My Problem

Cracked LCD on my nephews White MacBook

My Fix

The repair went smoothly if you follow the guide step by step.

My Advice

Make sure you separate your screws in order of your steps, it makes reassembly easier.

My Problem

I received the laptop from a friend who dropped it down a flight of stairs. They weren't going to repair it so I took it. I first took it to the Apple Genius Bar where they ran what they called an MRI - everything worked. They also straightened the CD ROM opening for me. I took it into MacTalk, paid $50 for diagnostics and they said it needed a display and inverter cable. Labor was going to be $120. This put the repair over what I wanted to invest.

My Fix

The display replacement takes a while but went well. I didn't discover I ordered the wrong inverter cable (needed the Santa Rosa/Pendryn cable) until well into disassembly. We tried the display with the old cable - no luck. I returned the inverter cable to iFixit (thank you) and ordered the right inverter cable (and an inverter just in case). The cable was faulty, the inverter worked fine. I just sent the unused inverter back in the mail (thanks again for your service and after sales support).

It was pretty much impossible to determine that the Macbook was the Santa Rosa/Pendryn model until I got inside. Perhaps some work can be done here? The Apple Serial Number Info site didn't even specify it.

My Advice

My Mac-experienced friend who helped with the repair used a simple but effective way to keep track of the different screws during the disassembly. For each step requiring screws to be removed, we labeled the step on a piece of white printer paper, then made small holes in the approximate location for each screw. Several steps can be put on one piece of paper. The screws are pushed into the hole in the paper using the magnetic screwdriver. For the holes, I used the smallest screwdriver I had. Put the holes in before taking the screws out! I used small tabs of scotch tape to hold the ultra thin screws in the hole. This takes all of the guess work out of the reassembly and keeps everything organized!

The top case of the laptop has reportedly been problematic for some time. Apple Genius Bar told me that these MacBooks qualify for free replacement top cases due to a design issue. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get the top case replaced. After that, pretty much good as new!

My Problem

The laptop at some point fell from a surface on my external hard drive, resulting on a cracking screen. Obviously had to be replaced.

My Fix

It went OK, if you don't mind some screws been to much tight to be able to remove them. It took several hours to replace, only because I had to try different methods of removing that %!*$%%@ bezel in the middle - the screws holding it in place were the tight ones. Otherwise you don't need more than 1 or 2 hours.

My Advice

There is a way to quickly replace the LCD without taking apart the main body of the laptop - there is also a way to connect the LCD cable to the inverter without removing the bezel, but that's too difficult, you have to know what you are doing.

In the case that you want to see what you are connecting, you can remove the bezel only - you can see how in some youtube video.

The third choice (and all that only for the bezel) is to remove the keyboard and unscrew the parts that hold the screen together. In my case those screws couldn't be removed, so I just took of the bezel by removing a very small plastic part on the side of the bezel.

General tips:

-if there are screws that are too tight, and you don't have some kind of automated screwdriver that can work on them, don't waste your time on them - find a detour.

-if it is just the LCD, all the work is around the bezel in the middle

- and the sticky grey parts when you want to put back the screen bezel

(oh these bezels!)

My Problem

Ok, not really. But I did have a cracked screen on my MacBook and with the help of the video and instructions it made it a total snap to install. Well, not literally a snap but you know what I mean. I love to learn and to do things myself, especially when it saves me a considerable amount of money and time running around town taking my computer for roadtrips so as to get it fixed.

My Fix

Easy breezy! Except I did end up with one extra screw, uh yeah... but it's working like a charm. Thanks for the hand holding along the way

My Advice

I feel like I can fix anything right now. Just go slow and steady, follow instruction and just go step by step.

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

MacBook mid-2007 13" screen cracked when lid pushed too far back. Front display bezel showed signs of wear so decided to replace it at same time.

My Fix

Parts came on time and safely packed. Printed out guide and followed it religiously. Bought very good small screwdriver set at Home Depot for about $10. Repair successful and fun.

My Advice

To keep up with screws I used Scotch tape to tape each screw on picture in guide as I removed it. That technique made it very easy to return screws to right place when re-assembling. Recommend not snapping Front Display Bezel into place until everything else installed and screen working. Learned that the hard way. At first attempt I failed to firmly seat backlight cable into connector. So, no lighted screen and had to disassemble to properly seat connector. Wish I hadn't snapped bezel in place until everything working. However, mistake was mine not guide's or iFixIt's. Also, the pieces of yellow tape holding down various wires and ribbon cables were easy to remove put did not stick back down very well. Would like to see iFixIt offer small roll of this tape for purchase. I think it's called Kalon tape.

