MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2010 Teardown

Geschrieben von: Walter Galan
Veröffentlicht: 14/04/10
  • Kommentare: 40

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2010 Teardown

Veröffentlicht: 14/04/10

Teardown

Einleitung

Stay tuned for an exciting look into one of Apple's latest revision of its MacBook Pro line, the Intel Core i5 MacBook Pro.

We gutted the Core i5 on April 14, 2010.

  1. BNgsYkkJJTEVJIsP

    • Apple's need for faster and better processors has led it to incorporate Core i5s and i7s into its latest lineup of MacBook Pros.

    • Our new MacBook Pro's specifications:

    • 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 with 3 MB shared level 3 cache

    • 4 GB of 1066 MHz DD3 SDRAM

    • 15.4 inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display

    • Intel HD Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 256 MB of GDD3 RAM

    So, what are the chances that the motherboard for this model would be interchangable with the previous model for an easy upgrade?

    aric caley -

    Well i stuffed up. My screwdriver was not magnetic so i lost one of the small screws. While i hunt is there anywhere i could buy one or a set?

    Stuart Singleton -

    Sooo helpful!!!!!!

    Seraj Mobin -

    i need ic audio controller ?

    Tony Moreno -

  2. POyUSxnUPTjUYSbu

    • Apple is still using the model number A1286 for the new MacBook Pro. We'll have to find a new way to differentiate this laptop from previous models.

    • Perhaps Model A1286 Core i5? Only time will tell.

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    • Removing the rear cover will get things going.

    • Servicing the battery is not super easy due to the fact that you need a Tri-point screwdriver to get it out of the machine.

    What size of tri-wing screw driver is needed?

    charlie dropbox -

    Zitat von charlie dropbox:

    What size of tri-wing screw driver is needed?

    Same question from me. Just bought the new MacBook Pro, and I want to get a triwing screwdriver to remove the back case for hard drive replacement.

    I have 6 screwdrivers sets, nice ones, but no triwing bits.

    Slackitude -

    Zitat von charlie dropbox:

    What size of tri-wing screw driver is needed?

    iFixit has two bit driver kits, both which contain the Y0 bit necessary to remove the screw:

    54 piece kit

    26 piece kit

    Brady Cabe -

    Zitat von Brady Cabe:

    iFixit has two bit driver kits, both which contain the Y0 bit necessary to remove the screw:

    Excellent! Thank you Brady.

    charlie

    charlie dropbox -

    Are the tri-wing screws actually holding the back, or are these only for the battery retainer? The online instructions Apple makes available for HD replacement for the 17" i7 (here) say you only need a #00 Phillips.

    Eric Tiffany -

    Zitat von Eric Tiffany:

    Are the tri-wing screws actually holding the back, or are these only for the battery retainer? The online instructions Apple makes available for HD replacement for the 17" i7 (here) say you only need a #00 Phillips.

    Eric,

    The back only needs the Phillips. If you want to remove the battery, you would need the triwing bits.

    charlie

    charlie dropbox -

    Bought! Thanks. Now I have 6 nice screwdriver sets. :-)

    Zitat von Brady Cabe:

    iFixit has two bit driver kits, both which contain the Y0 bit necessary to remove the screw:

    54 piece kit

    26 piece kit

    Slackitude -

    Zitat von Jason G:

    Bought! Thanks. Now I have 6 nice screwdriver sets. :-)

    Oops, now I have 7.

    Slackitude -

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    • Taking off the rear cover reveals a machine that is not very exciting or different from earlier MacBook Pro models.

    • As usual, there's a sticker warning against removing the battery. Por qué, Apple?

    That might be the reason why there is a warning about the removal of the battery:

    https://ocroquette.wordpress.com/2012/09...

    ocroquette -

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    • Silly sticker... You can't stop us!

    • For some odd reason, Apple has stopped using five-point Torx screws found on other MBP 15" Unibodies in favor of Tri-point screws. Try as you may, Apple, you won't win. We got all the screwdrivers right here.

    • The battery is now rated at 77.5 Wh. That's just a tad bit more than the 73 Wh battery found in last year's 15" model, but not enough to explain the 1-2 hour battery life improvement Apple is claiming for this machine.

    • Perhaps they optimized the Pro's power consumption?

    Ditto on the request for Tri-Wing size. Just ordered a new 1TB HD, and I want to have the right tool on hand when it gets here.

    tarabella -

    Zitat von tarabella:

    Ditto on the request for Tri-Wing size. Just ordered a new 1TB HD, and I want to have the right tool on hand when it gets here.

    iFixit has two bit driver kits, both which contain the Y0 bit necessary to remove the screw:

    54 piece kit

    26 piece kit

    Brady Cabe -

    Do you have to remove the battery to replace the hard drive? I see a pull-tab on the drive, does it angle up?

