Steps 1–33: Teardown
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Popular Repair Guides
MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Late 2008 and Early 2009 Teardown
Introduction
We picked up our new MacBook Pro at the local Apple Store this morning. We practically mugged the Fedex delivery guy on the way in to the building, and we got the first box off the pallet.
Tools used in this guide
Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
Paginated Single Page Steps
Step 1
—
Teardown
The new, 37 percent friendlier-to-squirrels and tree-frogs MacBook Pro box. Yay for pallet density! Oh, and it's heavier than it looks.
Follow our updates on twitter.
Step 2
Old on the left, new on the right.
The keyboard is now more similar to the old MacBook than the previous MacBook Pro. While the unibody case is very cool, this is going to make keyboard repair difficult.
That screen isn't just glossy, it's a mirror!
Step 3
New, rounded bottom. And a much darker plastic wireless window.
In the box:
85 page manual (same length as MacBook manual-- that's some coordination!)
Cleaning cloth and two Apple stickers
85W power adapter
Application DVD with iLife. Interestingly, this DVD refused to run on our older Leopard MacBook Pro.
OS X 10.5.5 restore DVD.
In an insane move, there is no video adapter included. I don't care if DisplayPort is an industry standard or not, I just paid $2161.92 for a computer that won't plug into any monitor Apple has shipped to date! But Apple is happy to sell you one for $29.00!
Step 4
The holes in the speaker grill are significantly smaller, making the upper case surface feel smoother.
Step 5
Ports, left to right:
Magsafe, Gigabit ethernet, Firewire 800, Two USB 2.0, "Industry-standard" DisplayPort, Audio-in, Audio-out
ExpressCard/34 slot, same as before.
Both audio in and out are hybrid digital / analog line minijacks. Very cool!
Is the lack of Firewire 400 the beginning of the end for Firewire?
Step 6
Removing the battery cover.
Aww, look at the cute little Apple logo.
Step 7
Remove one Phillips screw to release the hard drive bracket. The screw is held captive to the bracket.
Remove the four T6 screws securing the hard drive.
Replacing the hard drive is significantly easier on this machine than the previous MacBook Pro.
This machine uses the same, industry standard SATA notebook drives as previous MacBook Pro and MacBook models.
Shameless plug: Of course, you can upgrade the hard drive in any Apple laptop. We have free guides for every model that makes hard drive replacement easy.
Kudos to Apple for making this easy. Keeping repair costs down is probably the most environmentally friendly thing Apple has done with this machine.
Step 8
The first step to opening this machine is removing the bottom plate.
Remove the following 8 screws:
Four 3.5 mm Phillips.
One 5.3 mm Phillips.
Three 13.8 mm Phillips.
Let's see what's creating all that torsional rigidity that Jony Ive keeps talking about.
Can you offer a printable version of this article as a single page?
that would be great
What is the purpose of the "wireless window" on the back of my 15" unibody?
iFixit Staff
Apple calls it a 'clutch cover,' but essentially it is just a cosmetic cover to hide the AirPort card, antenna board, and the hinges housed in the display. It is made of plastic presumably to allow for the passage of signals to/from your AirPort card.
No, it's the beginning of the end for Firewire 400.
what type hard drive is apple using?
Is there an available internal USB port connection? Can one be added somewhat easily? I couldn't get a detailed enough view on Photo 20...
iFixit Staff
SATA
iFixit Staff
Not that we ran across and Apple does not have any official documentation indicating the presence or lack of internal USB.
Something is missing from this step. There is a Philips screws that secures the plastic bracket to the hard drive. Need a Philips #00 to remove it. Then remove the 4 Torx-6 screws on the side of the hard drive and re-use them on the new hard drive (if you're replacing the hard drive).
iFixit Staff
Take a gander at our MacBook Pro 15" Unibody guides for detailed disassembly instructions.
I'm upgrading RAM and have removed all 8 screws but not touched the HD.
The bottom casing refuses to move and feels like there's something else
connected. No info in manual, any ideas?