Introduction
Use this guide to replace a faulty MacBook Air 11" Early 2015 logic board.
Be sure to apply a new layer of thermal paste before reinstalling your heat sink on the new board.
Tools
Parts
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Remove the following ten screws:
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Two 8 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
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Eight 2.5 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
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Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry both short sides of the battery connector upward to disconnect it from its socket on the logic board.
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Bend the battery cable slightly away from the logic board so the connector will not accidentally bend back and make contact with its socket.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the left and right I/O board cable connectors up off their respective sockets on the I/O board.
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Use the tip of a spudger to carefully push on each side of the iSight camera cable connector to loosen it out of its socket on the logic board.
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Use the tip of a spudger to carefully flip up the retaining flap on the fan cable ZIF socket.
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Remove the following three screws securing the fan to the upper case:
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Two 5.5 mm T5 Torx screws
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One 4.6 mm T5 Torx screw
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Lift, but do not remove the fan out of its recess in the upper case.
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Carefully pull the fan ribbon cable out of its socket as you remove the fan from the Air.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry both antenna connectors up from their sockets on the AirPort/Bluetooth card, and move them out of the way.
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Remove the following five screws securing the battery to the upper case:
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Two 5.2 mm T5 Torx screws
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One 6 mm T5 Torx screw
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Two 2.6 mm T5 Torx screws
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Disconnect the I/O board by pulling the power cable away from its socket on the logic board.
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Use the tip of a spudger to de-route the antenna cables from their notches in the logic board.
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Gently push the tip of a spudger under the black plastic flap stuck to the display data cable lock to make the lock pop upward and away from the socket.
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While holding the lock away from the socket, gently pull the display data cable out of its socket.
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Use the tip of a spudger to pry under the speaker cable connector, lifting it straight up from its socket.
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De-route the cable from its notch in the logic board.
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Use the tip of a spudger or your fingernail to flip up the retaining flap on the trackpad ribbon cable ZIF socket.
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Pull the trackpad ribbon cable straight out of its socket toward the front edge of the Air.
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Use the tip of a spudger to flip up the retaining flap on the keyboard backlight ribbon cable ZIF socket.
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Pull the keyboard backlight ribbon cable out of its socket.
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Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the AirPort/Bluetooth card to the logic board.
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Slightly lift the free end of the AirPort/Bluetooth board and pull it out of its socket on the logic board.
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Remove the three 3.6 mm T5 Torx screws securing the logic board to the upper case.
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In some models these are 3.1 mm T5 Torx screws.
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Gently lift the logic board assembly from the heat sink end and pull it away from the port side of the case to remove it from the Air.
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If the heat sink seems to be stuck to the logic board after removing all four screws, use a spudger to carefully separate the heat sink from the faces of the CPU.
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Remove the heat sink from the logic board.
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When reinstalling the heat sink, be sure to apply a new layer of thermal paste. If you have never applied thermal paste before, we have a guide that makes it easy.
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Lift the free end of the SSD just enough to get a good hold of it.
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Pull the drive straight out of its socket and remove it from the logic board.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
3 comments
Thank you so much! This actually wasn't difficult at all, especially following your guide! I was able to fix my dad's computer with a replacement logic board. He's going to be super happy about this!
Robin H -
I don’t see a difference between this and the guide for the Early 2014 11” MacBook Air. Is there a difference or can I replace my dead 2014 Air’s Logic Board with a 2015? That Thunderbolt 2 port would be really helpful!
vnangia -
Where can one order a Logic board?
When you say:
Remove the following ten screws:
Two 8 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
Eight 2.5 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
Do the 8mm & 2.5mm dimensions refer to the LENGTH of those screws, or the size of the pentalobe? That is, are there other sizes of pentalobe drivers like there are for hex, phillips and torx? When only one dimension is provided, it is usually the socket/driver size, not the screw length, maybe since the length cannot be seen when the screw is installed.
Can I suggest that you clarify your instructions so folks are confident they are only in need of _one_ pentalobe driver?
Nerdily yours,
Larry (whose iPhone 4S can now get through a day without 6 recharges thanks to ifixit.com ;-)
larryleveen -
The 8mm and 2.5mm are the length of the screws. One pentalobe P5 screwdriver suffices for all the screws (P5 is implicitly the size of the pentalobe screw heads).
Michael Welham -