MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 Right Speaker/Subwoofer 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.

Great tutorial. I found that using a Phillips #0 in lieu of the #00 worked much better.

My top tip - make sure you buy good quality Phillips screwdrivers and a magnetic holder. Cheap screwdrivers won’t get the screws undone safely. Without a magnetic holder you have no chance of getting the tiny crews in and out safely.

A good Phillips 00 is your friend here. Also, when reinserting the screws, gently start anticlockwise and you wil feel a click at the start of the thread. This tells you you’re in the right place and less likely to cross-thread through force in the wrong place.

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!)

Wouldn't it make life easier to fully remove the battery for this whole process? I mean, compared to the next steps it's a piece of cake and create a bit more space

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

N.B! Thank you very much all you here on iFixit! Some IMPORTANT notes. Be very careful BEFORE prying the connectors up and down. They are very fragile and the picture could actually be seen as showing a bending loading in their weakest direction, AROUND its slender axis. The connector is slender and inserted on the logic board, so the gentle "walking" up and down should be done ALONG their slender direction and WITHOUT touching the adjacent connectors. If bending is done around its axis the soldering comes apart and the cable is done and gone. Just happened. These flat cables are one of the weakest design spots in my experience. They are a major time, money and geist consuming reason for malfunction like Wi-Fi connection problems, HDD, SSD not found internally but externally from USB issues et al being found on different forums. Thanks again and again.

"Carefully pull the camera cable out of its socket on the logic board."

I followed these instructions to the letter, heeding the warning to pull vertically.

The camera cable broke at the connector.

The connector was pretty tight in the socket. Had to use a tiny screw-driver to free it. There was no way simply pulling would have worked.

A quick google of "macbook pro camera cable broken" shows that this has happened to many other people, and been reported to ifixit. But no mention in the instructions. Disappointing.

The MBP no longer boots. The cable is soldered to the LCD, which must be replaced. $500?

Someone, PLEASE fix the instructions. It looks like many people have been hit by this.

Actually it says to pull parallel away from the board, so horizontally. It never said vertically and actually warns against pulling verticaly.

I'd to disassemble my MBP two times because my SSD did not work properly in optibay. While doing it a second time, I omitted steps 6 and 8. It is really not necessary, but step 6 is really scary.

I've replaced 4 dvd's with hdd's already, in different macbooks, so wasn't too fussed about #5. However; this time I broke the camera connector cable :(

The connector is stil in it's socket, and I can't get it out no matter what I try. My guess is that some of the glue that connects the socket to the logic board, got into the socket as well. Prying with a small screwdriver, pulling with a pair of tweezers... nothing works. And this mbp belongs to a friend who uses his camera a lot for skyping...

I hope we're still friends after I tell him.

The thing is; I think it might be possible to do the whole operation with that cable still in its sockets; if you pull the rest of the cable free of the fingers, you can probably fold it out of the way when you lift the dvd out.

This is Sooo Unnecessary!! don't do it!

I actually found it necessary to do this step. If not done you can rip chord, if you read the wording carefully and do as it says it should not break.

After having initially skipped this step, I finally followed it. I couldn't find a way to move the airport / bluetooth assembly away otherwise, and in the end it's a pain to put the small screws back in. Didn't have any trouble unplugging the camera cable, but it is indeed scary because it looks pretty fragile.

I only skipped step 8, as it didn't seem necessary.

I also broke my camera cable!!! And I just realized that removing that lovely cable was not necessary for the following steps!!! Thank you!

I dont know how to fix this problem and I asked it in this question: How can I fix broken camera cable

Please, help...

I omitted this step successfully

I skipped this step, but did step 8.

There was no way I was doing this step -- just remember that the cable is still plugged in, and work VERY CAREFULLY.

totally unnecessary. You can remove optical drive easily without disconecting that cable

Technic Mender, he is talking about Step 11. It says upward. Most untouched MBP's have a piece of sticky foam over the right subwoofer connection to the logic board, so you can't see how it is really supposed to come out but that step says pull upward. Ripped my right subwoofer connection straight from the logic board. Thanks iFixit, Step 11 has an unnecessary line that costs me money. You pull it laterally, not up.

I successfully skipped this step when removing the hard drive enclosure (I had already the dual drive running, but I needed to replace the drive in the optical enclosure. I also skipped steps 7, 8, and 11.

I have a blog post on my experience of performing the upgrade with a simple diagram showing how to skip step 6, 7, 8 and 11. (http://www.ocyedwin.com/?p=190)

I skipped this step complete . There is space enough in order to manipulate stuff without unplugging theses cables.

