BobY

No, you are correct. You don’t need to unplug the fan, only lift the one edge of the fan to route the camera cable properly. You don’t need to do anything to the I/O board and its’ cables—except for the one ribbon cable, as it covers the camera connector.

I would say it took me about 40 minutes for the first swap and about 30 minutes for the second swap (note, if you look at my comments on each step, I found several steps (which were complicated and fraught with peril) unnecessary. I actually spent more time testing the functionality of the computer to make sure everything was working (display, camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, Power port, speakers, headphones, internal and external microphones, USB Ports and SD card slot), than I did performing the swap. I could have skipped that, but I always verify my work.

I had a bit of a comedy of errors, but in the end, all was well. This was for a MacBook Air with a display that would go crazy if you flexed the top lid at all. I had no trouble installing the first replacement display I got from iFixit, but it turned out the Camera was defective internally and the image was blurry, so they sent me another display.

This time I decided to check the function of the camera and the display before going to the trouble of swapping out the display. They both worked fine, but somehow in the process of this delicate balancing act of two displays in each other’s way, I bent the display connector on the new display. I didn’t bend it much, but when I reconnected it, it no longer worked. Arrgh! Fortunately iFixit is dedicated to successful repairs and went out of their way to help me reach a happy conclusion.

Absolutely! Also, pay attention to the orientation of the thin bracket which is clamped to the cable for when you reassemble the computer. There are wrong ways to put it on.

You can clearly see this thin bracket in the photo of Step 14 mounted on the two right-most screws of the hinge.

I didn’t find any need to remove the fan. I had no trouble routing the camera cable between the fan and the I/O board by just tilting the edge of the fan nearest the I/O board up and out of the way (pretty much what is being shown in the picture above).

Note this is not telling you remove the gasket, just separate it from the fan.

It’s not too bad once you know the trick: since there are two antennas (WiFi and Bluetooth) running together side-by-side within the cable sleeve, the profile of the cable is not round, but oblong. If you try to push the oblong face of the antenna cable into the slots cast into the metal case you will drive yourself crazy—the cable won’t go in without a lot of effort and will likely pop out when you try to insert the cable into the next slot.

If you orient the cable such that the narrow face is pointing up and down, the cable will pretty much go right in using a spudger.

As I mentioned in previous steps, I didn’t find any need to do this.

As I mentioned in previous steps, I didn’t find a need to do any of this.

As I mentioned in previous steps, I didn’t find a need to do any of this.