in an ‘inoperative system,’ while the repair status remaining as ‘incomplete.’
That means as a MacBook Pro owner or a repair service shop, who don’t have the Apple Toolkit 2 to your disposal, you cannot make repairs on the machine’s logic board, Touch ID board, display assembly, and trackpad. The restriction seems to be affecting Apple machines with the T2 security chips; that is the 2018 MacBook Pros and iMac Pro.
Should someone without the Toolkit 2 open the machine to repair it, the laptop will be locked out, until such a time that it is serviced by an authorized Apple service provider. Who will then run the diagnostic software.
“For Macs with the Apple T2 chip, the repair process is not complete for certain parts replacements until the AST 2 System Configuration suite has been run… Failure to perform this step will result in an inoperative system and an incomplete repair,” the document reads in part.
From Apple’s standing point, the software is being used to check on the safety and overall health of the repaired Apple device. It acts as a “quick health check of hardware and software.”
Companies arm-twisting customers into taking repair money back to their pockets?
Apple is not the first company to pull this stunt. The farm equipment manufacturer John Deere uses a proprietary software to ensure farmers don’t do ‘unauthorized’ repairs on the vehicles they have manufactured.
Such companies have been criticized for forcing customers to buy new devices and/or ensure any repair monies forthcoming comes back to their pockets. That is why some States in the US are enacting the ‘Right to Repair’ acts, which will compel companies to make repair parts and support documents to enable anyone wishing to do repair do without coming to them (the companies).
Of course, most of the tech companies – Apple and Microsoft included – oppose this bill under the grounds that it could pose a serious security vulnerability.