I tried to pull the cable, but it did not come off even with moderate force. So it stayed as it was, and I had no problems taking out the drive and putting in the new one.

Probably its best to skip this step.

I can't remove this so I skip it. I also skip 7,8,11 with no problem, just do it slow and carefully remove any parts.

I did this successfully, but I don't remember which way the contacts came out. Does the side with more gold face up or down?

I also managed to skip steps 6, 7, 8, and 11. It is possible to get the superdrive out without disconnecting the camera, antenna, and subwoofer. However, obviously you have to be very, very careful.

Just done the job. *6 to 11 are strictly unnecessary*. You'd better be careful (a little bit, that's not hard at all) than taking the risk of all those tricky steps...

And you will gain a lot of time ;-)

Just did the replacement of Optidrive with my original HDD (which I had earlier replaced with a Samsung EVO 500 GB drive - using ifixit's method). I omitted steps 6,7,8 and 11. The upper left side screw of the OptiDrive is deeply placed - a magnetic screwdriver with a long thin shaft would be essential to remove and especially, to replace it.

Confirmed for a second time: Steps 6, 7, 11 NOT NEEDED.

Just did this. I elected to actually do this step and I’m glad I did. It was no big deal. Just pull straight back from the socket (not up or angled!) and although it was a little tight, it came out. I think it’s worth it not to possibly mess that cable up when you extract the drive. The drive itself does not lift up straight out- you have to work it out as there a few minor obstructions. At that point, it would be very easy to damage the camera cable. I took all the antenna cables off even those this guide only recommended taking off the long cable. This was due to an Apple repair video I had seen. This proved to be unnecessary and I should just have stuck with this guide’s recommendation. I did skip taking the woofer cable off towards the end of this guide as that seemed to be, and subsequently proved to be, utterly unnecessary. All in all, just moving slowly and carefully I managed this in 30 mins though next time will be faster, no doubt.

This step is unnecessary, as is step 8. You can get the SuperDrive out and put the caddy in without pulling the cable out.

The disk utility sytem recognises my new HD however when I try to do the recovery setup I receive an error message.

I successfully skipped this step when removing the hard drive enclosure (I had already the dual drive running, but I needed to replace the drive in the optical enclosure. I also skipped steps 6, 8, and 11.

Confirmed for a second time: Steps 6, 7, 11 NOT NEEDED.

I omitted this step too. It's not necessary.

I successfully skipped this step when removing the hard drive enclosure (I had already the dual drive running, but I needed to replace the drive in the optical enclosure. I also skipped steps 6, 7, and 11.

Based on the advice above, I tried to skip this step. Unfortunately, the way the wire wraps around the plastic caused it to break underneath when I lifted the optical drive out, and now I have another broken part.

Yu can easily skip the step, just make sure you take care when removing/put away the AirPort/BT assembly in the next step, be gentle.

I think you should remark when re-assembling the machine, you should pay attention to the metal clip in Step 9, the upper left screw position, it's easy to miss when assembling, because there are so many wires, and it may be very easy forgetting putting the metal clip back in place.

As far as the grounding ring goes, it slips back over the screw hole, be patient and gentle. You may have to finagle the airport board under it first and then lay the board flat and reattach the subwoofer. I will see if I can add a pic in the near future. But that the best way to describe it.

The left part in the picture (the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly) is held down under a plastic tab that sticks out a tiny amount. Thus, it needs to be pulled very slightly towards the camera module in order to be able to lift out.

I will confirm for a third time, having just done this replacement yesterday morning: Steps 6, 7, 11 NOT NEEDED.

N.B! Thank you very much all you here on iFixit! Some IMPORTANT notes. Be very careful BEFORE prying the connectors up and down. They are very fragile and the picture could actually be seen as showing a bending loading in their weakest direction, AROUND its slender axis. The connector is slender and inserted on the logic board, so the gentle "walking" up and down should be done ALONG their slender direction and WITHOUT touching the adjacent connectors. If bending is done around its axis the soldering comes apart and the cable is done and gone. Just happened. These flat cables are one of the weakest design spots in my experience. They are a major time, money and geist consuming reason for malfunction like Wi-Fi connection problems, HDD, SSD not found internally but externally from USB issues et al being found on different forums. Thanks again and again.

iFixit has a guide on How to Remove a Stripped Screw: How to Remove a Stripped Screw

Other tips : use any tape, put the sticky side on the screw then apply a good pressure with Phillips #00. I was stuck, then it works at the first try with this technique.

Can I use spudger instead of plastic opening tool?