Steps 1–24: Teardown
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Step 9
Ignoring all manufacturer warnings, we are removing the non-removable battery. Hold your breath!
There are three tri-wing screws holding the battery to the Unibody case. (A tri-wing screwdriver is shown in the second photo.)
Apple did this to intimidate people out of swapping the battery, but a small flathead screwdriver (2mm or so) works fine to remove the screws.
Step 10
Removed the battery! That was pretty easy.
It's only a matter of time until you'll be able to buy this battery online from companies like us.
Removing the battery in the 17" is reminiscent of the MacBook Air-- several screws to remove the lower case, a few screws on the battery, and it's free.
The battery is Apple model #A1309, 7.3V 95Wh (12820 mAh).
Tree huggers everywhere will be relieved to know that it "contains no Mercury (Hg)."
The battery weighs 20.1 ounces (1.25 pounds or 570 grams). That's 20% of the computer's weight!
Step 11
The Bluetooth board is right behind the optical drive, next to the hinge.
It's very nice that Apple moved this out of the display assembly (where it is located in the MacBook Unibody and 15" MacBook Pro Unibody). No longer does a Unibody owner need to replace their entire display assembly ($$$) when their Bluetooth goes out.
It has an Anatel logo on it: BCM93046MD MINI 003WWA080264 FCC iD:QDS-BRCM1037.
Like the other Unibody machines, the Airport card is in the display assembly clutch cover.
Step 12
The 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW).
The internal design of this machine is pretty consistent with the 15" MacBook Pro. We'll be posting some part comparison shots later to show relative sizing.
Step 13
The bottom of the logic board.
The component density is amazing. Here's a large version.
There are four Samsung K4J10324QD-HC12 chips, likely video RAM for the NVidia 9600 chipset.
Step 14
On left: 15" Unibody fan. On right: 17" Unibody fan. Below: A North Carolina 'first-flight' quarter.
The Sunon manufactured fan says 'MagLev' on it. That's interesting! Part #: MG45070V1
Sunon's site says, "By using magnetic levitation force (MagLev), these fans feature zero friction with no contact between shaft and bearing. With excellent rotational stability, the MagLev fan eliminates vibration and typical wobble and shaking typically experienced in fan motors. MagLev also provides excellent high temperature endurance that results in long life."
Apple's used similar fans in MacBooks in the past.
Step 15
Removing the Phillips screws securing the perforated metal covers to the Unibody. These covers seem to protect the ribbon cable connections for the trackpad, keyboard, express card, and the serial ATA hard drive. Apple hasn't used metal shields like this before.
Step 16
Bottom of logic board with fans removed.
Disconnecting a number of connector cables:
LVDS, keyboard backlight, iSight, speaker, IR/sleep sensor, trackpad, keyboard, Express card, hard drive, and battery indicator light
is the Battery removal "visible" : does the sticker broke or stretch easily?
I've heard that the glass trackpad "click" can be refined by gently setting a screw under the battery (actual working tips for the Unibody 15" and 13")
or does this access will remain forbidden for people not wanting to void the warranty?
Would it be possible to replace the annoying slot-in superdrive with another SATA storage device (say, a 500GB HDD) ?
- Would there be enough headroom (9.5mm or better) ?
- What connector/part to use ? Would the existing SuperDrive connector fit a SSD or HDD ?
- How challenging would it be to secure a 2.5" mass storage device in the SuperDrive emplacement ?
Thanks for any help with this, I'm about to buy one of those laptops, and my experience with slot-in drives encourages me to consider alternative uses for that wasted space in the shell. :)
Come to think of it... an extra fan in there couldn't hurt: I'm told the 9600GT tends to run hot, and I'm going for the 2.93GHz version of the processor.
Check this out: http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merch...-UNB&Category_Code=STORHDLTMBOB&Product_C...
iFixit Staff
These pictures look great. Everything is so clean in there.
iFixit Staff
I'm always impressed with the layout that apple does inside their computers. I've taken apart other "Non-Apple" computers and the insides always seem cluttered and disorganized, with lots of plastic everywhere. Granted, I have a limited number of non-apple take-aparts, kudos to Apple's Engineers.
Anatel is the Brazilian telecoms regulatory agency and the logo is the agency's logo:
http://www.anatel.gov.br/
Hi, can you provide exact dimensions of 17" and 15" battery?
What model optical drive is in there?
iFixit Staff
The SuperDrive is a SATA SuperDrive just like the other Unibody machines we've taken apart. However, this drive was manufactured by HL, and not Panasonic like the drives we saw in the 13" and 15" Unibody machines. The label printed on the drive says "Model: GS21N." Apple System Profiler reports the model as "HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS21N" and revision "SA17."
Do you know of a BD-ROM or BD-RW that we could swap for this older DVD drive? It seems a shame that Apple has such high-end everything but such a run-of-the-mill CD/DVD drive.
Oops, I noobed: see comment mistakenly posted in step 9, please.
Hi,
I am also interested to replace the optical drive by a BD-Rom DVD/CD writer like this:
http://www.sony-optiarc.eu/products/bluraydrivesnotebook...
Would this fit?
Thanks for your answer
iFixit Staff
Hi xanthalas and friends,
The Blu-Ray drive will not fit in the MacBook Pro 17". The drive needs
to be 9.5 mm in height in order to fit into the laptop.
Thanks Miro. Can somebody tell me what drive is used (Vendor and ID) as I didn't find such small drives in height.
Thanks.
iFixit Staff
Hey xanthalas,
I stole this from Luke's February 17th post: "The SuperDrive is a SATA SuperDrive just like the other Unibody machines we've taken apart. However, this drive was manufactured by HL, and not Panasonic like the drives we saw in the 13" and 15" Unibody machines. The label printed on the drive says "Model: GS21N." Apple System Profiler reports the model as "HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS21N" and revision "SA17.""
I opened a late model iBook G4 the other day and found one of these "MagLev" fans... that's the oldest model I've seen them in (circa late 2004).
Does the unibody 15" use a MagLev fan as well then?
iFixit Staff
Not that we've seen.
I'm curious about the airflow on these fans: do they suck in and vent out both through the backside black heat sinks, or is air sucked in through the bottom-side openings (through which you see the fan blades on the pictures) then forced out through the heat sink ?
If the second is true, I'd imagine the fans are generating an "in" airflow all over the motherboard (between the mobo and underside plate), using every available crack in the case joints as intake, which presumably means it will build up a fat air dust crust all over the components in no time.
If the fans both intake and exhaust mainly through the rear ports/heatsinks, how is the rest of the machine cooled (besides CPU and GPUs) ?
Can you disassemble the trackpad further? I'm curious to see the pattern of the blue circuit doing the multi-touch interaction