I love progress shots as much as anyone, but I always forget during the process of actually performing a repair. At best the photos I take are happy snaps in relatively dimly lit rooms and are hardly pleasant to look at anyway. (The photos in this post will be no exception.)
Time for an update though. I sourced up my spare top case, which was in better condition than I remember. It only really needed a cleaning. Transferring the components across to the replacement top case was quite simple, it only took about half an hour at the most, but the alignment was the hellish part. Trying to get a perfect 0.5mm gap around the trackpad takes great skill and precision. It took me about 6 tries to get it absolutely right. As suspected though, the replacement top case fixed the problem.
I also attempted to clean up the bottom case as they do tend to collect quite a bit of grime with use. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers work absolute wonders on these machines. They almost always come up looking brand new afterward.
Internally it's in excellent shape, although the MagSafe connector still looks a little dirty and the screws securing it to the case have stripped threads. The trackpad screws are also less than fantastic. I decided to do a little hunting around through the screw kits at work, and came away with 2 brand new MagSafe board screws and a complete trackpad kit (including screws and flexures). Even better though, a brand new MagSafe board, which should set this machine off and have it looking like new.
I expect there will be more to come.
Cheers,
Mic.
Time for an update though. I sourced up my spare top case, which was in better condition than I remember. It only really needed a cleaning. Transferring the components across to the replacement top case was quite simple, it only took about half an hour at the most, but the alignment was the hellish part. Trying to get a perfect 0.5mm gap around the trackpad takes great skill and precision. It took me about 6 tries to get it absolutely right. As suspected though, the replacement top case fixed the problem.
I also attempted to clean up the bottom case as they do tend to collect quite a bit of grime with use. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers work absolute wonders on these machines. They almost always come up looking brand new afterward.
Internally it's in excellent shape, although the MagSafe connector still looks a little dirty and the screws securing it to the case have stripped threads. The trackpad screws are also less than fantastic. I decided to do a little hunting around through the screw kits at work, and came away with 2 brand new MagSafe board screws and a complete trackpad kit (including screws and flexures). Even better though, a brand new MagSafe board, which should set this machine off and have it looking like new.
I expect there will be more to come.
Cheers,
Mic.