Daniel Cassel

I had this problem on my iPhone 7 Plus, I read somewhere that tightening the screws by the lightning port can help. I tried and it helped a bit, but then I loosened them significantly and tightened them again - now it doesn't creak at all! Hope this helps someone else. It was getting pretty annoying and I'm really glad to have fixed it.

I had a similar problem, and a variation on the quilt-method worked for me. It appeared that the screen stopped working so I tried connecting it to an external monitor and got nothing. No startup chime, resetting PRam didn't seem to work, etc. HDD spun up, power light came on and if you close the lid it pulsed. I wrapped the bottom half of the machine in aluminum foil (not the screen), taking care to block the fan exhaust. I plugged in power and a USB mouse so I could wake it up while closed, and closed the lid. I clicked the mouse & made sure the machine was on (solid power light). Then I wrapped the whole mess in a microfiber blanket to keep it very warm, and cooked for 2-3 hours. When I came back, the machine was pretty hot. I let it cool to room temperature, turned it on, and it worked perfectly fine. I was completely blown away that this worked, and figured I should share my experience. Now I'll take it into a genius bar to see if they will agree to replace the motherboard as a courtesy. They've done...

Why does the guide recommend 5 hours?

After reading, I think this should take 30-45 minutes or possibly a bit less. Maybe I overlooked a step, or something in particular takes extra long? I’m interested to hear how this went for others who have tried.

excellent write up tho, I didn’t know there were NVME adapters available for these, awesome!

This step is REALLY helpful. I skimmed over it when disassembling and then struggled a bit trying to get the rubber gasket aligned just right.

The middle photo shows what I mean, it's exactly what I needed.

I've done this on several iMacs now, but today I noticed another layer of thin black plastic stuck to the back of the display.

It was really tough to remove and left a lot of clear, sticky goop under it.

It's really thin, but it was strong enough to hold the screen in place by itself - I reconnected the display cables and tested before pulling the backing off the new adhesive strips - and it stuck together!

I had to pry it apart again and it actually ripped my new glue strips in 2 or 3 places. I was able to still use them, but it did not go as smoothly as other iMacs I've upgraded. Everything was fine in the end, but I left some blue painters tape on the top of the screen overnight so the glue strips will set up without the screen falling off - just to be on the safe side.

Does anyone know if this last layer of black plastic on the screen should be removed or left in place when replacing the glue strips?

That is an AMAZING tip!!!

I've done about a dozen mac mini to SSD upgrades over the past few years but I've only owned a logic board removal tool for my latest upgrade.

I was struggling to get the drive pegs into the grommet, and the usual 'turn it upside down and giggle it around' trick just wasn't working for me.

I tried getting a spudger underneath the drive to lift it up into the grommet holes but there wasn't enough clearance to get any leverage.

I used the mini opening tool with one end underneath the drive, and the center portion sticking out perpendicular to the motherboard (I'll add a picture) to lift the drive up and into place.

I too heard the satisfying click and it was glorious...

THANK you so much for the idea to use the logic board removal tool. It's now a permanent fixture in my new iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit (which is TOTALLY worth the money btw).

This guide is almost perfect aside from the omission of a picture of that well-hidden adhesive. I've seen it on other Apple SATA connectors, but it's been a few months and I didn't think about it today.

Please someone upload a picture of the adhesive on the PCB side of the drive. I'll gladly do it myself when I next open a 2014 Mac Mini, but I've no idea when I'll get to open another one.

I also struggled mightily for about 15 minutes before finding the small black tape. Like a jerk, I forgot to take close up pictures while I had it apart :-

I was probably 5 minutes away from breaking off the SATA connector by prying too hard using a spudger on each edge of the cable.

If anyone has pictures, hopefully they can upload here to help out others.

This mac mini was significantly different from previous minis I've worked on, the guide saved me A LOT of time.

Thanks for the great writeup!

I did this procedure in 2012 and it was a total disaster, even though I'm exceedingly patient and love tinkering with difficult repairs.

My heat gun overheated the display, so all the edges (about 1.5in in from each outer edge) were much much darker than the rest of the screen forever after that.

The glass cracked while removing it - I couldn't get any edge/corner to come up without shattering. I ended up spending hours chipping away hot shards of broken glass - total nightmare.

I started out with just a bad cable, and ended up having to buy replacement LCD, glass, and of course the cable.

Since then I always simply buy new/used top clamshell assembly with everything included, it's much easier and safer and ultimately cheaper - especially if doing this for a client or business-use machine.

The only way I'd attempt this again is if I was unemployed and broke and it was my only computer and somehow just didn't have any other options whatsoever - I can't imagine a scenario that would get me to try this again.