MacBook Core 2 Duo Clutch Cover Replacement

I used this guide plus the Thermal Paste guide to resolve my MacBook RRS (Random Restart Syndrome) issue. My MacBook would randomly restart after the fan kicked into high speed. When I removed the heatsink I discovered an an irregular patch completely free of thermal compound of about 15-20% of the area on one of the processors. I removed and re-applied the thermal paste. I ran a memory test utility overnight that previously caused a restart after a couple of hours, and the probelm seems to be solved. TIme will tell.

This guide was seriously helpful, so thanks for putting this together. I found a thick ribbon of dust/muck whatever between the fan outlet and the exhaust port that was almost as dense as felt. My fan must have been fighting like crazy trying to pass air through that blockage, which explains the high temps and excessive fan noise. Wish I'd done this sooner...

Thanks again!

Just R&R'ed the fan in my black MacBook Core 2 Duo tonight. Took me 30 minutes tops and I was taking my time. These instructions are SPOT ON! Great job ifixit.com! Two thumbs up!

Follow the instructions exactly as you see and have a piece of paper taped to the table next to you that you can outline all the screws you took out so you know where they go back in. I expected this to be a LOT harder, but it was one of the simplest repairs I've ever done to ANY computer!

I just replaced the battery as indicated (with a iFixit part), but the computer says there is no battery connected, even after letting the power plug in for more than one hour.

I think I found the way to have the new battery to charge!!!!!

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRYIMDQx....

Essentially, you have to follow a very precise order: 1/shut down the computer, 2/take off the magsafe connector, 3/remove the old battery, 4/put back the magsafe connector, 5/put the new battery, 6/power on, each time leaving a few seconds in between.

please pay attention that screws are native to metal pieces otherwise you are going to be a stupid like me trying to unscrew unsuccessfully until I reread the guide

Lay the screws out in a ”timeline” like a circle, Then when you reassemble just start from the end of the “timeline”

The screws have to unscrewing positions, first they unscrew from the whole body BUT if you move the lid without entirely removing the screws, they will remain attached to the lid. This I find much more recomendable!

That looks so easy!

I couldn't get the top two 11mm screws to come out, even with a magnetized driver. When I tried to keep unscrewing them, they clicked like they were spring mounted, and I didn't have any trouble leaving them in and continuing on.

Zitat von ryan64:

I couldn't get the top two 11mm screws to come out, even with a magnetized driver. When I tried to keep unscrewing them, they clicked like they were spring mounted, and I didn't have any trouble leaving them in and continuing on.

I use a strong magnet to pull the screws out of their socket.

The top two screws didn't seem to want to come out, and I saw no reason they had to, so I left them there, put a little piece of tape over each so they wouldn't fall out.

On this step, I encountered a problem. The middle screw was screwed in very very tightly. As a result, I ended up stripping the screw despite being very careful. I tried to use a wire cutter to remove the screw, but that did not work. I actually ended up using the wirecutter to cut the bracket off, leaving the screw screwed in. This did not affect anything. I am typing off of my replace macbook top case right now.

The point is, BE CAREFUL! but if something does go wrong, don't fret. There are solutions.

On a Macbook I just tore down, I found that in this step, the 4mm screw was on the left, not the right. I thought maybe someone else had it apart before and accidentally switched them so in staying true to these instructions I tried to reassemble with the 4mm screw on the right. I found it would not go all the way in. I ended up putting it back together with the 2-3mm screws on the right and the 1-4mm screw on the left.

The steps do not tell you what length screw that is needed to be here. What I can tell you that is the screw needs to be 5mm or 6mm, NOT 7.5 or 8mm or 9mm.

Screwdriver PH0

For black 2.2GHz A1181, I used PH #000 as suggested by guide. My screws are both 6mm.

I used PH0 for this

Is there a way I can cut the bracket off? I completely stripped one of the screws?

Outer screws (red) are shorter (7mm long), while inner screws (orange) are 11mm.

I found these screws quite loose; upon reassembly, I wanted to torque them but found the case would distort towards the center, so I had to leave them fairly loose

Thank you ifixit, it was huge help for me, I did it and everything just works great.....THANK YOU!

As is reported above, there a 4 friction tabs that connect to the keyboard. If they do not stay in place and stick to the keyboard, the keyboard will not go back on. Just remove them and put them in the clips, with the solid clip wall to the outside of the unit, and put the keyboard back on. Do this before reconnecting the keyboard.

When changing the topcase remember to change the sticker with the serial also! This might be important when further service or bigger repairs by apples service are needed. The serial also helps you with identifying your macbook!

