maccentric

It looks like the wifi hardware is soldered on the board for this machine. Any fixes that don’t require replacing the...

As title says, the Macbook doesn’t recognize that the keyboard or trackpad are connected. The trackpad also no longer...

I have a 2014 13" Macbook Air that needs a new mobo, and it appears that the 2013 and 2015 motherboards might be...

I would also like to know how to test the power supply. Sure I could buy another one from a good supply house per Dan's suggestion, but I have 2 here now and I know the outlet and cable are good (works with other PCs and iMacs). What I don't know is why I have no LEDs lit up on the motherboard. Can they be tested using a multimeter? Thanks.

This likely indicates a graphics chip failure and need for a new motherboard. Very common in the 2011 Macbook Pro series, but apparently also affects some retina display models too. Repair extension from Apple https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/ Sadly they no longer repair the 2011’s.

It is not a total reboot, it just turns on the machine. That said, unplugging the battery and the power for a bit (30 mins?) should accomplish an SMC reset.

The Accepted Answer refers to a post which replaces the optical drive with an SSD so that the iMac has both an SSD and HDD. To answer your question, there is no 3.5" SSD drive form factor. What you want is a 2.5" SATA SSD, which you will place in a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter. Because of the length of the cables, you want one that won't just hold the drive in place but puts the connections where they belong, such as the Icy Dock EzConvert.

Good catch, looks like I misread the original post. I was responding to the sentence "In order to put a SSD into an iMac that isn't a 27" or a 2011 21.5" then you need a optibay." This is true only if you wish to retain the original HDD, which was the case, but as I said, I misread the somewhat awkwardly worded original post. That said, prices for 512GB SSDs are getting near $200 these days and will continue to fall. Considering the speed increase and reliabilty of SSDs vs HDDs, I am finding it harder to justify the cost savings of HDDs lately.

The top case is a bit different as well. The are screw holes for the subwoofer on the 2010 which the earlier model lacks, and the bluetooth antennae on the 2010 has a piece of metal that looks like it attaches to the frame (glued?). The older model has a thin black plastic material covering that area (which appears to be cut away on the newer one, but I couldn't find any info on removing it and didn't want to mess it up so I left it in place. HTH someone.

Thanks for the tip! I also had to remove that screw to get the board out.

Unbelievable how much teardown is required to replace a speaker.

If you are just replacing the hard drive, I have found that it is quite possible to do while leaving the screen connected, making the process much easier. The amount you need to tilt the screen to access the little pull tabs at the bottom to release the screen is also sufficient to access the drive. I remove the drive while the iMac is upright. I also heat up the bottom of the screen to soften the glue and to help with the possibility of the glass cracking while doing this step.

I would not recommend doing this step as pictured. The cable you are removing has little tabs on the wide side that can be depressed inwards towards the center of the connector, releasing the cable. If you just grab the cable as pictured and yank it out, without depressing the side tabs, you are likely to damage something. Don’t pull on the wires, use your fingernails at the connector to squeeze the very small little tabs inward to release the cable from the connector.

Agreed, might as well just remove it to be safe, you’ve removed everything else and it’s just 6 more screws and 5 minutes time.

Unfortunately you will need to do this if you have 2 drives installed in the Mini.

If your mini has 2 drives installed, you will not be able to slide the top drive out as it won’t clear the RAM slot due to the other drive underneath. You will need to scootch the logic board out a bit to get the drive out, and then back in. If only Apple had made these things .25” longer it would have been so much easier.

You probably had just an SSD installed and no HD, which is on the opposite side of the motherboard (and quite a bit more work to access).

If the first thing you do is disconnect the battery, is it really an issue if you don’t (or can’t) disable auto-boot?

The translucent plastic on those screws is the adhesive that holds the rubber hinge covers in place. Sometimes it stays attached to the hinge cover, sometimes it stays on the screws.