• Firefox/YouTube: Video plays without audio.
• Safari/YouTube: Sometimes no audio/video (but seeker moves, subtitles come). Sometimes video just stuck on loading—in which case after a while it tells me to “try restarting the device” if playback doesn’t resume.
• Apple TV: Media cannot load/play. Instantly media player is “killed” for the lack of a better term.
• Apple Music: Track auto skips to next. Similar to Apple TV. It attempts to play, can’t play, then instead of killing the media it skips to next song, repeat.
• Many streaming services in Firefox, Chrome, Safari: The playback technically begins, I can see the seeker/playhead move in time and subtitles come and go, but video is black and there’s no sound.

What’s common in all scenarios is there’s no sound. It happened abruptly one day. Default device is set to “MacBook Pro Speakers”.

More strangely, in the past week I've been having this problem, there have been two times when it became completely fine. That too, mid-playback. And randomly, it goes away too. For example, most recently when it started working again, I was watching a video on YouTube. I pause it for a bit to do something and when I come back and resume it, suddenly there's no sound again.

Further clarifications:

• I opened OBS Studio and added window capture of Firefox while playing a YouTube video. The sound bar was not moving at all.
• I have removed all Bluetooth devices and kept Bluetooth off while I have tested all this.
• It's not just media, no alert sounds are coming either, including the boot-up sound.
• Sound works fine when using a headphone (via aux for example).
• No crackling or weird noise to tell me that speakers are damaged in any way. When they started working again twice randomy during the last week, they worked 100% fine with complete clarity and volume.

Video here.

MacBook Pro 16-inch 2021 with Apple M1 Pro, 16 GB RAM, and Sequoia 15.5 operating system.

⟐ Commented February 21, 2026 at 15:20 MST

⟐ Commented February 07, 2026 at 5:44 MST

But as of today, I experienced it without having an external display or anything connected. Here's a video of the problem in action.

This is obviously frustrating to me and I hope it's not a hardware issue, just the hassle of reinstalling the device. What are your opinions?

⟐ Commented February 06, 2026 at 13:10 MST

⟐ Commented January 26, 2026 at 5:49 MST

⟐ Commented January 06, 2026 at 17:42 MST

⟐ Commented December 10, 2025 at 7:05 MST

Activity Monitor shows no significant CPU usage (under 20%), kernel_task is < 10%

Memory Pressure & Disk Usage are low too.

iStats Menu shows efficiency cores close to 100%, performance cores barely being used. CPU seems underclocked at 1.8Ghz, 500mW

My suspicion is that the palm rest sensors are damaged somehow, because they show up as 0 in iStats Menu.

I also checked the MacsFanControl zip, and the smc_dump.txt confirms the same

Ts0P [flt ] 0.000000 (4 bytes: 00 00 00 00)

Ts1P [flt ] 0.000000 (4 bytes: 00 00 00 00)

Also here

$ /usr/libexec/smcDiagnose | grep Ts0P

Ts0P , 0.000000

I cleaned out the dust and sand stuck inside the trackpad assembly but it hasnt seemed to fix anything.

Any pointers on whether my intuition is correct, and if so, where exactly the palm rest sensors are located & whether I can disable them / ignore them would be very helpful.

⟐ Answer accepted December 02, 2025 at 4:16 MST

One of them wouldn't snap into place. After tons of tries to reconnect it, the round connector on the logic board became bent, and now it's impossible to reconnect the cable because of the bent connector.

The other one won't connect, either. Nothing looks bent, but I'm being much more cautious and have stopped trying to reconnect it so that this one doesn't also get bent.

What can I do about these fragile connectors? Does the bent/broken logic board connector mean the cable needs to be soldered on? Thanks for any help.

⟐ Answer edited November 30, 2025 at 13:50 MST

I have a Macbook Pro 16" 2021 model. My cat has spilled a glass of water behind the laptop, so a bit of it, I guess few drops went into the fan exhaust on the back.

I immediately turned it off and let it dry. That evening I ordered a screwdriver to take the back off. 2 days later day I took the back off and didn't see any water left, so I turned it on, but after like 30-40 minutes of using it fans were spinning crazy so I turned it off and let it air dry for 3 more days.

Now I did a diagnose and i have the following issues:

• There may be an issue with the Power Port (PPP020)
• There may be an issue with the fan (PPF003, PPF004, PPF001)

But when I turn it on and use normally, even charge it, everything seems to work properly. Also it dropped the charging a few days ago, so I plugged the charging cable off and plugged it back in and it was charging fine again.

I decided to tinker with the fan speed, and what I've figured out is that if the right fan reaches max speed, it won't go down, only if I reboot the machine. The left fan works fine.

So my question is, what are my options to repair? Am I able to fix this on my own? Do I just need to clean something with 99% alcohol, or do I have to switch some component too?

Thanks in advance!

