My Problem

My wife and I swapped over to Mac computers in 2008. I had just bought an iPod touch and was eyeing the new iPhone 3G and my wife wanted a computer was easy and fun to use. We bought our MacBook Pro refurbished, it was an early 2008 Intel Core 2 Duo Model. It was fast, sleek, cool, and everything we wanted.

Over the years we demanded more and more of it. I purchased a Time Capsule to augment it's storage capabilities as we moved to an all digital library of movies and TV shows. Our plucky little MBP kept going.

In the summer of 2011, our plucky little MBP hit a snag. It's logic board just fried. The combination of heat and wear and tear had pushed it beyond its limits. After a little searching I discovered that this was a common issue with this model of MBP. I took it by the Apple store and BAM they replaced it for free. So, now our MBP was on it's third life.

It soldiered on for a couple more months, but slowly it got worse and worse, slower and slower. After installing Lion, it was barely able to load and run iPhoto. It got so slow that I basically stopped using it. We had all but given up hope that our little MBP would recover. I had picked out a sleek, new MacBook Air to replace her, but after some research I discovered that the hard drive might be the main culprit. With prices so low, I figured, why not?

So, I decided to upgrade her RAM (from 2 to 4 GB) and install a new drive (also upgrading from 200 to 500 GB). I figured, if it worked she would have a fourth lease on life. If not, well then I wasted $150 and I could use the hard drive on something else.

My Fix

I got the hard drive and tools in the mail, as well as the RAM which I received via a merchant on Amazon.

I installed the RAM first, which was very simple and I saw an immediate improvement - not much, but it was promising.

I was dying to crack my MBP open and swap the hard drive out, but the drive didn't arrive before I left to see family for the weekend. So I had to wait until Saturday night to make the swap.

After reviewing the instructions and setting up my iPhone 4S to capture a time lapse video, I buckled down and made the swap.

You can see two time lapse videos of the install on my Vimeo page. One is fairly fast with no music (http://vimeo.com/36213995), the other one is slower and I add some Coldplay to brighten things up (http://vimeo.com/36352860).

I only ran into three problems.

1) The magnetic clasp and the mag safe power cord were constantly eating and pulling my screws around. It was more an annoyance than anything, but I spent about 10 minutes looking for a screw that ended up being stuck to the mag safe power outlet. Annoying, but not that big of a deal.

2) Pulling off the connections for the keyboard/trackpad and the logic board were a little precarious and I was worried I would damage them. The spudger tool that I got from ifixit.com, however, was a life saver. I wouldn't want to try that task with anything other than that plastic spudger. It is the perfect combination of soft, firm, thin, and sturdy to do the trick.

3) Removing and replacing the ribbon on top of the hard drive was a pain. The glue was extremely sticky and I was again worried about damaging it. Placing it back down was tricky as well because the first time I left too much slack and the connections didn't line up right.

Overall, everything was fairly straight forward. The instructions and pictures on ifixit.com were a lifesaver (couldn't have done it without them). The process took about an hour, and everything works great.

My MBP is like a new machine. I spent all told about $150 and I saved myself the cost of buying a new MacBook Air, for now at least.

My Advice

Use the right tools. It is worth the $5 or $6 for the right screwdriver, spudger tool, etc. I've tried fixing my iPhone(s) and my old desktop with the tools I had laying around and it was more trouble than it was worth. The right tools for the right job, definitely applies when you are performing brain surgery on a laptop.

My Problem

My wife and I swapped over to Mac computers in 2008. I had just bought an iPod touch and was eyeing the new iPhone 3G and my wife wanted a computer was easy and fun to use. We bought our MacBook Pro refurbished, it was an early 2008 Intel Core 2 Duo Model. It was fast, sleek, cool, and everything we wanted.

Over the years we demanded more and more of it. I purchased a Time Capsule to augment it's storage capabilities as we moved to an all digital library of movies and TV shows. Our plucky little MBP kept going.