    John Rork -

    Only two philips screws hold down the HD. Then you need a small torx to remove the 4 studs on the edges of the HD.

    Zitat von John Rork:

    Do you have to remove the battery to replace the hard drive? I see a pull-tab on the drive, does it angle up?

    tarabella -

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    • The Wi-Fi/Bluetooth board location is one of the few major changes made to the new model.

    • Its layout closely resembles that of the MacBook Unibody.

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    • Removing the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly first requires disconnecting the three antenna connectors with a plastic spudger.

    • A single screw is all that's left holding the assembly in place.

    • Two more screws need to be removed to separate the AirPort Express card.

  8. HHJmWYjIcCWMcJvP

    Is there extra space in the clutch cover now that they moved the card? Did they put an antenna in its place?

    femtoflash -

    I would like to know if the battery is interchangeable with the previous 15" MBP, ie Can you put the NEW battery into the old MBP & will it charge to the higher capacity & if so BMARK to see if its a worthy upgrade to the older battery.

    If & when you do the 13" MBP tear down this is a must know the answer to question too please!

    Steve Hardy -

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    • The connectors as viewed, from left to right:

    • Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antenna

    • Camera cable

    • Optical drive

    • Speaker wires

    • Hard drive

    • Due to the redesign of the AirPort/Bluetooth interface, its connections are no longer integrated into the camera cable, greatly decreasing the size of the connector.

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    • With the antenna out of the way, the optical drive can be removed.

    • The new MacBook Pro uses the same Seagate hard drive from the previous model.

    Does the HD bay still support 12.5mm drives?

    chico sajovic -

    Will the MCE OptiBay drive mount fit like in the older model?

    tarabella -

    What screws / connectors must be be removed to get the hard drive out? I don't want to remove more than I need to.

    Slackitude -

    Can you put a 12.5mm hdd in here?

    Chris Holt -

    W801480XAGU - MacBook Pro 15-inch Mid-2010 - Limited Warranty

    Telephone Technical Support: Active

    Your product is eligible for complimentary telephone technical support during the first 90 days.

    Estimated Expiration Date: July 13, 2010

    Repairs and Service Coverage: Active

    Your product is covered for eligible hardware repairs and service under Apple's Limited Warranty.

    Estimated Expiration Date: April 13, 2011

    Thought it was fun to check the warranty on the MacBook Pro iFixit worked on.

    Thank you so much to iFixit, especially to Luke and Kyle for great idea and great repair guides! iFixit, vFixit, We save the World!

    Chubby -

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    • Removing the speaker and subwoofer assembly requires removing four measly screws holding it on the upper case.

    • Apple changed the design of this speaker assembly slightly, moving from a single plastic enclosure to separate plastic enclosures for the speaker & subwoofer that are connected by the speaker leads.

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    • Since the AirPort/Bluetooth board is mounted inside the all-metal case of this machine, Apple added an antenna that is mounted on the frame for the optical drive opening. Pretty clever!

    • This antenna is not found on the MacBook Unibody, probably because the case of that machine is plastic and blocks less RF transmission & reception.

    Is this antenna just for Bluetooth or is is part of a tri-MIMO 802.11n setup? Also, do you happen to know where the other two antennas are located in the display? Are the antennas band-specific (dedicated/separate 2.4 and 5 GHz antennas)? Info could be useful for optimizing reception...

    femtoflash -

    Zitat von femtoflash:

    Is this antenna just for Bluetooth or is is part of a tri-MIMO 802.11n setup? Also, do you happen to know where the other two antennas are located in the display? Are the antennas band-specific (dedicated/separate 2.4 and 5 GHz antennas)? Info could be useful for optimizing reception...

    One of the antennas is dedicated for bluetooth. The radio used from broadcom only supports MIMO 2x2.

    http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireles...

    Andre -

    On step 11 of the Macbook it is mentioned:

    "All three antenna cables appear to route into the display assembly. This may be an improvement for Bluetooth range, since on previous MacBooks the Bluetooth antenna was located above the optical drive and not inside the display assembly."