My Problem

Daughter's college computer. She accidentally stepped on her backpack in class with her MacBook inside it, and this broke the screen. She continued using it for a month, but it was pretty bad. I decided since I'd replaced disk drives in both my MacBook Pro and another daughter's iBook, I could handle this repair.

My Fix

Tried to prepare myself by going through the tutorials several times before I started. I took a picture of the back side of the MacBook and printed it on regular paper at somewhat low resolution to aid in keeping the screws straight as I removed the upper case. I pulled one wire lose as I was trying to detach the inverter cable from the motherboard, so I knew before going further that I'd probably have to order the cable. I continued and switched out the LCD screen. I tried to see if I could get the wire back in the connector but the connector on the inverter cable was damaged. I decided to reassemble everything and order the cable. I had a difficult time reconnecting the wife antenna leads to the motherboard - they seemed to have gotten shorter. I took the screen off again and try to reroute them better. Upon reassembly, it was a tight fit to get them attached, but they did make it. I then ordered the Santa Rosa / Penryn Inverter Cable from you. Time for all the above - a bit over 4 hours, but that included a methodical review of the process before I started.

The cable came in 4 days later, so the following weekend I opened things back up, removing the display again so I could replace the inverter cable. Reconnecting things, I found that the black wife lead just wasn't reaching where I needed it to be. I tugged too hard in the wrong place, and the crimp connector on the lead came off, and my thumb got sliced by something on the board. Time off to doctor the thumb - lots of blood, a deep cut. I had the white wifi connector connected, and only momentary contact from the black wire to the connector. Decided to close things up and see how they worked. This all took about an hour and a half.

The computer booted up and the screen worked as advertised. The wifi here at the house worked. The Superdrive, however, had some issues. I don't know whether it was damaged a little bit by the event that damaged the LCD or if I wasn't careful enough with it when I removed it as a part of the repair. I wound up getting the Superdrive to play DVDs and CDs as long as the MacBook is plugged in. I haven't gotten a report from my daughter about how it does in burning CDs and such and have not tested that. I'm concerned that we may have some work to do on the SuperDrive yet.

Yesterday afternoon my daughter returned to college, and has reported that the wifi at her college is not working on her MacBook now.

It looks like I'm going to have to take the computer to the shop after all just to get that 2nd wifi connection repaired so she can get online at school. If I had a pigtail with the proper crimp connection I might be able to twist a couple of wires together, cover with tape, and reattach to the appropriate place on the board.

My Advice

You have to be extremely careful in removing the various connectors from the motherboard. No matter how careful you are, you may still goof. Also, pay attention especially to the black and white wife antenna wires when derouting them around the display. The critical time for that is when you remove the inverter cover. Pay attention!

My Problem

I have fallen on the top of my macbook earlier and the LCP Panel cracked.

My Fix

Not very easy, but possible.

My Advice

Be careful with delicate plastic details and with the foil covering the space between superdrive and fan.

My Problem

LCD panel broke after dropping macbook from a table

My Fix

Followed instructions from ifixit. Very well explained procedure with lots of pictures. It's a complicated job but this guide made it easy.

My Advice

Make sure to keep screws marked so you can put them back in the proper places.

My Problem

My boys were running through a room which had MacBook in it in the opened state. The screen was damaged, blind blue spots were slowly spreading. This can be a great excuse to upgrade to Air or Pro, but we rejected this approach. "You broke your toy - here's a better one" - we do not treat kids like this. It's a father-only privilege in our family. So boys were subjected to a couple of months of playing, emailing and doing homework on the damaged screen. Please do not tell this to Child Protective Services.

My Fix

Pretty good. The manual is excellent.

Took about 4 hours for both directions.

My Advice

1. You need a girl to perform this: screws are tiny, in hard-to-get-to places. Girl's fingers and patience are a great bonus. I've used both my wife and daughter.

2. You really, really need good convinient screwdrivers. We started the attack with a kitchen knife. Luckily we realized the failure immediately, before OSH store closed.

3. Look at the picture. See a lot of coffee and tea cups? It's not a remnants of a supper. It's the essential part of success. Step #17, you take a new cup, place all screws extracted there and a piece of paper with #17. Saved us from the catastrophe I think.

4. It was a very nice way to spend an evening with two bright and pretty girls.

Photo at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8181772/MacBook_...

(Sorry, can't figure out how to "drop images here" works)