Badges

Teardowns Participated In

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PalmOne

Curious about what's inside your Palm Pilot?...

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Nintendo Wii

In this teardown, we open a Wii to the logic...

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Banana

In this teardown, we open a banana to see...

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iPod Nano 4th Generation Teardown

We disassembled this iPod on September 10, 2008.

Guides Participated In

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Repairing Soldered Connections

Newer generations of iPhone, iPod nano, and...

Questions

  • Can I replace my optical drive with anything cool? Nov 3 @ 11:46 AM

    My optical drive has been dead for about a year, now. I'm considering replacing it, but I'd like to know if there's anything else I can do with that space. I don't need any more hard drive space. I was considering just removing it to save weight and power, but I'm not sure its power consumption...

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Answers

Notes

  • Banana Teardown Jun 26 @ 1:25 PM

    Quote from mbishop:

    This is clever, but I've found it more effective to simply pinch the non-stem end of a banana between two fingers. It easily breaks and lets you peel back the banana, retaining the stem (like keener31).

    I tried this today, and it worked great except that when I got to the end, about 1/3 of the banana fell on the floor. Luckily, it was still edible. I'll have to perfect my technique.

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  • Banana Teardown Jun 15 @ 12:30 PM

    Quote from oblivio92:

    Explain your methods for avoiding that strange spike going into the base of the banana. Is there any way to maximize the amount of this weird-looking thing that is removed?

    I just bend it off. When you pull it to the side, it pops off.

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  • MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Teardown Jun 10 @ 11:56 AM

    "Warning: We'd really appreciate it if you'd pay us a bunch of money to replace your battery instead of just replacing it yourself!"

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  • May 1 @ 7:28 PM

    This comment is silly.

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Discussions

Replies

  • Re: How to eject a physically stuck cd for iMac's superdrive Aug 26 @ 11:13 AM

    First, try this terminal command:

    drutil tray eject 0

    You can do this several times. If that doesn't work, and if you can boot into open firmware (with Command Option O F held down), you can type:

    eject cd

    If that doesn't work, and you want to open up the drive, there is a guide here, but this is a super last resort.

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  • Re: Boot Failure/Kernel Panic...any ideas Aug 24 @ 10:42 AM

    If you can try the disk in another computer or with a USB enclosure/adapter, you can figure out whether the hard drive is the bad part. If it is, then the problem is clear, and you can just replace the hard drive. If it's not, then the logic board is probably the issue, but from what you've said, I'd bet (not really) 30 dollars that it's just a bad disk.

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  • Re: iPod 3G worth fixing? Jul 28 @ 11:56 AM

    I'm pretty sure it will work with new itunes. It's up to you whether or not it is worth your time, but if it's between having an ipod that works and having an ipod that doesn't work, I'd go with an ipod that works, especially for something as inexpensive as a battery replacement.

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  • Re: Beer in unibody Macbook keyboard - what to do? Jul 25 @ 2:28 PM

    I couldn't say for the macbook, but for the ibook, you just pulled gently until the key came off. Sometimes the key broke, though, so you had to be careful. You might also try using a toothpick under the key or something. Just don't break the key. Again, I'm not sure if this works for a macbook, but it worked for an ibook.

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  • Re: powerbook issue boots to apple logo and spinning circle then dies Jul 24 @ 10:57 AM

    It is almost certainly the logic board. Hard drive problems would cause your computer to hang in one place, but logic board problems are typically what cause funky lines on the screen like that.

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  • Re: Beer in unibody Macbook keyboard - what to do? Jul 24 @ 10:52 AM

    You're probably fine if you don't mind the sticky. I had gatorade in my keyboard for a while, and it was gross and sticky, but worked fine. One day, I popped off the keys that were sticky and cleaned them with alcohol. I broke the shift key, but everything else was fine. The apple store gave me a new shift key for free when I asked, so everything worked out. Don't count on getting free stuff, but if you can figure out a good way to pop off the keys, consider it. I was doing this on an ibook g4, so the keyboard was probably a bit different.

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  • Re: Imac 24", 2.4 GHz - Cursor has bar code shadow Jul 21 @ 1:12 PM

    Don't buy a broken computer unless you want to try to fix it. If the problem survived a reinstall, it could be a hardware issue.

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  • Re: Increasing temp's keeping me down!~ Jul 18 @ 11:38 AM

    Honestly, if I have to choose between losing my fan and losing my harddrive / motherboard, I'll pick the fan. Besides, the fan is designed to blow air all the time. I rather doubt that it'll go out anytime soon.

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  • Re: Increasing temp's keeping me down!~ Jul 16 @ 12:08 PM

    I use SMC Fan Control to keep my fan at 6200 RPM when it's plugged in. That usually keeps my temps around 60 C. It's my understanding, too, that keeping the fan so fast and the temps cooler will prolong the life of my mac. When the mac is on battery power, it runs hotter because the fan goes slower to save power. But 95% of the time it's on wall power anyway. Low-tech solutions for not frying your legs include putting a pillow or blanket between your lap and your laptop.

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  • Re: Do I need a new hard drive? Jul 15 @ 10:54 AM

    Take this opportunity to get a new 500 GB 7200 RPM Drive like this. I did this recently, and the extra space and performance enhancements have been awesome.

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