Olivier Biot

I have to replace the battery pack of my MBP 13” Retina Early 2015. This pack consists of a battery management board, a...

Scenario 1: the pick-up drums do not roll, you hear a grinding noise You most likely hear a grinding noise of plastic cogwheels slipping when the printer tries to feed a sheet of paper. It looks like there is too much play in the paper pick-up unit (at the rightmost end inside the printer) on which both pick-up drums are mounted on a single arm. When not printing, these drums are lifted. When printing, they are dropped to the top of the paper stack and will engage to separate the topmost sheet off the stack. When lifted, you will be able to rotate these drums in one direction. When the drums touch the paper, they simply don't rotate. I suppose that because of excess play (programmed obsolescence?) eventually the cogwheels that drive the drums will slip. Sadly this unit is hard to reach. Probably the entire printer must be torn down, and I don't expect you will be able to easily fix the excess play on the paper pick-up mechanism that drive the rubber rolls when pressed on the stack of paper. Scenario 2: the...

Unfortunately there was so much glue on the tiny power/volume button ribbon cable that any attempt at removing the steel cover plate would eventually rip that cable at the 4 solder joints. A picture of that cable would help tearing down more securely.

Is there a way to repair the torn ribbon cable or should I consider my iPod as dead now?

Not all steps are required if you only want to replace the battery. Then you can limit yourself to disconnecting the battery connector (don’t forget to tape it off!), disconnecting the trackpad connector from the system board (watch out while leaving it dangling), unscrew the left and right speakers (while leaving the connectors attached to the system board) and removing the old battery by applying heat.

I cleaned the remaining adhesive from the chassis and bottom of the trackpad with some adhesive remover (petroleum based), and then by removing the leftover glue residue with isopropyl alcohol.

The fixit replacement battery stated 100% power charge when I first powered it up after replacing the battery. I suppose that this is incorrect as a lithium polymer battery is never fully charged when stored. When calibrating the battery, I expect the power level to be accurate.

A hairdryer perfectly does the job. I’d recommend heating the bottom for 20 seconds, then attempt at inserting a plastic pick between the glass and the chassis. If it doesn’t work, reapply some heat in 10 seconds intervals until the glue gives in. You shouldn’t have to exert lots of force to release the adhesive, heat should do the job.

Then apply some heat to the top of the screen to release the remaining adhesive. Opening is straightforward. Just beware of the ultra little slack of the short yet fragile flexible digitizer cable.

I used heat from a hair dryer to detach the adhesive. The bottom of the touch pad seems to be made from plastic so I didn’t want to use any hard solvents (acetone) to risk permanent damage to the track pad.

On the Sonos Play 3 I opened, the Wi-Fi card lied flat below the plastic clips. Between the card and the clips, there were 2 rectangular foam pads glued to the Wi-Fi card.

You must first loosen the Phillips #1 screws holding the plastic brackets that keep the Wi-Fi card in place.

Sadly my display died when replacing the battery. The phone is alive (it is seen in iTunes) but the screen remains black, even after resetting the iPhone (pressing Home+Sleep button for 10-20 seconds).

I also disconnected the display from the phone and reconnected all 3 connectors, but to no avail.

Is there something else I can try to resuscitate the screen?

I used a heavy duty iFixIt suction cup (used for repairing an old iMac) for the job. Worked like a charm.

This would make sense, since the original hard disk is entirely electrically insulated from the chassis: the plastic bracket at the top insulates it from the top and back of the chassis, while the bottom screw-on pins fit into rubber grommets, again isolating the chassis.

However, when using a SSD, I see no reason for grounding the SSD to the back of the LCD with this bit of conducting foam.

I would definitely use this conducting foam on a conventional hard disk as it is more prone to generating leak current through the chassis.

In my wife’s iMac the PRAM battery was a CR2032 cell (IIRC from Panasonic). After 10 years of use, it still had 3V so I decided not to replace it yet. Now that I know how to open the iMac I know it’s a quick fix (10-15 minutes). In this case, you only need to perform steps 1-4. Remember to remove the bezel starting at the top. Once you can lift it 2-3 cm, you can disengage the bottom of the bezel by gently and slightly moving the bezel “downward” (if the foot of the iMac is facing you, move the bezel slightly towards your body).

The battery should be prudently pushed to the right (there’s a metal spring at the right) so it can pass the plastic retaining claws to the left.

Likewise, remember to gently pull the microphone connector (and cables) through the ~1 inch long slot in the bezel next to the iSight camera when reassembling the bezel on the chassis. Once the bezel is in place, you can easily tuck away the connector and wires through that slot into the bezel. Make sure no wires protrude.