Introduction
Has your MacBook Pro lost its magic touch? Bring it back with a new trackpad.
Tools
Parts
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Remove the following ten screws securing the lower case to the upper case:
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Three 13.5 mm (14.1 mm) Phillips screws.
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Seven 3 mm Phillips screws.
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Using both hands, lift the lower case near the vent to pop it off two clips securing it to the upper case.
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Remove the lower case and set it aside.
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Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.
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Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.
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Remove the following three screws securing the left fan to the logic board:
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Two 3.5 mm T6 Torx screws.
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One 4.2 mm T6 Torx screw.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the right fan connector out of its socket on the logic board.
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Remove the three 3.4 mm (3.1 mm) T6 Torx screws securing the right fan to the logic board.
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Lift the right fan out of its opening in the logic board.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the AirPort/Bluetooth connector up from its socket on the logic board.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the optical drive connector out of its socket on the logic board.
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Disconnect the hard drive/IR sensor cable from its socket on the logic board by lifting up from beneath its connector.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the subwoofer/right speaker connector out of its socket on the logic board.
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Remove the two 1.5 mm ( 1.2 mm ) Phillips screws securing the keyboard/trackpad cable cover to the logic board.
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Lift the cover off the logic board and set it aside.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the trackpad connector up and out of its socket on the logic board.
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Use your fingernail to flip up the retaining flap on the keyboard ribbon cable ZIF socket.
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Use the tip of a spudger to pull the keyboard ribbon cable out of its socket.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the battery indicator connector up and out of its socket on the logic board.
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Grab the plastic pull tab secured to the display data cable lock and rotate it toward the DC-In side of the computer.
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Pull the display data cable straight out of its socket on the logic board.
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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 following nine screws:
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Seven 3.4 mm ( 3.1 mm) T6 Torx screws on the logic board
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Two 8 mm T6 Torx screws on the DC-In board
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Carefully lift the logic board assembly from its left side and work it out of the upper case, minding the optical drive cable and the I/O ports that may get caught during removal.
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If necessary, use the flat end of a spudger to separate the microphone from the upper case.
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Pull the I/O port side of the logic board away from the side of the upper case and remove the logic board assembly.
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Carefully peel the battery warning label off the upper case between the battery and the optical drive to reveal an additional Tri-point screw.
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Remove the last 7.5 mm ( 7.2 mm ) Tri-point screw securing the battery to the upper case.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to peel up the edge of the large piece of black tape covering the trackpad cable.
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Peel the tape up and fold it back out of the way of the trackpad cable. Leaving it in place on the upper case will make it easier to reapply it during reassembly.
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Once the trackpad is free of the upper case, guide the ribbon cable through the slot cut in the upper case.
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When reinstalling the trackpad, loosely replace the four Phillips screws and check the alignment of the trackpad on the keyboard side of the upper case.
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Once you have centered the trackpad in the upper case, tighten the Phillips screws all the way.
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Use the large Tri-point screw at the bottom of the trackpad to adjust the click stroke.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
14 comments
Be extremely careful about the keyboard backlight socket. I ended up breaking off an infinitesimally small side of the plastic socket and I have no keyboard backlight now. This doesn't bother me that much, but still irritating!
Dang - I did the same thing. Thankfully it was on the questionable logic board in the machine I was scavenging the “good” trackpad from, so I didn’t do the same to the good one. Overall, a very good set of instructions - thank you to the author.
Dave M -
Very easy process, one observation is that the holes which the screws that hold the battery in shattered, they're very brittle, had to hot glue my battery back in, double sided tape would have been better. Hardest part was the alignment of the new trackpad, but if you take your time to align it and use sellotape to hold it in place while you flip the MacBook and tighten it, everything will be all good.
Many thanks to the author
tomo30 -
+ It is important to make sure you connected well the keyboard/trackpad cable
+ Test if your keyboard is working before attempting to reset either the PRAM/NVRAM and the System Management Controller (SMC), which, although not required, I would recommend doing after replacing a piece of hardware like the trackpad
+ Thanks for these instructions
Step 1 (technically step 9 - replacing the base plate) Apparently one of my screws was a micron or two smaller than the others. This screw belongs to the hole above the optical drive, which is also apparently a couple of microns smaller than the others. It took seven attempts to figure which screw had originally been in that hole; all the other screws were too large, but fitted perfectly everywhere else.
Bizarre much?
Will -
It might be a matter of how the screws are driven in, and not that they're slightly different sizes. When I reassembled my MacBook, a couple of the screws, including the one over the optical drive you mention, were hard to drive in and jutted up a little bit instead of sitting entirely flush. Swapping screws didn't help. The solution was to unscrew them and drive them in at a bit of an angle - perpendicular to the slightly curved surface of the back plate where the screw holes were, instead of fully vertical with respect to the ground the Macbook is sitting on. Doing it that way, the screws were easier to drive in and they all ended up flush in their holes. Didn't matter which screws they were. (I swapped a few around just to check after reading this.)
Andrew Janke -
I had no such screw issues. Either there are differences in manufacturing lots or I just got incredibly lucky during reassembly!
xtophr -