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Easy fan, sticky battery - success!

Martin Costabel -

MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Mid 2012

MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Mid 2012 Left Fan Replacement

MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Mid 2012 Left Fan Replacement

20 minutes - 1 hour

Moderate

My Problem

The battery in my 4 year old MacBook Pro was acting up - erratically switching off although still 40% full, diminishing uptime, and telling me it needed "servicing". Since there is no Apple store in this part of the world, I went to a certified Apple repair shop where they told me "You can leave your laptop here, but it will be 10 days before anyone will look at it. And no,before having looked at it we can't give you an estimate for the price and time it will take."

In the meantime one of the fans became noisy, perhaps after I dropped the 'Book on the floor (carpet-covered, so there was nothing broken, only the noisy fan, annoying in an otherwise completely silent machine).

After some discussions with friends and colleagues and a lengthy visit to the iFixit web site, in particular on the question whether it will even be possible to replace the glued-in battery, plus a trip to the basement to verify that I had a bottle of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) available, I ordered a left fan, a battery and a collection of little tools from iFixit.

My Fix

The first positive surprise was the speed of delivery, less than 2 days from California to the west of France.: I ordered on Tuesday afternoon, and on Thursday morning the packet was at my doorstep. And on Thursday night, everything was fixed.

The easy part was the left fan. There is a detailed guide with pictures from iFixit, and this must be one of the simplest parts to replace; no other part has to be removed to get at it. Opening up a PowerBook with the right tools is much easier now than it was 12 years ago when I last did a DIY replacement on my iBook (lime green "toilet seat" model, much loved).

As for the battery, it is glued in, and the official advice, even from iFixit, is that you cannot do it yourself, unless you want to replace half of the casing of the laptop and pay around 500$. But I came across a discussion

<Has anybody tried heat to loosen battery glue?>

with a link to a video from byteguys.co.uk where they show how it can be done, involving IPA and a syringe, plus a lot of patience. One has to be careful, constantly prying with some force without breaking the plastic tools nor any computer parts,repeatedly squirting IPA underneath the battery without piercing it and starting a fire.

It took me about an hour, but it worked.

Then 5 minutes for putting the new battery in (it comes with glue strips) and closing everything up. and now my PowerBook is as good as new.

Thanks iFixit!

My Advice

My advice is: before you start, spend enough time looking at the experience of others, until you feel confident whom you can trust.

And get the right tools for the task, it makes a big difference.

MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Mid 2012-Early 2013) Left Fan Image
MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Mid 2012-Early 2013) Left Fan

$44.99

MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Mid 2012-Early 2013) Battery Image
MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Mid 2012-Early 2013) Battery

$89.99

Spudger Image
Spudger

$3.99

T5 Torx Screwdriver Image
T5 Torx Screwdriver

$5.49

P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver Retina MacBook Pro and Air Image
P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver Retina MacBook Pro and Air

$5.99

iFixit Opening Tool Image
iFixit Opening Tool

$1.99

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