The entire connector broke off the logic board when I was disconnecting the keyboard just now. Be extremely careful!

I tried to remove the blacktab from the logic board, however, the black tab tore apart. The logic board is okay but the keyboard connector is torn. It has some silver wires passing through a whit plastic housing. It is the first generation of MacBook Core Duo. Do you think it can be repaired?

Note, if you’ve already installed an optical/SATA adapter, and you’re doing this just to replace the SATA drive, then you might be able to skip almost all of the following steps. It seems that for the sort of adapter described in this guide (with the drive secured by a plastic positioner), you should be able to leave pretty much everything in place, and swap out the SATA drive (though you might need to move the Bluetooth antenna holder out of the way).

Unfortunately for me, mine is a different kind of adapter, with the drive secured by screws from the underside, so I still had to go through almost all the steps to get the adapter out. I can’t even remember where I got the adapter. I think it was probably from iFixit, but it might have been a different, earlier version.

Backstory is that I put an SSD in the adapter a few years back to replace a dead optical drive. And it worked with the extra drive, but it seemed to function slowly, at optical-drive rather than SSD speed. Recently, the machine stopped detecting the extra hard-drive. I don’t know why. My guess is that in an upgrade something changed in how the kernel detects devices, and it got confused by an SSD being where it expected an optical drive. (I’m running Debian GNU/Linux, it being the only way I can run up-to-date software on a machine no longer supported by Apple, and I’m a Free Software enthusiast anyway.) Your mileage may vary… Because the SATA drive wasn’t being detected, and I needed access to the data on it, I had no choice for the time being but to take out the SSD and go back to a single-drive machine. The main drive is SSD, and I’ve upgrade to the max 6GB RAM, so it’s still a pretty useful machine.

I’m planning to put the adapter back in, just in case the void would be bad for cooling air-flow.

After installing the caddy successfully, I could not make the screw on the right fit in again. The distance between the hole and the caddy seemed to be too big.

Pull straight up from the left

Pull the connector firmly straight up.

I have found over the years that a connector puller is invaluable in these situations. I believe that I bought mine from iFixit. In steps 16 and 17 you'll have to partially de-route two cables at the base of the connectors in order to get a good grip with the connector puller.

This step is not necessary

Left Off Here

When reconnecting the Hard Drive Cable to the logic board (Step 17) I ran the HD cable on top of the microphone wire, and the other wire that runs parallel to it, when I should have run the HD cable underneath those two wires. This resulted in the hard drive not being connected on startup, and a lengthy troubleshooting session to figure this out. So save some time and install this underneath the two wires, just like you found it when taking it apart!

I was gently pulling up the tape with a spudger, but the tape snapped clean in half right at the edge of the optical drive. I'm really pretty surprised because I see no reason why it would have done that.

Leave the foil on the fan side cause you’ll be taking it off the optical drive anyway

I had to unscrew a screw securing flat ribbons keeping cables in position between beeper and fan to reach for the dvd screw

After removing the screw gently push the metal tong (which the screw was holding) towards the fan. This will unlock the drive mount.

Please add this notes to the actual step. I missed the comments and bent the bracket.

If you don’t have the c-channel it seems you can skip steps 24, 25, and 26.

Santa Rosa and Penryn use a #000 phillips for the speaker screw.

I find it very strange that it’s omitted, but to deroute the microphone cable, you will have to unscrew the cable right next to (above) it. At least, I had to. It’s not hard, but you can’t deroute the microphone cable without derouting the other cable.

Make sure to remember that this screw is removed when reassembling!

Is the silver wire really the microphone? I noticed wear right down to the wire on mine, and the macbook often has yellow/goofy looking screen, then adjusting the angle helps.

On my Penryn model, it helped to deroute the data display cable and the microphone cable from under the tabs of the subwoofer by loosening the two Phillips screws to the right of the speaker.

The ground screw also holds down a ground loop that is part of the speaker cable. The two loops may be stuck together so you need to carefully separate them.

Don't pry the plastic connector from the board, but rather, the plastic connector is two pieces. Separate them.

For the MacBook Core 2 Duo Santa Rosa/Penryn: the inverter cable is a bit tricky. I was fooled into thinking that there were pins which went INTO the inverter cable. Because of this, I was afraid of lifting up on the cable (off the board), but this is what you actually must do to separate them.

For clarification, here's a pic (low-res, sorry) of the inverter cable disconnected from it's on-board plug: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_l0f6yKkaxDU/S0FOHS...

