My Problem

Worn out home button; only getting maybe 1 in 5 presses

My Fix

Straight forward repair. Took 2 hours end-to-end, with the longest time (30 minutes) getting the display separated from the frame.

My Advice

Watch the video, and read thru the guide at least once before starting. Have a container for all of the hardware. I noticed that all of the screws are 000 size, so have the proper driver before digging in.

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

My Macbook Pro was overheating while gaming in Windows 7/bootcamp due to the terrible job that apple did applying thermal paste to my cpu and gpu at the factory.

My Fix

it went great! 100% and now my computer runs possibly better than when I first got it.

My Advice

Get the right tools

My Problem

pushing the power button did not put the iphon in stand by , nor long pressing the button trigger the power off .

My Fix

repair when fine thanks to the ifit guide , and photos.

but I got a new button and it's not fixing the pb....

My Advice

may not fix your pb

My Problem

Macbook pro, a few years old but still with a bit of life left in it. I decided to upgrade rather than replacing it. The upgrade consisted of more memory, a solid state drive and a replacement of the optical drive with bay to hold the old HDD. I personally hate the idea of adding to landfill so anything I can do to keep a computer or other tech device going I am for.

My Fix

Relatively easy but then I have all the tools I need and have learned to take my time on any process I have never done before. The ifixit repair guides are first rate and I always run through each step several times so have few surprises.

My Advice

Make sure you have the correct tools for any repair. Take your time and lay out the parts in a way that makes sense when it comes time to put something back together.

My Problem

My son's 20 GB click wheel iPod was no longer working but to be fair it had been in a box for a couple of years. It took 2 days to charge it enough to restore it and reload it with music. As long as it was kept docked an charging it would work. After finding your website I decided it was worth it to change the battery and see if that would make it fully functional again.

My Fix

The repair was boring and simple, just the way I like it! I followed the directions found on your website using the tools I purchased with the battery; charged the battery for a few hours, connected it to speakers and started jamming to the music of my youth...circa 1970. The only problem is now my 20 year old son wants it back! I hope he has eclectic taste in music because I loaded the iPod with everything from the Rolling Stones to Boz Scaggs. However my son now looks at me me with renewed awe and respect, which is no small thing!

My Advice

Follow the directions and be patient with removing the back cover. No magic, voodoo or inappropriate language required!

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

Why fix it? My iPod Classic (thin) was in constant use in our 2010 Honda CR-V with a USB connection and fingertip controls on the steering wheel. Then it stopped working, and I concluded the battery had died. SiriusXM wanted big bucks/month and all I wanted was music. I was confident the factory price for battery replacement would be outrageous, so I looked at ifixit's solution. No way was I going to pay the XM price. Made my decision and never looked back.

My Fix

It wasn't simple. I could NOT open it with the plastic tools. So I used the thick end of the metal spudger to start the opening, then twisted for room to insert the plastic tool. Then repeat. The putty knife procedure helped. I had difficulty understanding which way the 90% clamp worked on the tiny cables. As a 77-year old, my eyes were not the greatest! but I finally figured it out without any damage. Whew! Ended up with no scratches on the outside, but was unable to get the top & bottom to close perfectly. There are definitely very tiny gaps on both sides, but I can live with them...easily.

My Advice

Use the metal spudger (carefully) to create the gap necessary to accept the plastic tool. Then follow the pictures and instructions. And remember if an old man, not particularly handy with his hands, can get this job done...SO CAN YOU!!!!

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

Root beer happened to my keyboard. Though I immediately shut the laptop down and inverted it on paper towels — thus probably saving the rest of its innards — the N, H, Y, 6, F5, /, -, and + keys all went kaput in the end. Removing the keycaps and cleaning with rubbing alcohol was to no avail — something was fried, so my only option was to replace the keyboard.

My Fix

The repair went very smoothly, and everything is back in working order now. It was quite stressful, though. I made sure to take breaks frequently so that I could relax and to prevent myself from rushing. If you're careful and methodical, this repair is definitely quite do-able. And in the end, the machine booted without a hitch! Huzzah!

My Advice

There were a few things which I wish I had known before starting:

- The Phillips head screwdriver shipped by iFixit as recommended for this repair is too large for some of the Phillips screws which need to be removed. I was lucky that I had a friend with another set of screwdrivers. All the other screwdrivers worked just fine.

- There is a part which is not mentioned by the instructions which needs to be removed from the original upper case and transferred to the new upper case. It's a vertical spar which supports the logic board and optical drive, and can be seen clearly in the photo for Step 35. You should take this out at this point and move it to the new case.

- ZIF connectors are very tricky. Make sure you read the directions and look carefully to see which way you should pry on the retaining lock; they can chip very easily if pulled from the wrong direction.

- The magnetic project mat is a life-saver. If you don't have one, get one. Make sure to put screws on it head-down, as this makes them stick more firmly to the surface. Take advantage of the whiteboard surface to make good notes about step numbers and locations of screws.