Fixing it myself was faster than driving to the Apple store

Il Mio Problema

My laptop SuperDrive stopped burning DVDs, which is kind of important to me. The Apple store would have taken 2-3 business days to repair. I use the laptop for business so taking 2-3 days off just because of a laptop repair was a nonstarter.

La Mia Riparazione

It went surprisingly quick -- the only uh-oh moment was when I tried to disconnect the audio connector by pulling on the wires and ended up pulling the wires out of the connector. I was able to reinsert them using a really fine pair of tweezers and an eye loupe.

The entire upgrade took about an hour, which is about the amount of time it would take me to drive to and from the Apple store. And I was able to repair it on the weekend when it was convenient.

Il Mio Consiglio

Buy the packet of screws before beginning -- it's super easy to lose one. Be sure you have some decent quality tools, an eye loupe, industrial quality tweezers (I'm not kidding), good screwdrivers. Consider them an investment.

I have pretty good dexterity and eyesight -- even so I found this to be a bit of a challenge. The instructions at iFixit were perfect.