HandyMac

I bought a used 2014 15" MacBook Pro (2.8GHz, 16/500) in November (four months ago), near-mint condition. Having just had...

Running Apple Service Diagnostic (OS version) test suite v.3S162 on a 2014 13" MacBook Pro (3.0GHz version, MGXD2LL/A), it...

Running Apple System Diagnostic on 2014 MBP; it says “Cover the Photometer Sensors”. Can anybody tell me where they are?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013): When I try to load Apple Hardware Test from the Internet (startup with D key),...

I asked a question a couple years ago about a Stuck tri-point trackpad screw on a trackpad in a 2008 Aluminum MacBook. At...

Step 10 in the Trackpad Replacement Guide says "Remove the six 1.4 mm Y0 Tri-point screws securing the trackpad to the...

Does anyone know what size Torx screwdriver is needed for the tiny screws that hold the PCB to the HD chassis on an IBM...

A friend's hard drive quit working, and he's anxious to get the data off it -- without paying DriveSavers' astronomical...

The left fan in my MacBook Pro 17" 2.5GHz (Model A1261) has developed a noise (fluttering sound, bearings?). I got a...

Does anyone know how to identify the Upper Case for a MacBook Pro Aluminum 17"? There are four slightly different ones,...

Follow up: I'm happy to report that the procedure I mentioned above – a series of forced complete cycles – has solved the swollen battery problem, at least reducing the swelling (though the battery casings are still enlarged, having been stretched by the swelling) to where the lower case could be reattached, and the trackpad works fine. Procedure (h/t Petr Jerabek at Santa Fe Mac Repair): 1. Fully charge battery 6-8 hours, use it with power adapter plugged in for the whole time. 2. Disconnect power adapter, then fully discharge the battery, by starting into either the Startup Manager with option ⌥ key, or into target disk mode with T key (if MacBook has firewire/thunderbolt), and letting it sit until it shuts down. After a few minutes, press the power button; it it starts, let it discharge again until the battery is completely discharged. 3. Let the computer rest overnight (8 hours) in the fully discharged state. 4. Reconnect the power adapter, then immediately reset the SMC (see "How to reset the SMC of...

@arbaman: Thanks for your response. Yes, I'm having a crash course in batteries and their management. I'd heard that it is a good idea to cycle the battery now and then, but didn't understand how crucial it is to do so. I spent a couple hours on the phone yesterday with Apple, talked to five different people before a Senior Advisor advised me that Apple simply does not repair 2014 Mac models any more, as they're now on the "Vintage" list. Oh. So my experience with the 2015 MBPro last summer cannot be repeated with this 2014 MBPro. So I looked around locally, found a guy who looks good – and who says he has the battery in stock, and can do the job for $200, less than Apple would have cost, and a lot less trouble. But when I took the computer to him, he suggested trying several forced complete cycles on the battery, saying he'd seen cases where that solved the swelling problem. A good sign, I felt, that he didn't just take my money, but tried to help me first. So I'm trying that, though I suspect I'm going...

Well, I went ahead and tried with the Torx #6 driver, very carefully, and it worked; I got the four little set screws out and was able to swap the mounting flanges. Tip: Don't completely remove the screws; they're tiny and a bear to reinsert, and they have to be unscrewed only about 1mm to get the flanges out. So, after two years, got the MacBook all together again. And discovered that the battery is now swollen, so I have to get another. Anybody have any suggestions for a good but inexpensive battery? I don't really expect to use the MacBook as a portable anyway, so don't need a heavy duty battery, but it should have one in it.

Check this bracket to make sure it isn't bent. I had a MacBook that would intake or eject discs with difficulty; there seemed to be some obstruction in the disc drive opening. I took it apart and determined that the case opening (CD slot) was slightly out of alignment with the opening in the disc drive. I couldn't see why until I noticed that the front end (near the case opening) of this bracket was bent, so it didn't properly slide into the "slot" in the case chassis where it's supposed to go, thus forcing the disc drive to sit an mm or so high at that point, so it wasn't aligned with the disc insert slot in the case. I removed the bracket, straightened it, reinstalled it, and now everything works fine.

It should be noted for reassembly that this bracket should be slid toward the back end of the drive when it is inserted, then slid forward toward the front end so its "tab" goes into the "slot" in the chassis; then the bracket will be in the correct position to insert the screw. If the drive is put into its place with this bracket slid toward the front (opening) of the drive, there is danger the bracket may be bent, causing the problem I experienced. (I don't know when it happened in this unit, maybe when it was first assembled in the factory.)

I didn't look closely at these screws when I took it apart, but when I went to put it back together (two weeks later) I found I had two longer (4mm?) screws, and one short one. So I put the longer ones in the two end spots, the short one in the middle; they all seemed to go in okay. (Maybe the screws got changed around the last time the cracked top case was replaced, when the MB was in the Apple shop under warranty last year.)

The top two screws didn't seem to want to come out, and I saw no reason they had to, so I left them there, put a little piece of tape over each so they wouldn't fall out.