MacBook Repair

Screens, batteries, keyboards and logic boards — repaired on our own bench in Wimbledon.

Not sure which one you have?

Turn it over. The model number is printed in small grey type along the bottom edge, next to the regulatory small print, and it begins with an A — A2485, A1707, A1502. The table further down turns that number into a model name and a page. If the Mac still switches on, Apple menu › About This Mac tells you the same thing in words; if it does not, send us a photo of the underside and we will read it for you.

Every Mac We Repair, by Model Number

Every machine above, with the number stamped on its underside. That number is what decides the part — a 2015 Pro 13 and a 2016 Pro 13 look identical across a desk and share almost nothing, so it is the first thing we ask for.

Model	Years	Model number
MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro 16-inch	2021–2024	A2485 · A2780 · A2991
MacBook Pro 14-inch	2021–2024	A2442 · A2779 · A2918 · A2992
MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 / M2	2020–2022	A2338
MacBook Pro 15-inch Touch Bar	2016–2019	A1707 · A1990
MacBook Pro 13-inch Touch Bar	2016–2019	A1706 · A1989
MacBook Pro 13-inch no Touch Bar	2016–2018	A1708
MacBook Pro 15-inch Retina	2012–2015	A1398
MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina	2013–2015	A1425 · A1502
MacBook Pro 15-inch Unibody	2008–2012	A1286
MacBook Pro 13-inch Unibody	2009–2012	A1278
MacBook Air
MacBook Air 15-inch	2023–2024	A2941 · A3114 · A3241
MacBook Air 13.6-inch	2022–2024	A2681 · A3113
MacBook Air 13-inch Retina	2018–2020	A1932 · A2179 · A2337
MacBook Air 13-inch	2010–2017	A1369 · A1466
MacBook Air 11-inch	2010–2015	A1370 · A1465
MacBook
MacBook 12-inch Retina	2015–2017	A1534
iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro
iMac 24-inch	2021–2024	A2438 · A2439
iMac 21.5-inch & 27-inch Retina	2012–2020	A1418 · A1419 · A2115 · A2116
iMac 21.5-inch & 27-inch	2009–2011	A1311 · A1312
Mac mini	2018–2024	A1993 · A2348 · A2686 · A2816
Mac Pro	2019–2023	A1991 · A2786

Nothing here matches? It is still very likely something we repair — this table is what has a page, not what comes through the door. Send us a photo of the underside and we will read the number for you.

What We Repair, and What It Costs

These are ranges across the whole Mac range, not teaser prices. Where yours falls depends on the machine: a screen for a 13-inch Air and a screen for a 16-inch Pro are not the same part and not the same money. You get the actual figure, with the part and the labour separated, before anyone starts.

Screen Replacement

Cracked glass, coloured lines down the panel, a display that lights but shows nothing, or backlight gone on one half. On every Retina MacBook the screen is not a screen — it is a display assembly, with the panel, lid, hinges, camera and cables bonded into one unit, and Apple does not sell the panel on its own. That assembly is most of what you pay. Where the fault turns out to be the backlight circuit on the board rather than the panel, we tell you before you buy a screen you did not need.

£200–£749 across the range 2–3 hours*

Battery Replacement

Service Recommended in the menu bar, a Mac that dies at forty per cent, or a cell that has swollen and started lifting the trackpad from underneath. Swelling is the one to act on: caught early it is a battery, left running it becomes a battery and a trackpad. Twelve months on every battery we fit.

£130–£250 by model 1–2 hours*

Keyboard & Top Case

A key that repeats, a key that does nothing, a spill that took out a row, or backlight that has stopped. On every modern MacBook the keys are riveted into the top case, so this is a full strip-down and a rebuild into a new case — battery and trackpad moved across with it. That is where both the hours and the price come from. The board gets checked for corrosion before anything goes back together.

£150–£350 by model 4–6 hours*

Trackpad

A trackpad that clicks unevenly, has stopped clicking, or moves the pointer on its own. A good number of the trackpads we are asked to replace are not faulty at all — a swollen battery underneath is pushing them out of true, and the answer is the battery. We check that first, because it is the cheaper one.

Quoted after diagnosis 1–3 hours*

Liquid Damage

Water, coffee, wine. Full strip-down, the board cleaned in an ultrasonic bath, corrosion treated, dried, then powered up. The cleaning fee is that work, not a deposit against a repair — if the Mac comes back to life, that is the end of it. If it does not, you get the diagnosis and a quote before anything else happens. Bring it in switched off, and do not try to charge it.

