Apple TV Teardown

Add Note Introduction

How to take apart the Apple TV.

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Tools used in this guide
Teardown Warning

Teardown

Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.

Paginated Single Page Steps

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Add Note Step 1 — Teardown

  • We got our new Apple TV today, skipped the 'plug it in' step, and went straight to our disassembly. It's Apple model #A1218.

  • The packaging has been reviewed to death other places, so we're going to skip that.

  • Peel up the rubber base (remove the rubber carefully so you don't tear it) and remove the four T8 Torx screws beneath:

    • Two 10 mm T8 Torx by the ports.

    • Two 15 mm T8 Torx near the front.

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Add Note Step 2

  • Lift off the metal base, revealing the hard drive.

  • Disconnect the ATA hard drive cable from the right side of the logic board. Try to pull straight up so you don't bend the pins on the hard drive.

  • The hard drive is mounted on the baseplate of the unit. It is a 40 GB 2.5" Fujitsu ATA drive (NOT an SATA drive). You can replace this drive with a standard ATA laptop drive if you want to upgrade it.

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Add Note Step 3

  • Behold, the Apple TV. Looks like a Mac Mini sans the optical drive and all the useful ports.

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Add Note Step 4

  • Disconnect the two airport antenna cables.

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Add Note Step 5

  • Lift the airport card up and out of the Apple TV.

  • This is the exact same Broadcom wireless card as the Mac Pro, down to the Apple model number (020-5280-A). Note the (now standard) two antennas. Our card came scractched from the factory. Makes you wonder what's going on over in China...

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Add Note Step 6

  • Disconnect the fan connector from the logic board.

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Add Note Step 7

  • Remove the T8 Torx screw in the top left corner of the airport card.

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Add Note Step 8

  • The fan is mounted on rubber posts to dampen vibrations and make it quieter. Apple claims the Apple TV is 7-10 dB, which is extremely quiet.

  • Use tweezers to compress the top of a rubber post and push the post down into the hole. Repeat this for each rubber post.

  • Once all three posts are pushed into the fan, lift the fan up carefully. The posts should easily slide out, freeing the fan.

Notes

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