Repair Assistant - Mac OS Tahoe
With the release of Mac OS Tahoe, Apple implemented the ability for their software to detect when certain parts have been replaced, and also giving the ability for an independent repair shop, or even the user, to ‘pair’ certain parts using the built in Repair Assistant feature. Older versions of Mac OS will not detect when parts have been replaced, and the below is only applicable when running Mac OS Tahoe or higher.
If we are replacing the screen panel or Touch Bar, since we are replacing the individual part to keep the repair cost down (rather than the whole lid, or the whole top case assembly), this will trigger a pop up prompting configuration, due to the new part being detected. Since the individual part has been replaced, and not the whole assembly, configuration through Apple's server is not possible since it can detect the individual part's serial number is different, but other parts inside the whole assembly are still the same. For example, in the case of a screen panel, Apple do not allow configuration of just this part since they only sell the whole lid assembly (to increase the part cost, as well as this being an easier repair), whereas we can purchase just the genuine panel prior to the assembly process. This pop up is clearable however, and does not impact usage or functionality whatsoever, we have detailed what occurs and how this is cleared below.
On Tahoe and newer, on erase or detection of the new part, a pop up will appear in the top right, as seen in the below picture. The System Preferences app will have a notification badge (seen in the dock), and opening this app you will see an option saying 'Finish Your Display Repair'. Please note, if we have password access during the repair, there will be no pop up since we will clear this already on our side during testing, and this will only occur on erase/factory reset.
From here, clicking 'Finish Your Display Repair' in the System Preferences app will load a window, with an option to 'Restart & Finish Repair'. Clicking this will provide an error, as seen in the picture below (the reason for this error is detailed further along this page).
After this, quitting System Preferences (or rebooting Mac OS) will remove the pop up, the option in System Preferences and the notification badge, and this will not reoccur unless Mac OS is erased/factory reset to Tahoe or newer.
When running the built in Diagnostic tool through Recovery mode, if a part is not configured it will give a warning advising that the part ‘may not be genuine or functioning correctly’ since the whole part hasn’t been purchased directly from Apple. The part will be functioning as intended and this error can be ignored after a repair; it is just a flag since Apple's server does not detect that the part has been purchased directly from them. This is a trade-off for a reasonably priced repair; the only way to clear this error with some parts is to purchase it from Apple direct, which isn’t cost effective to do in a lot of cases, and results in a longer turnaround, since Apple do not allow repair shops to hold stock of a part in anticipation of repairs, and take up to 7 days to dispatch parts.