£120 cleaning 1–7 working days**

Logic Board Repair

No power, no charge, fans spinning against a black screen, ports that have died. We work at component level — power rails, charging circuits, backlight fuses, shorted lines — under a microscope, with thermal imaging and microsoldering, instead of replacing the board. On any Mac from 2018 that is also what decides whether your files survive.

Quoted after diagnosis 2–7 working days

Storage, SSD & Data

Drive replacements and upgrades on the older machines where the SSD is still a module, migration onto a new Mac, and recovery from drives and boards that will not mount. From 2018 the storage is soldered to the logic board, which changes what is possible and what it takes — the section below explains how.

£199 / £149 replacement / migration 1–5 working days

macOS & Software

A Mac that will not get past the Apple logo, a failed update, a login loop, or a machine that has become slow enough to be unusable. Clean installs with your data carried across, system repairs, malware removal. Not every broken Mac is a hardware problem, and we will tell you when yours is not one.

£79 Often same day

Overheating & Fans

Fans at full speed over a browser tab, a chassis too hot to keep on your lap, or a Mac that throttles to a crawl under load. Strip-down, dust out of the heatsink fins, fresh thermal paste, and the fan replaced if the bearing has gone. Sustained heat is what eventually kills a graphics chip, so it is worth doing before it does.

£89 2–3 hours

Times assume the part is on the bench. We order per repair rather than holding stock for two hundred models, so tell us which Mac you have when you book and it will be waiting.

Liquid damage is quoted after the board has been cleaned and assessed. Nobody can price that honestly before seeing it, and anybody who does is guessing with your money.

£85An hour, labour

£39Diagnostics, credited

6–12Months warranty

15,000+Macs repaired

MacBook Repair in London, at Component Level

01 What you will be told

The board needs replacing

Take a Mac that will not switch on to Apple and the answer is usually the same sentence: the logic board has failed, and a logic board is replaced rather than repaired. The quote follows, and on a recent machine it is most of what the Mac is worth.

For plenty of people that is a fine answer. It works, it is quick, it comes with Apple’s warranty, and when it is the right call we will tell you so rather than talk you into a repair. What follows is the part that does not usually get said at the counter.

One component coming off a board under hot air. This is the scale the difficult work happens at — and the whole difference between replacing a board and repairing one.

02 What nobody mentions

Since 2018, your files live on that board

From the T2 Intel Macs onward, and on every Apple Silicon Mac since, the storage is not a drive. It is memory soldered onto the logic board, encrypted with keys held in the Secure Enclave on the same board. There is nothing to unplug and carry across, because there is no disk.

A replacement board is a different board with different keys. Everything you had was on the old one — so a board swap is not simply the expensive answer. It is the end of what was on the machine.

Worth knowing before you say yes. Not because the swap is always wrong, but because it is a decision about your photographs, your work and your mail, and it tends to get presented as a decision about money.

03 What we do instead

We repair the board

A failed charging circuit, a backlight fuse, a shorted power rail, a line eaten by corrosion after a spill — those are components on a board, and a component can be replaced. Under a microscope, with a thermal camera to find what is drawing current it should not be, and microsoldering to put it right. The board stays yours, and so does everything on it.

It is not always possible and we will not pretend otherwise. Some faults sit inside a chip that cannot be opened; some boards have been under liquid too long. That is what the diagnosis is for, and you hear the answer before you have spent anything beyond the £39.

A Fixfactor technician probing a laptop logic board under a stereo microscope — Board-level diagnostics at the Wimbledon bench.

Before we touch it

Four things you’ll hear from us first

What is actually wrong. Not whichever repair is quickest to sell you — the diagnosis, in plain words, and what we found when we opened it.
What is the part and what is the work. £85 an hour is published for a reason. If a used or cheaper part would do the job and you would rather that, ask and we will price both.
What happens to your data. On a hardware repair the storage is never touched. Where board work puts anything at risk, you hear that before we start, not after.
Whether it is worth doing. On an older Mac the display alone can cost more than the machine. We would rather lose the job than take the money for that.

The Parts We Use, and the One Thing We Will Not Claim

Our supplier grades them as the highest-quality Apple replacements available. That does not necessarily mean they were never Apple parts — it means they do not arrive in Apple branding. Fit, function and performance match the original, and we have fitted enough of them to be confident saying so.

The one caveat, because it is true: comparing two displays side by side, we have occasionally seen a slight difference in colour calibration. In normal use nobody finds it, and we have never had it brought back. Everything carries the same six to twelve months either way.

