MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Early 2011 Upper Case Replacement

Tip: Use one of those weekday pill holders to have a cheep way to store screws you remove and each day of the week can be for different sizes or parts. It has been handy to have (much less expensive than the magnetic mat.

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.

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

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!)

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

I successfully soldered the fan connector back on for a friend. I used a small soldering iron (maybe 6-10 watts) and ground the tip down to a very fine point. Also used a magnifying light and very fine rosin core solder. I took my time and lined everything up and was careful not to heat any other junction unnecessarily.

Yup. Be careful on this one. I was trying to gently pry up and popped it off the socket. Computer working fine after replacing magsafe board, but no fan for cooling…

This one is really delicate, as pointed out.  Be careful if using the pointed end of a spudger NOT to dig down and under ….there’s a layer of plastic-y insulation that can be torn.  I accidentally gored it with the pointy end of a spudger and it was slightly ripped.  Fortunately, I was able to press it down and there was no problem when the cable was reinserted.

they were T6 for me

Note that, as per the photo, the fan goes in label side DOWN. Took me a few minutes to figure that out!

Before reinstalling the new fan and for novices like me, do not forget to have a can of compressed on hand to clear out years of dust, fine fibers, and maybe even a cat hair from the fins blowing outward. Do not shake the bottle and hold it upright, and use small squirts of air.

Reminder: When replacing the cable the connector should be placed in from above. This fooled me and I damaged the seat a bit, but not enough to prevent proper connection.

Excellent guide, I feel this bit could be clearer tho. As it is a socket like a fan connector.

Mine had a foam pad on the top like the other lift-up connections and I’ve accidentally taken the socket off.

So just to be aware if your mac has the foam pad on top of this connection.

I’ve broken the connector of the speaker (on the logic board) by installing it in the wrong way.

Now, I ordered the connector from aliexpress, and have to do some micro soldering and hopefully it’ll work.

Be careful guys

Here's where the mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro 5,5 makes its first major departure from this guide. No such connection exists. At least nowhere I could find on the motherboard.

IIRC the official service manual suggests putting the blunt or wide edge of a black-stick/spudger underneath the cable and then pressing down on said cable to provide better gripping force while pulling the cable out/away from the connector. It’s my tried-and-true method of choice.

On the mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro 5,5 the Airport/Bluetooth cable is different from the other three cables in this step. It's fabric wrapped, and its connection works in a fashion more like the display data cable connection, although it does not have a lock that releases by pulling a tab back over the cable. So, to those of you who are repairing this model, be careful. Prying upward is not the way to remove this cable. I played with it until I could detect which parts were moving which way and why. Although I can't say with precision how the connection works, I removed it by gently coaxing slightly up at an angle and back along the plane of the optical drive. The idea is to pull the cable back out of its socket while lifting slightly.

Too bad we can't post photos in the comments.

Same with the Mid 2010 model - moving the cable parallel to the board, towards the optical device works fine.

It is advised to tape all those connectors out of the way of the mainboard. Use paper tape or paper labels as you want to avoid the electrical discharge associated with peeling off of plastic tape.

After I put it all back together, the keyboard didn’t work; I traced it to this cable not being plugged in all the way. I used the tape trick to coax it all the way in to seat well and it works like a charm.

The bottom of the small strip has excellent adhesive which will re-stick upon reassembly without any problems. I handled the sticky side and even stuck it to a plastic tray without any issues. Which is to say the sticky-ness does not seem to wear off.

This is the most difficult ribbon cable to reinsert. As noted in the comments for the keyboard ribbon cable above I’d recommend also using a a small piece of tape to help reinsert.

I used Blu-Tac on the end of my spudger to provide a gentle grip to get it to slide in.

The first time I reassembled the system I left this tiny ribbon connector under the logic board by accident. If your keyboard backlight no longer works after reassembly it’s because you forgot to reattach this small connector. Fortunately, I caught my mistake before securing the logic board screws. It’s an easy to miss item.

It is advised to tape this connectors out of the way of the mainboard. Use paper tape or paper labels as you want to avoid the electrical discharge associated with peeling off of plastic tape.

What the part name, i accidently broken this part

the sleep sensor/battery indicator were not included with my new case, i had to transfer them over from my old case. once the battery is out (step 22), you can see the three screws you need to remove in order to take it out. it’s also secured by adhesive. the button for the battery indicator will likely fall out (at least it did on mine) when you remove the board, so be careful not to lose it…my new case did come with the button for the battery indicator (even though it didn’t come with the board or cable), but i just re-used the old one.

I forgot to place this tiny flex cable on top of the mainboard, and tried to recover it from under (lazy!) so I broke it.

