Repairing Apple TV 1st Generation Power Light
User-Contributed Guide
An awesome member of our community made this guide. It is not managed by iFixit staff.
Bullets!
Better coordination with markups and the color/type of bullets will help make this guide more clear!
Confusing Text
Some of this guide's text is confusing, duplicated, or off-topic. Clarify it by editing!
Needs Better Images
Better photos will improve this guide. Help out by taking, editing, or uploading new ones!
Markup Mishap
This guide needs better markups. Help out by correcting or making some markup annotations.
Step Trimmer
This guide has unnecessary steps. Trim them to be more concise!
Many Apple TV forums report a weakening or dimming of the white power indicator. This is due to premature failure of a white LED. It is possible to replace the LED and restore the power light.
- Author: John Matheson
- Time required: 1 Hour
- Difficulty: Very difficult
This repair requires either an extremely fine tipped soldering iron and extremely steady hands, or an SMD rework station.
- View:
- Single page
Edit
Step 5
—
Power Light
¶
-
Carefully peel back the two copper sticky grounding strips near the LED module.
-
Swing the outer aluminium case up and carefully slide it towards the connector side of the logic board until it comes off. Remove the two Phillips #0 screws securing the LED module.
-
Carefully unplug the module from the logic board to make it easier to work on, and remove it from the case.
Edit
Step 6
¶
-
There are two miniature SMD LEDs, one is clear and one is yellow. Unsolder the yellow coloured LED, which is actually the white one - the clear SMD LED is amber when on. Replace with another high intensity SMD LED. I used a blue one to match my other hi-fi components. The anode (+) is marked on the circuit board and is away from the infrared receiver side. Reassemble is a simple reversal being sure to remember to reverse every step.
Edit
Step 7
¶
-
SMD LEDs are difficult to find as a spare part. I carefully ground down a normal sized LED with a Dremil until it would fit. The only source of SMD LEDs I could find was LED bar lights in various colours such as these: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp...
-
Enjoy!
Page 1 of 1