Pick your model above for prices on that machine, ask us for a quote if it is not there, or bring it to the workshop in Wimbledon. If a Mac is not what you have, we also repair Windows laptops and desktops.

Two Faults Apple Used to Fix for Free

Both programmes have closed. Where you stand now:

2015 – 2019

Butterfly keyboard

Fault: A key repeats itself, sticks, or stops working altogether. One crumb is enough.
Machines: Every MacBook 2015–2019: the 12-inch, and the Pros and Airs up to 2019.
Apple: Free Keyboard Service Program. Closed November 2024. Nothing is covered now.
Cost now: Top case replacement — £150 to £350 by model, 4–6 hours here.

2016 – 2017

Flexgate backlight

Fault: Uneven light along the bottom edge, then a dark screen past a certain opening angle.
Machines: 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro, 2016 and 2017.
Apple: Free programme covered the 2016 13-inch only. Expired.
Cost now: Display assembly — or, where the fault is on the board, a board repair for far less.

Rated by 1,000+ Customers

“Apple were unable to help with my MacBook Pro repair that had water damage and corrosion and had stopped working. I was worried I would have to buy a new laptop and had lost all my data.”

Consumer Champion · Google

4.9 Google 5.0 Trustpilot Read all 1,000+ reviews

MacBook Repair FAQs

The questions people actually ask before booking a Mac in.

Apple told me the logic board needs replacing. Can you repair it instead?

Often, yes. Apple replace boards; we repair the component on the board that actually failed — a charging circuit, a backlight fuse, a shorted rail, a line corroded after a spill. It needs a diagnosis first and it is not always possible. On any Mac from 2018 onwards it is also the difference between keeping your files and losing them, because the storage is soldered to that board: why a board swap takes your data with it.

Will I lose my data?

Not on a hardware repair. A screen, a battery, a keyboard, a trackpad — the storage is not touched, and we never wipe a machine deliberately. Back it up anyway before you hand it over: no repair is risk-free and a Time Machine backup costs you nothing. If the Mac will not start we can often take a copy before we begin, so ask when you drop it in.

How long does a MacBook repair take?

A screen or a battery is 2–3 hours with the part on the bench, and a battery is often quicker. A keyboard is 4–6 hours, because the keys are riveted into the top case and the job is a strip-down and rebuild rather than a part swap. Liquid damage and board-level work are 2–7 working days, and that is bench time, not a queue. We order parts per repair, so tell us the model when you book and it will be here.

Do you use genuine Apple parts?

Our supplier grades them as the highest-quality Apple replacements available. That does not necessarily mean they were never Apple parts — it means they do not arrive in Apple branding. Fit, function and performance match the original. Side by side we have occasionally seen a slight difference in display colour calibration; in use you would not find it. Everything carries our 6–12 month warranty either way.

Why does a MacBook screen cost what it does?

Because on a Retina MacBook it is not a screen, it is a display assembly — panel, lid, hinges, camera and cables in one bonded unit — and Apple does not sell the panel separately. That assembly is most of the quote. Our labour is £85 an hour and we will tell you which part of the figure is the part and which is the work. On some older models a used assembly is an option; say so and we will price both.

Why do you charge for diagnostics?

Because it is not a glance at the machine. It is a protocol: the fault reproduced, the Mac opened where it needs to be, the board inspected, and the part priced and sourced so that the quote you get is a real one. £39, paid upfront, and taken off the repair in full if you go ahead — which makes it free on every job that turns into a repair.

My keyboard has a key that repeats or does nothing. Is that still free from Apple?

Not any more. On a 2015–2019 MacBook that is the butterfly mechanism, and Apple’s Keyboard Service Program for it closed in November 2024. It is a top-case replacement now — £150 to £350 depending on the model, four to six hours here. More on the two faults Apple has stopped covering.

Do you need my password?

For a screen, a battery or a keyboard, no — but we can only test what a locked machine lets us test. Booting into macOS is how we confirm every flex cable went back correctly and that the new part behaves: display, camera, keyboard, trackpad, sound, ports. A guest account is enough. Without one the repair still happens; the verification is thinner, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.

Can I post my MacBook in, or do I have to come to London?

Either. The workshop is at 136 Kingston Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 1LY, open Monday to Friday 9am–6pm and Saturday 9am–4pm — walk in, no appointment needed. From anywhere else in the UK, post it insured and it comes back tracked. See how mail-in works.

Is it worth repairing an old MacBook?

Sometimes not, and we will say so. If the repair costs more than the machine is worth, we tell you what it would fetch as it stands and what a replacement would cost, and you decide. We would rather lose the job than take money for a machine that will fail again in six months.