My Problem

Had two 17" MacBook Pros, yeah, I know, an embarrassment of riches. The working one was in a beat up case that was overheating pretty badly. The non working one was pristine, but isn't that the way things go.

My Fix

Following iFixit's step-by-step guide was a no-brainer. I read and reread many times before popping the first screw. I knew I needed thermal paste so I placed an order. While shopping around I found a few more items that I needed more than the paste! If you need to tackle a job with more than four screws of various sizes I highly recommend a Magnetic Project Mat. This was a major lifesaver in trying to keep 6.5mm, 7.2mm and 7.6mm screws separate!

So all the screw were out. All the cables were unplugged. Thermal paste removed. Parts cleaned. New paste applied. Screws back in place, cables replugged. Hey, where's that other cable? Under the logic board? Repeat step 1-8. Make sure all cables are out of the way now.

Battery in place. Power applied. Prayer said. Button pushed. And the chimes are heard the Apple logo is seen and there is great rejoicing.

Next job: find out what's wrong with the bad logic board. Yeah, when I get time.

My Advice

GET THE MAGNETIC PROJECT MAT! That's all I can say. It's a dry erase board with a grid. Drop your screws on the mat - they're not going anywhere. With the handy marking pen give them a pertinent description like: 6.5mm T6 or little logic board screws.

Oh, and the spudger. Don't forget the spudger. It does so many things like fish wires from beneath logic boards. I now wear it behind my ear daily.

My Problem

A family members iPhone 4 decided one day to literally just turn off (or so it appeared anyway) forever and wouldn't respond to any button presses or charging attempts. Nothing physically happened to the phone to produce this problem, it just shut off.

My Fix

I figured I would swap out the battery with one from another 4 and see if it would work... AND IT DID! So after looking at the "dead" battery I decided to put that back into the phone from which I took the working battery from and tried to boot up the good phone and that worked too!?!

My Advice

The only advice I can give here is to try removing and reattaching the battery and try booting the phone before deciding the battery is dead. My assumption of what happened is some small hardware hiccup that caused the buttons to become unresponsive or the battery somehow had a loose connection or something. I'm not totally sure what happened but I am glad that all phones are working without the need for a new battery.

My Problem

After 3+ years of faithful service, iStat had been reporting my battery life shrinking lately, and the power menu was telling me to "Service Battery Soon". Servicing with Apple meant at least a $200 bill.

Poor battery life when you're regularly stuck on a 2+ hour train commute is not fun.

My Fix

The battery and screwdriver came quick. I didn't know how long it would take, so I put it all aside to do that evening. Little did I know, no muss, no fuss, 15 minutes later and the new battery was in, working and performing gloriously (even better capacity than the original).

My Advice

If your laptop is out of warranty, save at least the $50 and just replace the battery yourself. It was easy and worth the time and effort. Swapping out memory and/or hard-drive also looked easy. Once you have the top open, everything is available.

My Problem

About a year and a half ago I dropped my MBP ever so slightly on the floor. It was in my messenger bag and the strap slid from my shoulder. I was able to catch it, but the corner of the bag hit the ground. When I opened my MBP - which was in sleep mode -everything froze. After a reboot the question mark folder popped up. My hard drive had died. Or so I thought.

After replacing the hard drive, nothing happened. The problem was there to stay. So I took the hard drive back to the store and bought an external one instead. I installed OSX on that one, and lived about a year and a half with OSX on that drive. I wa too low on money to have an expert look at it.

Then a friend of mine got the same problem, and it appeared that his SATA cable was broken. So then I was almost positive it was my SATA cable, not the hard drive that had to be replaced. I had no money to have someone do it, so I stumbled upon ifixit and the rest is history.

My Fix

The repair was fairly easy, although I kind of had experience doing it when I replaced my HDD. However, I found that two of the three battery clips had broken off, so I might need to replace that one day :')

My Advice

Be patient and repair your laptop under well lit circumstances. You're handling a thousand+ dollar machine, so take care of it. Don't rush anything. Print the guide up front or read it on a phone or tablet. Stay positive. It's easier than it looks.

My Problem

More storage required

My Fix

Basically successful

My Advice

An additional screw driver needed to remove the 4 screws from the HDD

My Problem

Dropped laptop on floor and shattered the screen

My Fix

Excellent, everything arrived quickly and just as advertised. It was easier to do the dis-assembly than I thought. As the glass was shattered, it was a pain removing every little piece though. Once that was done it was an easy task to replace the glass and the screen is as good as new! Total elapsed time, going extra slowly was about 45 minutes.

