MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Mid 2012-Early 2013) Lower Case

Il Mio Problema

battery was dying and had "service battery" alert in notifications panel

La Mia Riparazione

Went well except that the cord for the new battery was incrementally too short. It was able to plug in barely and on a slight angle, Hopefully this will be okay long-term; my concern is having to periodically open the assembly and reattach the battery cord

Il Mio Consiglio

nope

Il Mio Problema

My MBP trackpad was broken. Needed the pentalobe screwdriver to open my laptop to replace the trackpad.

La Mia Riparazione

Huge pain in the ass. On my model of macbook pro, you have to remove the batteries which are glued-in to get access to the track pad. I saw a guy on youtube use a metal scraper to do it, so I did the same thing.

Il Mio Consiglio

Use a clean, uncluttered workbench. Then condemn Apple with all your heart and soul for needlessly making this process so difficult.

Il Mio Problema

My laptop stopped being able to hold a charge. Left more than a minute unplugged the system would shutdown.

La Mia Riparazione

Easier than I expected. Strangely only 4 screws were holding the case, either the others fell out or were left out by apple repair in the past.

Now the laptop can remain operational while unplugged for long periods again.

Il Mio Consiglio

No

Il Mio Problema

My fan was making a weird noise. I didn't know if the fan motor was dying, or if some debris was the culprit. In either case, I needed to open up and have a look. Unfortunately, I didn't have the special pentalobe screwdrivers to open up my MacBook.

La Mia Riparazione

My biggest problem was that I didn't even know which tools to use, and my old set of electronics screwdrivers weren't compatible. The tutorial clarified which specific tools I needed and made it super easy to order them. I paid a boatload to have them shipped express to where I live internationally, but it was worth it because I was able to solve my fan problem very quickly. Still cheaper than going to the local Apple Store (my warranty is expired). For a less urgent problem, I would have taken slower shipping to save some $$$. But I really didn't want my hard drive to melt. :)

Il Mio Consiglio

I had a bit of a scare when I reassembled my MacBook after cleaning the fan. The computer only worked when attached to the charger, and the battery symbol on the display had a big "X" on it--meaning the battery was disconnected. And I was sure I'd reattached EVERYTHING! For a while there, I was worried I'd damaged something on the logic board during the repair. Turns out, I had simply forgotten the bit about re-plugging the battery during reassembly, since it's in a different location than the fan components. But everything was ok.

Il Mio Problema

My sister accidentally dropped her Macbook Pro Retina after owning for more than 4 years. The warranty had expired a long time ago and the people at the Mac store gave an estimate of at least $700. When my family told me about this, I told them that was ridiculous and to order a new display from ifixit.com so that I could fix it myself.

La Mia Riparazione

The disassembly was a smooth process overall. The little rubber wedges covering the screws that keep the display attached had their adhesiveness stripped in the process of removal so there was no way to put those back on during reassembly.

During reassembly, the most challenging part by far was getting the three antennae cables reconnected. This part alone took me about thirty minutes of constantly trying. My hands slightly shake and when you are dealing with connectors that small it is very frustrating.

Il Mio Consiglio

The way I was able to get the three antennae cables connected was to bend the wires just enough so that the wire remained flat with both connectors matching up exactly. This makes it much easier to connect as all you have to do is repeatedly press with the spudger until it "clicks".