Use your fingers to push both battery release tabs away from the battery, and lift the battery out of the computer.

Remove the three identical 2mm Phillips screws from the memory door.

Lift the memory door up enough to grip it and slide it toward you, pulling it away from the casing.

Remove the two 2.8 mm Phillips screws in the battery compartment near the latch.

Remove the following 6 screws:

• Two 10 mm T6 Torx screws on either side of the RAM slot.
• Four 14.5 mm Phillips screws along the hinge.

Remove the four 3.2 mm Phillips screws on the port side of the computer.

Rotate the computer 90 degrees and remove the two 3.2 mm Phillips screws from the rear of the computer.

Rotate the computer 90 degrees again and remove the four 3.2 mm Phillips screws from the side of the computer.

Do not yank the upper case off quickly. The case is attached to the logic board via a ribbon cable.

Lift up at the rear of the case and work your fingers along the sides, freeing the case as you go. Once you have freed the sides, you may need to rock the case up and down to free the front of the upper case.

There are four plastic clips above the DVD slot, and another above and to the left of the IR sensor. These clips can be very difficult to disengage without prying. They can also be difficult to re-engage during reassembly.

Disconnect the trackpad and keyboard ribbon cable from the logic board, removing tape as necessary.

Note: It is possible to replace the hard drive without disconnecting the keyboard from the chassis, but it will need to be held upright to keep it out of the way, while still allowing you both hands to work on the drive removal. Be careful when removing the keyboard-trackpad ribbon cable to ensure that the rear of the upper case is disengaged from the area near the hinge. It is easy to accidentally bend the screw receivers on either side of the keyboard.

• Remove the upper case.

Disconnect the two antenna cables attached to the Airport Extreme card.

Apple was kind enough to include a label showing where each color antenna cable plugs in - just make sure to look at this when reconnecting the antenna cables.

Deroute the Airport antenna cables from their channel in the left speaker.

The gray wire with the black tip appears to have no connection.

On some models the gray wire is connected to the airport card.

Disconnect the iSight cable from the logic board by sliding the cable to the left and out of its connector.

Support the display with one hand while removing the following screws:

• One 9.5 mm silver T6 Torx screw with threads on only 3 mm of the shaft on the inside of the display hinges.
• One 9.5 mm silver T6 Torx screw with threads on the entire shaft on the outside of the left hinge.
• One 9.2 mm full thread T6 Torx screw securing the iSight cable ground loop to the fan.

Disconnect the inverter cable from the left I/O board by placing a spudger beneath the cable and lifting up.

Disconnect the display data cable from the logic board.

Remove the foam bumper from the top of the right hinge of the display.

Remove the silver 9.2 mm T6 Torx securing the ground loop in the display data cable to the casing.

Support the display with one hand while removing the following screw:

• One 9.5 mm silver T6 Torx screw with threads on only 3 mm of the shaft on the inside of the display hinges.