The inverter connector comes off vertically from the motherboard.

I have the regular (not Santa Rosa/Penryn) model, and instead of a 6mm Phillips screw on the left, it was a 5mm Phillips screw. It didn’t make a difference, however.

I tried this last night and the screen fell backward, cracking the components of the hinge. Be careful and support the screen here once you unscrew the hinges!

What is that plastic hinge thingie called in step 34. The piece broke and I'd like to replace that.

Can anyone else confirm what I’ve written below?…

In my macbook, which is the regular (not Santa Rosa/Penryn) model, the longest 10mm screw is the same, but the middle screw and the right screw are both approximately 5mm. However, the middle screw is fatter/wider and the right screw is thinner.

Also, when reassembling, make sure all three screws are easily screwed in before tightening each one. The hinge mount that you’re fastening down will wiggle a bit before being fully tightened down, possibly causing the screw holes to not line up!

For those wishing to go further into the LCD, the steps are identical to the MB CD, see this repair guide for more:

MacBook Core Duo Inverter Replacement

When you go to replace the bezel, look at the back side and disconnect any of the little snap-on tabs that may not have stayed in the metal bracket around the LCD. On a white MacBook they were grey, about 4mm x 8mm. They work best if you put them into the metal frame separate from the bezel and then snap the bezel into them.

The best way to remove them seemed to be by placing my thumb over one edge (so they didn’t fly off) and prying with a thin, flat screwdriver flat against the bezel tab.

Hello I've seen a video on Youtube where the guy skipped all the previous steps and got to the inverter without taking the screen off. Seems like it saves a lot of time and potential problems, since I have never done anything like this. Does anyone recommend doing it? I see it's more accessible to just try to get to the inverter without taking the screen off first.

A note for anyone panicking because they can't get their front bezel back on:

It is common for the grey clips holding the bezel to the display to come up along with the bezel. If you have ANY grey clips attached to the back of your bezel, in order to replace the bezel you need to first remove the clips from the bezel and reinsert them into the holes in the display panel manually first! Once all of these clips are back in place, the bezel can be reattached.

These clips are very fragile and if you are having this problem odds are you have already severely bent some of them. Check the tiny plastic clasps and if they are squashed down, gently pry them back up with your fingernail. Again these grey clips are very fragile, so use care in reattaching them.

This was a very helpful tip. I made the mistake at first when reading your note, thinking that the gray clips were supposed to be on the bezel, not the display, but quickly corrected that.

For anyone confused, the bezel is the thin plastic part surrounded the display, and the display of course houses the LCD.

Another note:

The easiest way to remove the clips from the bezel is from the side and pry up. To reattach them to the display, put one end of the clip in first, and then use tweezers to poke in the other end of the clip.

Zitat von WillyDavidK:

A note for anyone panicking because they can't get their front bezel back on:

It is common for the grey clips holding the bezel to the display to come up along with the bezel. If you have ANY grey clips attached to the back of your bezel, in order to replace the bezel you need to first remove the clips from the bezel and reinsert them into the holes in the display panel manually first! Once all of these clips are back in place, the bezel can be reattached.

These clips are very fragile and if you are having this problem odds are you have already severely bent some of them. Check the tiny plastic clasps and if they are squashed down, gently pry them back up with your fingernail. Again these grey clips are very fragile, so use care in reattaching them.

I found that an easy way to remove the clips from the bezel is to use a plastic knife (knife as in the utensil). Sliding the knife under one of the clip's long sides and prying upwards worked well for me. Thanks MC25 and WillyDavidK for the tips, they worked great!

The plastic clips deform easily, making it difficult to reuse them. The tabs on the back of the bezel that fit into the clips also break off easily.

If any of the tabs or clips are omitted, the bezel will not lie flush nor will it hold the cables that run beneath it in place.

Wear gloves while wrangling with the white bezel—like the white topcase, the matte-finish plastic is very porous and quickly gets grubby.

In this picture you can see that it is a Nikon camera that was used for this guide. :)

There are little clips at each end of the clutch cover, and I found it helpful first to lift the clutch cover off the metal rod first, and after that squeeze the cables at each end between the clips, so you can lift the cover off.

Pay attention here. I missed the part about pinching the cable and that's exactly what I did. It helps to pull the video and mic cables tight to fit the clutch cover on. I also had to make sure the pink/white cables were up and out of the way. When I did it correctly, it slid in pretty easily. It would help to really look at how things are arranged when you are taking it apart, too. There's some tabs that interconnect with the plastic sliding things you removed in steps 46-47.