In general I would tape all those connectors out of the way of the mainboard. Use paper tape or paper labels as you want to avoid the electrical discharge associated with peeling off of plastic tape.

Its quite delicate, pull gently and it will pop out with a slight clicking sound

For keeping the screws straight I drew a simple diagram and placed them on it head down/threads up in their respective positions. Then all screws went back into their original positions without any guess work. Another suggestion I have during assembly is to start the screws without torquing them all the way down - leave them a little loose to allow some adjustment of the logic board for getting them all to line up with their holes, then torque them down. This technique also works for the screws on the bottom cover/lower case.

Great guide! Saved me some dough, and now my MagSafe connector stays nice and cool.

for me the two on the farthest left were the 4.3mm screws. otherwise all went as described

Definitely not necessary to remove this bracket. You can disconnect the mic from the logic board and not have to deal with this bracket.

Careful with this one. The wires are very thin fragile and it’s glued down very well making it extremely hard to remove. Just go slow and be patient otherwise you’ll damage the wires.

I finally got that mic out by gripping it between two spudgers like a pair of chopsticks and gently pulling it out at an angle. The rubber shroud on it makes the thing hard to grip, and when I finally pulled it free, part of the adhesive ring tore off and stayed stuck to the chassis. When reassembling the machine, I had to kind of squish it back into place. It doesn’t hold quite as well as it did before, but it seems fine.

I managed to get the board out without prying the microphone off by twisting the board out while the microphone is still connected.

You can then disconnect the microphone cable, which is a similar style connector to the fan cable and remove the board completely

I had the same issue. After wiggling the logic board back and forth and slowly applying more force, just up the threshold where I felt uncomfortable, it came out. The problem appeared to be caused by glue on the heatsink barcode sticking to the layer underneath.

I remove the battery first before removing the logic board. Makes it easier to get the logic board out

once the battery is out, you may also need to remove the sleep sensor/battery indicator and move it to your new case if it didn’t come with them. mine didn’t, so i had to do so…it’s secured by three screws (i believe phillips) and some adhesive. the battery indicator button was loose on mine and just fell out when i removed the board, so be careful not to lose it.

I did not even disconnect these cables, because they are easily damaged when reattaching. I just left them in their sockets and folded the whole assembly back and out of my way, when I needed to take out and replace the keyboard.

they are ”antenna connectors” going to the “AirPort/Bluetooth” assembly so I am guessing they are needed for the bluetooth. I removed them with a pair of small flat screwdrivers to gently walk them out of the sockets - which are quite deep.

One cable snapped on reassembly. It snapped from inside the copper band where the wires are bare of coating. This is figured made all three of these wires interface and share whatever they are transmitting. So, I crimped the broken wire’s ends and shoved it back into the sleeve. I have tested my wireless features for two days and everything works like a charm.

The second picture shows exactly how things are assembled, so looking at the picture tells you if you done any mistake or not. The first picture is very good for an overview the second to show the details.

While reassembling make sure the small metal ring attached to the longest antenna cable goes under the left 'red' screw.

When reassembling be sure the camera cable is tucked into the case at this point. Otherwise it will end up on top of the cable bundle and be too close to the bottom case lip.

Need to put the vertical piece just above the demonstrator's hand into the new case, or else the CD/DVD drive, logic board, and fan are missing screw holds.

This is where I stopped following the guide because I was only replacing the keyboard. (There are sooo many screws holding the keyboard down. It took a long time.)

tip: not only start at the end closest to the display, but start as close to the optical drive slot as you can get. i had to get way back there in order to get underneath the speaker to pry it loose.

This was perhaps the hardest step. I could not get under the recommended side and had to start at the other end. The speaker was adhered so tight to the keyboard it was impossible to pry up on the right side. But no damage was done.

What is that plate with the antenna attached? the one that sits under the speaker? My new upper case doesn't have that on there

Fourth- antenna wasn’t on the replacement case. I peeled the antenna off the old case (starting opposite the cable) and removed the disc screen, put both in the new case. The new case doesn’t have a hole for the screw securing the top of the antenna but the adhesive should hold it fine. I’m not sure if that screw acts as a grounding point, because there’s a bracket further up that antenna that also provides a ground from the shielding.

i also had to remove the plate with the antenna underneath to transfer it to the new case. there is an additional screw you need to remove in order to do this (you can see it just to the left of the index finger on the hand in the picture), and it was also attached by adhesive. i removed the screw and then used the spudger to get under the plate and loosen it from the adhesive.

unlike the previous commenter, there was a screw hole on my new case to re-attach the antenna plate (in addition to the adhesive).

These are the remaining T6 screws