In the summer of 2011, our plucky little MBP hit a snag. It's logic board just fried. The combination of heat and wear and tear had pushed it beyond its limits. After a little searching I discovered that this was a common issue with this model of MBP. I took it by the Apple store and BAM they replaced it for free. So, now our MBP was on it's third life.

It soldiered on for a couple more months, but slowly it got worse and worse, slower and slower. After installing Lion, it was barely able to load and run iPhoto. It got so slow that I basically stopped using it. We had all but given up hope that our little MBP would recover. I had picked out a sleek, new MacBook Air to replace her, but after some research I discovered that the hard drive might be the main culprit. With prices so low, I figured, why not?

So, I decided to upgrade her RAM (from 2 to 4 GB) and install a new drive (also upgrading from 200 to 500 GB). I figured, if it worked she would have a fourth lease on life. If not, well then I wasted $150 and I could use the hard drive on something else.

My Fix

I got the hard drive and tools in the mail, as well as the RAM which I received via a merchant on Amazon.

I installed the RAM first, which was very simple and I saw an immediate improvement - not much, but it was promising.

I was dying to crack my MBP open and swap the hard drive out, but the drive didn't arrive before I left to see family for the weekend. So I had to wait until Saturday night to make the swap.

After reviewing the instructions and setting up my iPhone 4S to capture a time lapse video, I buckled down and made the swap.

You can see two time lapse videos of the install on my Vimeo page. One is fairly fast with no music (http://vimeo.com/36213995), the other one is slower and I add some Coldplay to brighten things up (http://vimeo.com/36352860).

I only ran into three problems.

1) The magnetic clasp and the mag safe power cord were constantly eating and pulling my screws around. It was more an annoyance than anything, but I spent about 10 minutes looking for a screw that ended up being stuck to the mag safe power outlet. Annoying, but not that big of a deal.

2) Pulling off the connections for the keyboard/trackpad and the logic board were a little precarious and I was worried I would damage them. The spudger tool that I got from ifixit.com, however, was a life saver. I wouldn't want to try that task with anything other than that plastic spudger. It is the perfect combination of soft, firm, thin, and sturdy to do the trick.

3) Removing and replacing the ribbon on top of the hard drive was a pain. The glue was extremely sticky and I was again worried about damaging it. Placing it back down was tricky as well because the first time I left too much slack and the connections didn't line up right.

Overall, everything was fairly straight forward. The instructions and pictures on ifixit.com were a lifesaver (couldn't have done it without them). The process took about an hour, and everything works great.

My MBP is like a new machine. I spent all told about $150 and I saved myself the cost of buying a new MacBook Air, for now at least.

My Advice

Use the right tools. It is worth the $5 or $6 for the right screwdriver, spudger tool, etc. I've tried fixing my iPhone(s) and my old desktop with the tools I had laying around and it was more trouble than it was worth. The right tools for the right job, definitely applies when you are performing brain surgery on a laptop.

My Problem

The battery in my iphone kept losing it's charge. I was getting annoyed at how often I had to recharge my phone.

My Fix

Smooth.

My Advice

Watch the videos :)

They help

My Problem

My iPod was only playing in mono. I tried several sets of headphones, tried cleaning the jack, then found iFixit.

My Fix

This is the first time I've ever tried to fix anything electronic, so it was pretty daunting at first. The step-by-step instructions and photos were really helpful. I had some trouble getting the iPod open, because I was being too careful, I think. I finally got it open after I got mad and twisted the opening tools a little. Everything else was smooth sailing. It took me about 30 minutes just to get the thing open, and then another 20-30 minutes to complete everything and put it back together.

My Advice

I would get an extra set of the opening tools, because by the time I got the iPod open, both my sets were broken. Also, when it says to "wiggle" the tools, you should actually twist them slightly, to about a 30-45 degree angle. It helps to leave one tools wedged in while working on the next side of the iPod.

Finally, those screws are SUPER tiny. Be very careful about picking them up, moving them, etc., because if you drop one you will never ever find it again.

