MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Early 2011 Battery Connection Replacement

Written By: Andrew Bookholt

Comments: 15

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Early 2011 Battery Connection Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

No estimate

Introduction

Disconnecting Battery. Internal Prereq.

Tools

Spudger

Step 1

Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.
It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to "walk" it out of its socket. Be careful with the corners of the connectors, they can be easily broken off.

Is this step of removing the battery connector required?

manodh -

yes - as with disassembly of any electronic component you have to remove any power source. You don't want to accidentally turn the Mac on

khull -

Prying the battery connector off does not take much force. I did exactly what the guide suggested (walked it off back and forth) with the spudger without any problems. Just be very gentle, much like with anything inside laptops, they are very fragile and need to be worked with carefully. A+ instructions, battery replacement was a success.

aekinaka - 23/06/15

Be patient on disconnecting this one. It worked for me step by step, little by little.

Phil Wagner - 22/01/20

I used the nails of thumb and pointer finger simultaneously - worked pretty fine

Reinhard Kaune -

Step 2

Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

I put some tape between the connector and socket while working on the drive.

Stephen Smith - 04/01/17

That's a good tip

Anrothan - 17/01/17

Great tip, I did that too

Ahmed Mahran - 17/03/21

One other note: The screw heads fit flush with the curvature of the case -- which means that they aren't exactly horizontal. In other words, they aren't perpendicular to the table that the computer is resting on. Don't try to force them straight in vertically, because you'll risk cross-threading them. (nearly ruined one screw hole myself!)

lelandjordon - 03/08/17

On my MacBook Pro, the connector seems to be an integral part of the battery.

Jerry South - 16/02/21

I suspect it’s just like the special screwdriver required for seatbelts on cars – to discourage regular consumers from attempting repairs. Of course, this only encourages consumers to use the wrong tool to attempt to repairs

colleenthompson -

Dissambling my MacBookPro Premium Mid 2012 (i5-3210M 2.5Ghz) was easily, Careful with the screws, use screwdriver fitting exactly with the screws, you damage them very fast. Work very exactly, relaxed with time, consentration, good Tools and with feelings in your hands. Disconnect the Akku was easy if you take care, remove it to be safe, Two screws more, more space to work & haven`t to think about damaging someting. Apple use diffrent screws, you should have many difffrent scewdrivers. It is also good to clean everything inside, With time everything gets very dusty & dirty, don`t forget the sides and little fittings at the case. Use a pinsel, alcohol, soft peace stuff, it will look like new. If you have knowledge & experience, you can paint it in any colour or airbrushing for individualizing. You can also just polish it with a soft Politure (Sonax car Polish No1, NOT with wax or take an other light Politure you familiar & can do the job, A Laptop should serviced once a year, keeping it good working over years

Stefan Lindner -

First thing i do is open & cleanig everything inside,specially the cooling & fan, renew the thermal paste with an high quality product. Install the Nain System, clean up Bloatware and other unnecessary things, install standard software for daily use, additional change system components against better one (Edge to Firefox, Windows Media Player to VLC , an Office Suite and configuring everything for Data Protection, Privacy- & Indentety Protection, install Drivers from the component Manufactur (incedible effect, disable limitations, more functions, work better & faster, increasing performance, additional change the WiFi & Bluetooth Card to a better one a UMTS WWAN to an LTE Card, increase RAM with two Dual-Channel working SODIMMs, Use M2 or 2,5" SSD if no M2 Slot aviable) as System- and Software iDrive, a FAT32 formatted 32GB Partition to be safe of metaviruses comes with harmless downloads, and a big 2,5 HDD to store the user data. What does you guys think about this? Old Computer become a new life,

Stefan Lindner -

I livein Austria, near Vienna, if someone needs help or anything else, i would be glad to help. I always searching old or broken devices to bring them to new live. I also searching for spare parts, specilly a Bottom & Side Case and a 256GB or higher NGFF Storage Card for a Sony Vaio Tab 11 SVT1144HE (2014), some 14,1" Displays for a HP Probook 440G5 (2016), Elitebook MT 43 Mobile Thin Client, (2011), Dell Vostro 3460 (2012) Lenovo Thinkpad T440s (2014), and a Logic Board for an Lenovo Ideapad 330-15ARR (2017, damaged by Water i think) and a Logic Bord for an Alienware 17R4 with i7-6870HX & Nvidia 1080 (2018, CPU dead, maybe there is a repair Guide or workaround to bring it back to Life). I need always 8GB or 16GB DDR3 and DDR4 RAM Storage (perfectly two ident one for Dual-Channel use for Laptops, M2 SATA 6GB/s and NVMe PCIe SSDs 500GB or more and 2,5"SSD or HDD with 1TB or more and 3,5" HDD with 4GB or above. If you have some of this or other useful parts and doesn`t need them, please make me an offer, maybe

Stefan Lindner -

an change something you need. This is not a Business what i do, it`s more a Hobby with challenging new Excercices.. Thats the best Point. Plase forgive me as a Newbie this very long Post in the wrong Section, but if you are start writing you cannot stop.... But now i have to come to an end and would be happy if someone wants to get in contact. My E-Mail is: udontknowme@gmx.at (the adress name is just a notice against Big Data and for Privacy Protection!

Stefan Lindner -