    Is this new antenna on MBP connected to the same port (J?) on the Airport board than the one routed into the display assembly above mentioned? It seams that this antenna is being used for bluetooth only and the other two remaining for WiFi (2,4 and 5 Ghz). Is that correct? If so, there will not be any WiFi radio performance improvement compared to previous MBP.

    enriqueroitman -

    How does this piece get removed? It seems like there is glue or something holding it in. I removed the one screw holding it, but it won't budge.. any help??

    Zach -

    I had the same question and after hours of searching the net I couldn't find an answer. The replacement part I purchased from China, which was supposed to be brand new yet was obviously not, lacked this antenna. So I tried sliding an iSesamo blade underneath, got about halfway and stopped for fear of damaging the thin metal plate. Next I doused it with goo gone and tried to slide it under again, but that didn't help at all. Finally, I hit it with a heat gun at about 300F and it came out pretty easily by continuing to slide the blade all the way through. The glue was still pretty sticky and held it in place on the new case.

    Hope this helps someone...

    maccentric -

    I am so happy I am finding this now. The 2012 MacBook Pro 15” has essentially the same bluetooth antenna setup. I accidentally broke the wire and found a replacement, but could not figure out how to uninstall the broken one. I’m gonna borrow a heat gun and get that glue softened up, so I can take it out and replace it.

    Adam Wilson -

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    • After removing the two cooling fans and disconnecting many connectors, the logic board and DC-In board can be removed as one piece.

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    • The logic board and heat sink assembly by itself.

    • The speaker, microphone, and port layout are unchanged from previous MBP 15" Unibody machines.

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    • Intel Core i5 processor with integrated graphics.

    • NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M. The OS switches to the NVIDIA graphics for higher demand applications.

    • Intel BD82HM55 S LGZS Platform Controller Hub. Interestingly enough, the hub is not connected to the heat sink. Apparently, enough heat is convected from the surface of the silicon to remove the small amount of heat generated by the graphics switching operations.

    Great job. Can you do one with the 17inch i& and 13inch MBP?

    Nicholas Ouimet -

    You make a misstake in Step 15

    You put the wrong link, it`s sending to http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gef...

    But must to send here:

    http://www.nvidia.ru/object/product_gefo...

    dimazhukovets -

    Very few pieces placed on an angle any more as was in the previous unibody MBPs. Maybe a cost saving move?

    Mike Hopkins -

    The MBP 15" Unibody i5 comes with two possible screen resolutions (1400x900 and 1680x1050). Which logic board is this one? Are the logic boards the same for both (i.e. is the LVDS connector the same and it's just a different LCD screen installed?)

    Brent -

    The intel processor has a socket? is it possible removing the i5 processor for future upgrades??? what does it mean that the i5 2,4 GHZ is embedded and the 2,53 GHz isn't??

    in the end, do the i5 2,4 Ghz support EEC??

    regards

    pacioccone -

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    The Platform Controller Hub is all the I/O - USB, SATA, additional PCIe, SPI for Flash, LPC for embedded controller, etc.

    On the back-side there is an NXP DisplayPort switch and a Lattice programmable chip for switching LVDS going to the LCD display. These are the same chips use to switch between the 9400M and the 9600GT in the previous unibody MacBook Pros. So I wonder if Apple could add automatic GPU switching to them as a sotware update?

    toppernh -

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    • The heat sinks can be separated from the logic board, leaving it very cold and lonely.

    Wouldn't that make the logic board hot and bothered rather than cold and lonely?

    Robert Coleman -

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    • The Core i5 was no match for iFixit.

    • Here are the remains of this lovely machine...

    Fantastic! Any chance you'll post a high-rez version of the teardown final pic? Would love to use this as the desktop on my identical i5 MBP. Well, not quite identical. Mine had an Hitachi 320GB 5400 rpm.

    Jose Martinez -

    Zitat von Jose Martinez:

    Fantastic! Any chance you'll post a high-rez version of the teardown final pic? Would love to use this as the desktop on my identical i5 MBP. Well, not quite identical. Mine had an Hitachi 320GB 5400 rpm.

    Hover over the thumbnail and click "View huge" in the left upper corner.

    Mackie -

Tinte & Feder

Walter Galan

685540 Reputation

Ein Kommentar

Hi Walter,

I’m working to try to repair a MacBook Pro A1286 - it won’t start up. The owner said his 7-yr old dropped it, and it’s been sitting for some time. A visual inspection reveals no obvious damage externally, or internally, as a matter of fact, the MBP appears to be in pristine condition. There are no lights from the Magsafe power adapter port. I’ve tested the Magsafe adapter on another MacBook Pro, and it works. Any idea what other test I might try? Thank you in advance for your reply.

Bryan Nunez -