My Problem

The display on my MacBook was blacking out more and more frequently. Looked up the problem and found this step-by-step guide to fix it on ifixit.com. Having the needed parts and tools tied to the article was a huge help!

My Fix

The instructions were incredible - great pictures, very clear instructions. I was able to do it myself and save a ton of money in the process. I love how they have all the parts you need right there on the how-to guide. I received the parts/tools super fast, and the repair was a breeze.

My Advice

My MacBook has a plastic shell. Be careful when re-assembling the unit, because it's easy to push the optical drive slot down a bit - making it hard to insert CDs. I was able to fix (my mistake) by opening up the slot a little with a knife later.

My Problem

My rear-camera didn't work and my rear Glass Panel was broken. I wanted both to be okay.

My Fix

With the help of Ifixit tools and guides it was a very simple thing to fix. Within 30 minutes my Iphone was new again.

My Advice

I recommanded Ifixit to several friends.

My Problem

The Ipod was prviously dropped on a hard serface causing the screen to splinter.

My Fix

The total repair time too about 5 mins. Guides on Ifixit were very insightful and thorough. Hardest part was getting the miniture srews out of the EMI shield and getting the screen tucked in.

My Advice

Watch the screws don't run away. the guide does not show how the new screen tucks inside the side where the display used to be dont panic, it's eay. just play with it.

My Problem

My iphone kept crashing and the power would go from any percentage to zero. We did change the battery. But the process was nowhere as simple as the video showed the connections were much tougher to disconnect and reconnect. We had to use a 10 power magnifier to see what we were doing. The problem appears to have been corrected but the phone runs a little slower on gmes and sometimes when typing and is warmer than before. If it lasts for another year that will be fine. apple said it couldnt be done, gee I wonder why ;-)

My Fix

Read the directions thoroughly especially the one about disconnecting the display. I'm having trouble typing into these fields. Use magnification!

My Advice

See above.

My Problem

After one minute or so, the backlight was turning off, probably because of overheating.

My Fix

I ordered a LCD for my MacBook A1181 and I replaced it without removing the panel. It was a little bit tricky to plug it in the inverter, but watching at pics (Fig.1) of the inverter helped a lot to know where I was going to plug it.

My Advice

Buy one extra bezel mounting clip in case. I was not able to put the bezel back in place so I removed every gray mounting clip from it and clipped them on the LCD mount (Fig.2) before to clip the bezel in place. This was the only way I could do it without destroying all clips.

My Problem

As bad luck would have it, my 13" MacBook Pro was on the floor next to the couch and my work 15" MacBook Pro was on the arm of the couch. One MB fell and dented the lid of the other, causing the LCD to break from the back. After crying for a few days, I looked at my options:

- trust the guys on ebay to fix it (very cheap for some strange reason and some bad reviews made me nervous)

- pay Apple repair tons of money for a whole new lid (not worth it...might as well buy a new machine)

- fix it myself for cheaper, but the repair was rated 'very difficult'

I decided trying to fix it myself was the best option...cross my fingers that I didn't make another costly mistake.

My Fix

The instructions were easy to follow, until I got to removing the glass. No matter how long and hot I made the edges of the glass with the blow dryer, I was unable to get the glass up with the suction cups. I broke one suction cup trying. Finally I dug around with the spudger and found that I was making progress. Slowly I heated up the glass and worked my way around. Despite my careful efforts, the glass cracked and I was forced to order a new piece.

The only other trouble that I had was figuring out which part to 'lift' in order to remove the LCD cable. The image in the instructions was hard to follow and I was a little freaked out after having just broken the glass. I finally figured out what they were talking about and soon had my new LCD up and running.

Putting things back together was easy and putting a new piece of glass on was simple. I have things back together and good as new. My pocket book is a little lighter, but it was definitely cheaper than purchasing a new MacBook.

My Advice

I can't stress enough how patient you need to be when removing the glass. Watch some YouTube videos on how to do this and go really really slow!