Use a coin to rotate the battery-locking screw 90 degrees clockwise.

Lift the battery out of the computer.

Remove the three evenly-spaced Phillips screws from along the rear wall of the battery compartment.

The screws are captive to the metal memory cover.

Lift up on L-shaped memory cover, slide it to the right, and lift it out of the computer.

Remove the following 3 screws:

• One 11 mm Phillips #00 in the middle of the case.
• Two 14.5 mm Phillips #00.

If the screws stick in the case, you can use a magnetized screwdriver to draw them out.

The shorter of the three screws goes in the middle.

Remove the following 3 screws from the rear wall of the battery compartment:

• Two 3 mm Phillips #00.
• One 4 mm Phillips #00 on the right side.

When reinstalling these screws, it may be helpful to push down on the lower case to line up the screw holes.

Remove the two 6 mm Phillips #00 screws from either side of the right wall of the battery compartment (not the ones closest to the battery connector).

Remove the four 3 mm indicated Phillips #00 screws from the front wall of the battery compartment. When working from the left, remove the 2nd, 4th, 7th and 9th screw.

Remove the following 4 screws from the back of the computer:

• Two 7 mm Philips on the far sides.
• Two 10.5 mm Phillips toward the center.
• Do not over-tighten these; you can cause the case to distort.

Remove the two 5.2 mm shouldered Phillips #00 screws from the optical side of the computer.

It is not necessary to remove the similar screws on the other side of the computer.

Starting near the display and working around to the front of the computer, pry up on the upper case. It is held with clips on the right above the optical drive. These will release with some firm lifting pressure.

Be careful when prying up the upper case. It's very easy to slice open a fingertip and thus provide the blood sacrifice the Mac gods sometimes require of those who insist on doing their own repairs.

There's a trackpad and keyboard ribbon connecting the upper case to the logic board, so don't pull the upper case off entirely just yet.

If you have trouble getting the clips to release, be careful that you are not prying the plastic top of the upper case away from its metal frame.

While holding up the upper case, use a spudger to pry up the orange trackpad and keyboard cable from its connector.

If you happen to break your upper case cable when removing the upper case, we stock the cable individually and we have a guide that makes replacing it easy.

Use a spudger to disconnect the orange optical drive cable from the logic board.

Use a spudger to disconnect the black fan connector from the logic board.

Deroute the fan cable from behind the tab on the left side of the fan.

Peel up the silver foil tape between the fan and the optical drive.

Use a spudger to move the gray display data and black speaker cables to the right. This will reveal a silver screw securing the fan housing to the lower case.

Remove the following 2 screws:

• One 3 mm Phillips on the right side of the fan.
• One 6 mm Phillips on the left side of the fan.
• Two Phillips screws on the top left and bottom left of the fan.

Push down on the left side of the fan and slide it slightly to the right in order to free the fan from the indicated tab on its right side. You can also use the tip of a spudger to free the tab on the right side of the fan.