⟐ Commented November 23, 2025 at 16:02 MST

I'm looking for detailed instructions or a guide on how to properly install this full upper case assembly. I've looked at the general battery replacement guides and teardowns, but I need something more specific that addresses replacing the entire upper case unit.

Has anyone done this repair or know of a guide that covers the replacement of this complete assembly?

⟐ Answer edited November 17, 2025 at 21:13 MST

⟐ Commented November 08, 2025 at 18:09 MST

Can you use the m1 MacBook Pro with the battery disconnected?

I'm considering powering it via USB-C then, because the connection is more secure against accidental disconnect, right?

Thanks for your advice!

⟐ Answer edited November 02, 2025 at 13:15 MST

⟐ Commented October 24, 2025 at 9:17 MST

This morning I accidentally spilled a half full glass of water directly onto my MacBook keyboard. I immediately powered it down, took it home, and began disassembling.

I removed the trackpad, then the logic board, speakers, antenna strip, and even started removing individual keys. It took me about one hour to get the logic board out.

When I flipped the board, I saw two spots with clear signs of water damage — corrosion or material breakdown. I dabbed off the water right away and cleaned those areas with 99.99% isopropyl alcohol. The spots still look slightly damaged.

I can reassemble the MacBook, but I’m not experienced with board-level repairs.

Questions:

• Is this likely to be irreparable at this point?

• Should I take it to a repair shop immediately, or are there DIY steps I can still try?

• Any chance the damage worsens even if it boots again?

I’m in a tough spot — losing this MacBook now would hit me hard financially and impact my final law exam preparation (exam is in one month).

Any quick advice, proven rescue steps, or even recommended specialists would mean a lot.

Thanks in advance!

⟐ Answered October 09, 2025 at 16:19 MST

My MacBook Pro 2021 16 inch had a cracked display, so I bought a shell off of eBay and followed the logic board replacement guide to swap over the logic boards.

I turned it on and the display was blank, however it was recognized in repair assistant as a new part. Once repair assistant did its thing, there was still no video output from the screen. I checked the display connections and they are all I damaged, from what I can see the ribbons are free of damage, and I can verify the display angle sensor works because the Mac enters and exits clamshell mode and boots up when the lid is open.

I’m at a loss for what to do, any advise is appreciated

Update:

running diagnostics returns NDC001; the individual backlight zones light up and are visible in a dark room. The camera works regardless of the NDC001 error, which was due to running diagnostics in clamshell mode

⟐ Commented October 09, 2025 at 5:41 MST

I have m1 max 16 inch. I was running beta dev version of mac os tahoe from last couple of months but this overheating of this bottom chip started occuring from last 1 month. I kinda figured because apart for these 4 the circled one is extremely hot to touch that its impossible to touch with finger even for 1 second.

If i don't connect battery cable i think then it doesn’t get that.

I fixed last month in august after reinstalling Tahoe developer beta and removing some apps now recently they released stable and it started happening again.

If someone has any ideas would really be helpful its very painful to start migrating all apps and data its huge and time consuming to fix this for long term.

Sorry i think its wifi module. Marking on chip and gpt says: That chip is a Murata Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, specifically Murata 339S00761 / BCM4377 family (the markings like K1CM227 CB6692 TENA12230 are Murata’s lot codes).

⟐ Commented September 24, 2025 at 12:28 MST

When someone wanted to replace the display by himself before, for example on a 2016 15” MacBook Pro, everything worked, on Intel macs with truetone, the display could be replaced as well, but the truetone stopped working after the replacement, unless the new panel was paired with the board.

However, I can't find information about macs with mini LED ( 16" M1 Pro) - I just read that it's even more of a problem. What are the problems with replacing the display yourself on this generation?

I saw a video that if some specific chip is not transfered (soldered) from the old assembly, the backlight will not work properly. Is this true? Will everything except truetone work if I replace only the LCD layer (Aliexpress type 400eur) and leave the other parts of the display including backlight layer from the original panel? Thanks for the info

⟐ Answer accepted August 05, 2025 at 2:10 MST

I have noticed that since my post iFixit has published a guide which mentions this issue:

MacBook Pro 14" 2021 Screen Replacement

Anyway, this got me thinking. Which other models have this same problem? Does the new 2023 14" have the same issue where it needs the Apple System Configuration tool? Does the new 16" have this issue? How about any of the new Airs?

If anyone has a list of models affected by this issue, could you please share it with me or the community? I would be very grateful.

Thank you.

Ryan

⟐ Commented July 12, 2025 at 11:58 MST

If I shake my Macbook sideways with the device parallel to the floor I can feel/hear something wobbly moving around. Does anyone here have any idea what component causes this?

I also seem to notice that when the Macbook is closed with the lid down, grabbing it with both hands and using my thumbs to firmly press on top of the lid near the centre and than shaking it sideways lessens or stops the wobble. Like it comes from the screen, but feels it comes from the case.

I am very curious what it is and if it’s normal.

⟐ Commented June 18, 2025 at 14:21 MST

⟐ Commented June 13, 2025 at 17:58 MST