Cutting grass on the weekends with my MacBook Pro.

Mijn probleem

My late 2008 MBP doubled as a lawnmower. At least it sounded like it did. The left-sided fan made such an awful noise and it was impossible to get any work done, especially since I'm a screen writer and do most of my writing in the late hours when peace and quiet are a must. After using a piece of software to monitor and regulate fan speed there was a noticeable difference between the left and right fan, with the right fan going along normally but the left fan never reaching close to the required speed. Something needed to be done. Replacing the fan was the obvious solution.

Mijn oplossing

The first thing I would say is that the service was exceptional. Ordering on Monday morning from Ireland, the required parts and tools were here just two days later on Wednesday morning. I cannot fault the quickness of delivery.

Nor can I fault the instructions provided on iFixit. The idea of opening up your laptop can be a frightening one. But it was pretty easy. My biggest scare moment came when I took out the first screw and realised I needed somewhere to put it. Seriously, the biggest issue with this repair is making sure not to lose the screws.

There is a second issue when it comes to unplugging the fan from the motherboard but careful application of the spudger made this very easy work.

I did spend about 5 minutes trying to plug the replacement fan in before in an embarrassing moment that thankfully nobody say, I realised I had the little plug thing going the wrong way. Oops. And that was it. Putting the covers back on was a breeze.

In total the repair probably took about 15 minutes and only because I went really slowly, not wanting to lose screws or go insane and pour sulfuric acid over the laptop. Unfortunately I took no photos as I was concentrating solely on the repair though the photos provided in the instruction guide do the job quite nicely.

Booting up the MacBook Pro once everything was finished did bring a little moment of trepidation. It seemed to take a minute for the replacement fan to kick into gear but once it did...silence. Beautiful silence. My side gig cutting grass with the faulty fan is no more but I now have a new fan that's running quite smoothly.

Mijn advies

I think the only piece of advice really needed, and this goes for any repair really, is make sure when you remove screws you have somewhere to put them and you are able to categorize them. There are so many different kinds of screws involved in various repairs it's important not to lose track.

Incidentally, when I opened up my MacBook Pro to remove the left fan, I noticed that the right-sided fan was also beginning to look a little worn. I'm sure that in the near future I will be back on to iFixit for that particular fan.

Fans tend to wear out. I tend to do a lot of editing on my MacBook Pro which makes the fan work extra hard. So my advice, whether you're in need of a repair or not, is to constantly monitor your fans. Open up the machine every now and again and make sure they aren't being worn out. If they are, get yourself a replacement. Even if you don't need to replace it straight away it's handy to have it there.