Introduction
Replace the Bluetooth board.
What you need
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Use your fingers to push both battery release tabs away from the battery, and lift the battery out of the computer.
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Remove the two Phillips screws in the battery compartment near the latch.
Getting these screws in and out is difficult because most screwdrivers are longer then the battery compartment is deep and so will be slightly off plumb. When you go to re-assemble the computer, getting these screws to seat is one of the hardest parts of the re-assembly. It's very important to be gentle and not to strip the threads.The screw should tighten and come to a stop after 3-4 turns. If you turn 6 or more turns and don't feel it grab, then back off and try again, making sure that everything is in alignment.It might be easier to start with the left screw, because it is further away from the latch mechanism.
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Remove the four Phillips screws on the port side of the computer.
Be careful when reassembling your laptop -- do not put the screw into the DVI port! It will not come out.
Been there, done that!
I honestly don't remember how did I ultimately succeeded in getting that %#*@ screw back from the hole...by Scott Rose Jan 4 @ 11:12 PM
Be careful when reassembling your laptop -- do not put the screw into the DVI port! It will not come out.
To keep this from possibly happening, I placed 2 pieces of tape over the DVI connector pin holes.
Be careful in step 4, these two screws are shorter than the four screws in step 6, dont mix them up!
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Lift up at the rear of the case and work your fingers along the sides, freeing the case as you go. Once you have freed the sides, you may need to rock the case up and down to free the front of the upper case. This stage can be quite tricky. Over the DVD reader are 4 tabs set back which pull out vertically.
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Note that the two small tongues on the left hand front of the upper case may bend while you remove the upper case. When re-installing, you may need to bend them back to fit in the grooves in the lower case.
Quote from khank:
On my MacBook, there were no pushbuttons. Rather, two mini phillips screws were holding the case on inside the battery bay. The two screws are under two ball-bearing-like nubs that help hold the battery in the bay.
I just realized these were the screws mentioned in Step 4, which I missed originally. Did you miss step 4 too?
I discovered that I didn't need to take the case off completely. I just propped it up with a small screwdriver and was able to remove the airport card and replace it with a new one fairly easily.
That's not so difficult step. you shoul know , that front edge of upper case holding only on 5 plastic "locks" 4 in front edge upon the superdrive, 5-th near the "sleep light, open laptop button"
just lift up the rear edges of upper case to 35-40 degrees
Quote from Archhawk:
Getting the top case off, especially right above the optical drive slot was a @#$%^. !^$%. Was finally able to work it loose by twisting in the budger. Be careful.
I agree! It was really very difficult just ROCKING the front panel. NOT done! Do not pry it from the front of the unit, as the soft metal edge gets scratched! I turned the unit upside down and slowly pried the keyboard apart left-to-right from INSIDE the Battery Bay, slipping a plastic pen to keep it apart. When I finally looked at what was holding it down, it was these 5 grey&black plastic SNAP slots, and 4 of them were behind the DVD slot.
I found I had to push with a little force from underneath the battery compartment where the touch pad is located to free the bottom edge of the case. The case came away with two loud snaps. At first I thought I'd broken something, but then it appeared that it was just the plastic above the slot loading super drive that was held in very tightly and needed some encouragement.
There are several clips along the front of the case in front of trackpad and above the optical drive slot. These need to be gently levered open (eg using an old credit card), and clipped closed on reassembly. Start at the left hand side. Take care not to bend the aluminum top. When reassembling, check the top panel for kinks/bends and straighten by hand before reassembly.
The way I did it was to lift the back to about 45% (the ribbon cable is long enough) and then used the spudger to force the 4 snap tabs in front of the optical drive to separate, working from the right edge towards the middle (they will 'pop'), ending with the last tab to the left of the sleep light.
After reading all the step 9 comments I was prepared for it to be very difficult. The two bendable tabs on the left front of the case were no bigger than 1/4 inch wide each and caused no trouble taking it off or putting it back on. Lifting the cover off happened before I knew it. I was carefully lifting the cover from side to side and 'poof' it was off and the yellow ribbon attaching between the case and the keyboard was so old and brittle it parted ways without my permission so that took care of step 10 right there but no problem.
Being prepared, reading the guide, printing the guide, taping each screw to the right place on the guide made it all easy. I'm amazed it went so smooth on the first run-through. Thanks iFixit!
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Disconnect the trackpad and keyboard ribbon cable from the logic board, removing tape as necessary.
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Remove the upper case.
not necessary. just attach a string around both the screen and the keyboard. it will stay in a steady position..
-urdus.
I found that the ribbon connecting the top part of the case to the logic board wasn't long enough and the connector did have to be disconnected.
Quote from urdus:
not necessary. just attach a string around both the screen and the keyboard. it will stay in a steady position..
-urdus.
Excellent tip! Thanks, this allowed me to skip steps 10 and 11 (any unnecessary tinkering with the logic board is recommended).
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Lift the Bluetooth board out of its slot next to the hard drive and use a spudger to disconnect the Bluetooth antenna cable.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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5 other people completed this guide.
Before beginning, I found some small plastic bags and labeled each of the with the location the screws would come from once removed and the appropriate step number. Once the screws were removed I placed them in the labeled bags and did not have to worry about mixing screws up. Also, provided a good way to insure that no steps were skipped in the reverse process
rpbetancourt - Reply
If you don't have any plastic bags, you can always print out the photos in black and white as you go, and then tape the screws on to the print outs over the circles that denote the screw positions in the photos. This method helps get every single screw back in it's exact location, even months after a tear down. ;o)
Adam - Reply
Thank you very much!
Evgeniy - Reply
When I did this, I used a empty egg carton to store my screws. I wrote the steps where I removed screens in Sharpie on the bottom of the "egg cup" and then dropped the screws in as I went. Then I just worked backwards to put it all back together.
mark93 - Reply
I Generally just use a piece of paper with a rough sketch of the system and locations of the screws with prestik.
Tarn Alcock - Reply