My Advice

If the glass is shattered or full of little cracks then don't bother with the suction cups.... they won't grab the glass because of the cracks and won't help remove the glass. Just have to get the spudger under one corner and just pick away at each little piece.

My Problem

My MacBooPro5,3 was giving the dreaded 'Service Battery' warning. The battery itself was only lasting about 30-45 minutes on a full charge.

My Fix

The repair was easy, just followed the guide. It really helped to have the specialized 5-Point Pentalobe screwdriver.

My Advice

When removing the connector from the battery to the motherboard just take your time, don't force it. It will come off, the connection is just tight. I used a thin bladed micro screwdriver to assist.

My Problem

I've always been a self-repair guy, however, this was the first time I had to replace a battery, so I figured I'd just head over to the local Mac Store and get it done by one of the Geniuses... ( service is normally pretty well over there )

However, this time one of them claimed he needed to keep my laptop ( which is my lifeblood ) for 5 days AT LEAST to repair the battery, on top of that it would cost 150 euros ( 203$ ). I spotted the "leadguy" hanging around and explained him that I couldn't possibly go a whole week without my laptop and he understood so he took me asside and sent me to this site...

The model I needed was sold out at the time, but my laptop still worked so it wasn't _really_ an issue, just kind of a pain in the !@# that my battery went from full to empty in about 45 minutes. I sent off a mail to iFixit's team and got a reply as soon as businesshours opened in the US ( As I'm from Europe it was to be expected that I wouldn't get a reply at 3am in the morning in the US :-) ).

It explained that the new load would arrive within a week and that there would be no issue sending it to Europe, so I waited a bit, made the order on Saturday, the battery was sent on monday ( again, no surprise there ) and got here by Wednesday 11 am, just before I had to head out to my day-job, I still had about 15 minutes so I tore open my mac...

My Fix

It was surprisingly easy, I've heard lots of horror-stories from people saying Mac's can't be repaired by us commoners, I've done some of the easy ones before, installing extra RAM in my iBook G4, upgrading my HD in this one ( 480 Gb SSD FTW ) but a battery-change was a first...

I only had 15 minutes after FedEx dropped it off before I had to go to work, so I figured I'd get everything ready for when I got home, but 5 minutes later the battery was installed and charging, so I left for work feeling great and anticipating my homecoming where my trusty mac would be waiting for me again :-D

My Advice

Do it yourself :-) Or order the parts and bring it over to me, if you have a nice ( Belgian ) beer with you, I'll do it for free :-D

I spotted some nice replacement-parts on iFixit in the mean time ( DVD-drive is busted as well, and I'm eyeing the HD-bay for that position as a 'dump-drive' for video & photo-footage ) so I'll be back for sure :-D

My Problem

Simple. My battery died. I've had my MacBook Pro over 4 years and the battery just gave out. I was well beyond my warranty, but attempted to call the Apple store and some local certified Apple technicians to inquiry on the cost...Here I'll save you some time. Just order the parts and do it yourself. The Apple store couldn't even tell me cost over the phone which is usually a bad sign. One place was $75 an hour and the other was $250. Nope.

My Fix

I'm completely computer illiterate, so as you can imagine I was nervous as !@#$! But I looked at other stories and practically studied the guide, which was seemed a little too easy, but in this case. Nope. It was easier! I made the swap, closed the case, said a little prayer, and the baby just booted right up! Yeah!

My Advice

Yes! Plan out your fix. Read some of the stories from others who made the repairs. Read the guide a few times, so you know what to expect. Don't drop your screws! And if you do, hope it stands out on the carpet. Whew! Also don't start touching stuff under the hood you don't know about. Just replace the battery and leave other stuff alone...maybe you can clean the case while its off though...dusty!

My Problem

My MacBook Pro developed a grinding noise of the left fan.

Besides that my battery was expanding up to a point that my touchpad did not work properly anymore on 'click' functions.

After checking at my Apple shop, they told me that they had to send in the unit to a repair-centre and it would take multiple days to fix.

As I use my MacBook around the clock and is my primary work tool, this is unacceptable. This is why I decided to order the parts and do the repair myself.

My Fix

The repair was very straightforward. We removed both fans and cleaned out al the dust buildup. I was stunned how much was gathered in 'radiators' over the years.

The exchange of the battery was a breeze too, thanks to the special torx I ordered.

My Advice

When you notice that your touchpad-click function is not working the way it used to, replace your battery as it is a sign of expanding.

Regularly clean-out the fans and radiators for dust-buildup, my suggestion is once a year.

Another enlightenment was the speed of delivery of the parts. I am living in the Netherlands, I ordered the parts wednesday-evening, friday-morning the Fedex-box was delivered. This really great!