Failed Macbook Repair

I received a new Macbook inverter today so I immediately replaced the broken one with the new one. At first, I just replaced the inverter itself to check if whether it was the inverter board or the cable. Well, it didn't work after replacing the board, so it must be the cable.

So it was time to take everything apart and get inside the Macbook.

I used iFixit's repair guide to help me out. The problem with their guide is that the one I just linked doesn't explain what to do once you removed the keyboard cover. This guide does tell you what to do but it is excessive in my opinion. They took everything apart which is probably above the level of a novice. I only took the keyboard and the inverter cover off to do this. They took the hard drive, LCD hinges, etc, off.

So once I got the keyboard cover off, I got the happy surprise of a dust covered motherboard! The machine has seen a lot of action over 3 years and this is the first time I took its cover off. I cleaned it with some rubbing alcohol so everything would be nice and clean.

It makes such a difference to have a clean motherboard.

I then discovered that the plug for the inverter cable on my Macbook is different from the one that they shipped me. It was my mistake for not taking note that Apple made a revision to the white (non unibody) Macbook's internals. So now I'm stuck with 2 inverters, 1 good cable but for a newer Macbook, and 1 broken useless cable. I'm guessing I'm going have to sell them back on ebay. Looks like the Macbook will have to become a desktop PC now. At least I can start working on iPhone and OSX development now. That will be interesting.

What a disappointment. I thought that I would actually have a proper working laptop today but was thwarted by fate. I really need one to work on my CAPSTONE project. I'm tired of bumming around for PCs in the labs. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to flash a new firmware on my micro controllers all the time. The school doesn't allow for installation of drivers so that creates a problem for me.

What I do at home is plug the board into my PC and then use my brother's netbook to control my desktop. There is no lag since its on a home network and I can work anywhere in the house on my project. Its very convenient. I could do this at school but I risk having the team lose a micro controller on stock. Although, my personal micro controller board has been the brains of our robot for months. I will probably get it back soon. We're moving onto PCB so everything will be on one board rather than several.

Luckily (somewhat), I did repair my frakentop and built a cooling dock for it. The internal temperature still hits a sky high 80+ degrees Celcius and wants to kill itself all the time. So to alleviate the problem some heat issues, I run it without a keyboard. this means that the motherboard sits out in the open for everyone to see. I down clocked it so it runs much slower than when it was bought. The CD-ROM is taken out and kept in storage to keep things simple. I'm wondering whether I should buy some horizontal fans that I found at the electronic store and put it where the CD-Rom use to be.

I fully expect the machine to die often but I'm now very much prepared to deal with it. Heat is the enemy but also the solution. As long as I'm near a hair/hand dryer, I can get the sucker up and running again.