MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Early 2011 AirPort/Bluetooth Board Assembly Replacement

This step did not provide enough direction and is the reason my cable is either broke/not working now. I tried pulling it out of the logic board, as indicated, but it did not budge. I was extremely careful not to damage it, so I gave up on trying to remove it once I saw that it wasn't moving. Lo and behold, once I fired the Macbook up again, the camera is no longer connected. This step should have additional details/explanation as to why the cable may not come out/what to do if it doesn't (I was able to proceed to the next steps by working around the cable, so it didn't even have to be removed as the guide might have you think).

Does anyone know how to properly fix it/where to buy a replacement camera/iSight cable? I would like to fix this if possible.

I would like to add – several months later, my Macbook Pro failed to turn on and the motherboard had to be replaced. I'm giving partial blame to this guide for failing to adequately describe how to safely proceed on this step (I suspect a bad wifi card was part of the problem). Anyone else following this guide be very wary!

This step literally ruined my MacBook Pro. The ribbon cable pulled off of the logic board, and will no longer reconnect.

I found the problem with my wifi: sadly the connector solder joint j4 of the wifi board was not stable enough. now the socket is inside of the connector and not joined with the board. How do I remove the socket from inside of the connector? Is this even possible?

Replying to Bodo Tasche:

The antenna connection sockets are only held onto the wifi board with solder, on two small pads, so it is easy to break one of them off, I have done it on one occasion. I was able to pull the remains of the socket out of the antenna wire plug with tweezers, but had to replace the damaged wifi board with another one.

Here’s another thing to consider if your Unibody MacBook Pro has wifi problems: Your wifi ANTENNA. The antenna is mounted in the center of the display hinge. The antenna wires — the same ones that plug onto the wifi board — can break from repeated flexing at the point they pass through the hinge into the display. This was the cause of my wifi issues. Swapping the wifi board made no difference.

If your wifi connection stats show consistently very low signal strength and signal-to-noise, even with a nearby access point, consider the possibility that the antenna may need replacement. (It’s a difficult repair, and iFixit doesn’t seem to currently have a guide for it.)

I would leave these attached and just dangling if you don’t need to replace the Airport/bluetooth board. They’re a pain to reattach and breakage seems somewhat common.