My Problem

My mechanical hard drive was working very, very, very slowly.

Everytime I was opening a new file, the waiting cursor appeared, when I wanted to read a file, it was very slow, etc..

The mac was not "usable".

My Fix

Perfectly, in 30min, it was finished !

My Advice

Take your time, go step by step, and be careful.

My Problem

The iMac internal HDD was failing. Late 2009 iMac i5 quad-core.

My Fix

Internal HDD was failing badly. In fact, I waited too long, and was about, oh, literally 1 day too late in fixing it. I had received my orders from ifixit and amazon two days prior, but was waiting until the weekend to repair, but at that point the HDD was locking up so much I couldn't manage a migration or anything to the new HDD, so I spent about a day and a half learning about every possible way that should, but did not work, and finally managed to work out a solution. The iMac is running like a champ again, and I am more technically competent. Bless the repair partition in Lion OSX: it worked with the faulty HDD for the 1.5 hours I needed it to, so the folks at Apple must have been smart enough to have the repair process use the HDD at a very stable mechanical level.

My Advice

If your HDD begins to fail, replace it ASAP. It will probably last for a while after it starts clicking: mine lasted 2 months. It may last two weeks after Drive Genius tells you there is an irreparable mechanical issue with the HDD, and it may last a one week after Disk Utility tells you the same thing. If you gamble with the time you have left, and loose (like I did) you're likely setting yourself up for a more difficult recovery process. There's no point to waiting: if the HDD is failing, it's failing: i.e., it's inevitably going to require replacement. Don't bother waiting, you'll spend the same money replacing it sooner or later.

Also, please understand the difference in utility between migration assistance and time machine restore: I could have saved myself an additional 6 hours of restore time.

Last: be a do-it-yourselfer and have faith that you can succeed. Lord knows how much it would have cost to fix this via the Apple store (way out of warranty), but I'll guess about $500 for another 1TB HDD. I spent about: $120 on a 3TB replacement, $50 for the ifixit supplies (most of that was for the optical bay/HDD switch), and about $90 for a 2.5 inch 1TB HDD for the optical bay. I spent about $300 for an UPGRADE, that cost considerably less than a simple repair. I also had a good time and learned a lot, expletives notwithstanding.

Oh, and because I waited too long I did have to buy a wired keyboard from the Apple store, and that cost me $50 I didn't need to spend (going to get a mini soon, so no loss, really).

Good luck!

My Problem

Sister in law dropped power block on 2011 13" macbook pro and had a 3 inch wide white line from top of the screen to the bottom of screen almost in the middle.

My Fix

After getting the A1278 lcd display, i looked up the guide for replacing it on the macbook pro and ended up with an outdated guide you as this macbook is from early 2011 after searching apple's site for the serial. I then found http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+M... and with it and rhe lcd guide i was able to finish the repair.

My Advice

Be careful when using a cars or guitar picks not to damage the outer rubber around the display.

When putting back together make sure the isight cableis back in the groove of the casing as it kept getting stuck to the adhesive and causing it not to attach properly.

My Problem

It kept freezing on me and moving very very slow.

My Fix

I used the step by step guide on ifixit and it work GREAT. They were very clear instruction I would recommend any I see with a broken iPod or imac anywhere to go to ifixit before the buy it all over again.

I Love you guys at ifixit what a good idea...

My Advice

I will always check this site for any broke gadget needs...

My Problem

We have a four year old iMac that was getting sluggish. SSD prices have come down, so I wanted to see if I could breathe new life into this beautiful machine with a hard drive transplant--swapping a higher capacity, faster SSD for the traditional spinning disk.

My Fix

Thanks to iFixIt. I had the right tools and a step-by-step guide that led me through the process. The repair went flawlessly. I let my kids, ages 8, 10, and 13 help out.

My Advice

Having an extra pair of hands for holding up the screen when you need to disconnect the screen cables is helpful. Also, have plenty of air on hand to blow out all the accumulated dust.

My Problem

The original 320GB hard drive completely died after 5 yrs of nearly continuous service. Found the ifixit site with great instructions and the necessary parts.

My Fix

The parts arrived in a few days and the repair was easy and fast. Has the ufixit guide on my iPad and followed the step by step instructions. Finished in less than one hour. Everything booted up fine and was able to reinstall from my Time Capsule.

My Advice

Read the entire repair steps first before proceeding to make sure you have everything.

My Problem

The original HD was starting to crash quite frequently and space management was becoming an issue.

My Fix

The repair went great. I followed the directions "iMac Intel 20" EMC 2133 and 2210 Hard Drive Replacement" and everything went smoothly. This was the first time that I'd worked on a computer and was surprised at just how small some of the connectors are. I was also amazed at the amount of dust in there, which I blew away where I could. The directions in the guide were very straightforward and made every task very simple. I used an Icy Dock converter to house the SSD and I ended up feeling that I was replacing like-for-like - very easy. I then booted up from an external CCC clone and found the new drive in Disk Utility. Once partitioned it took a couple of hours to clone the external drive onto the SSD, which I then made my start-up drive.

My Advice

1: Use a 2.5" to 3.5" converter to make the SSD placement very simple.

2: Make sure to follow the directions in the guide about cleaning the display and back of the glass screen before replacing it. With the amount of dust floating around following the work it took about five minutes to make sure that the display was spotless.

My Problem

I bought a used Mini and wanted to upgrade the memory and hard drive

My Fix

The Anti Static mat kept the components safe and gave me a clean smooth are to work on. The Magnetic project mat held all the screws. I really like the printed lines on the mat, I put the tiny screws in a square and wrote down what step they came from and no problem, nothing lost or leftover.

My Advice

Get the iSesamo tool to open the Mini. I used a ground down scraper before and it left some marks on the case. The iSesamo opened the case easier and left no marks.

My Problem

Computer suddenly lost power and would not restart. No power at all. Tried different power cable. Tried resetting power management unit.

My Fix

Ordered power supply from ifixit.com and used online guide to replace power supply. Not to hard just had to take time and double-check things as I worked. We've got 15+ of these models so now I know I can fix myself. Used repair as excuse to get Pro Tech Toolkit so now I have some decent tools.

My Advice

Should have ordered some screen cleaner just in case but luckily was able to keep the lcd screen clean without dust or fingerprints getting on screen. Also, take care with internal wires and connectors. Most are very small and delicate and my fat fingers don't fit too well. Didn't break any but will be more careful next time.

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.