When I touch the ribbon cable at the back the lights flicker and before that a cut terminated because the lid was open when the lid was not open or even bumped open. Is it possible to get a new lid ribbon cable?
I say again.
You probably have a janky connection, rather than a janky cable. Cables themselves tend to be the last issue.
Here are pictures of the three ribbon cable connectors:
I’m sure you can understand that I don’t want to mess with the actual connections until the actual staff has suggested that. I don’t want to risk voiding the warranty.
There’s an actual photo here that’s been posted by actual staff showing the 5 connections to check when this problem occurs…let me go see if I can find it for you.
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While I’m hunting that down, there’s also this:
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Here it is:
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Thanks for that, all of the connectors mentioned there are closed and appear to be properly aligned.
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You might want to unplug each one and the plug it back in to make sure they’re really clicked together, not just looking that way.
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Thanks, I plan on doing that once I’ve gotten the go ahead from the main support folks, don’t want to risk voiding the warranty. Probably also makes sense to clean the contacts with some denatured alcohol too.
Maybe just me - but I wouldn’t use denatured alcohol…
Any particular reason?
I had the same thought.
I’d start small, and save aggressive solvents for last resort.
I probably should’ve said isopropyl alcohol, which is usually the solvent of choice for electronics. It helps that alcohol of any variety removes wood residues from lasering extremely well.
Like I said, I’m going to wait till I hear from the main support to actually do anything on the electronics, but cleaning with some form of alcohol seems like the logical step after reseating the ribbon cables.
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Denatured is kind of a catch all. It really depends on what the denaturing agent is.
If both strings of LED’s flicker when you touch the cable, then the connection to look at is the main one at the back of the lid.
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Yup, both strings flicker simultaneously.
I’ve scanned around and read the warranty, but still can’t tell whether disconnecting and reseating the ribbon cable voids the warranty. Does anyone know for sure on this? I could see how it might fall under “modification of the hardware.”
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You’re probably safe trying it, but if you feel uncomfortable doing it you can wait to hear from Support. (And they will probably want to see that video.) 
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Thanks, if it was my personal machine I’d go ahead and do that. Since it’s the machine at a makerspace I think I’ll hold off until I hear from support.
I see you already emailed us about this and we’re working on it there, so I’m going to close this topic.