The Bits Behind The Bits: MacBook Teardown

I had the opportunity of disassembling an older Macbook this spring. A friend of mine gave me her old laptop after I helped her set up her new laptop and transfer her files. I have been considering building my own desktop, but I have never messed around inside a computer before. I figured I need some experiencing handling sensitive electronic components without any pressure of breaking things, so getting an old unwanted laptop was perfect!

This model is a White Macbook from Mid-2010, known as model A1342. As help, I had iFixit’s teardown guide to follow.

Here is the laptop initially.

Before opening it up

I started with removing the bottom plate, which was held in place by eight screws, Phillips #00 size.

The innards exposed!

We can see that it is all neatly packaged into the available space. In the upper left corner is the silver DVD drive, with the wi-fi antenna running across just above it. The bottom left black rectangle is the battery. To the right of the battery lies the hard drive, and above that are the RAM and CPU. In the very top middle you can spot the fan. The motherboard sits on the top left, surrounding the fan.

I began by removing the hard drive. You just have to remove the SATA cable that connects it to the motherboard, and a two-screw retaining bracket,  and it comes right out.

The SATA cable is disconnected from the HDD, which pops right out.

A standard 2.5″ laptop drive

Then the upper left corner is stripped. First the CD drive comes out, and with it the wi-fi antenna.

The hard drive, CD Drive, SATA cable, and Airport antenna laid out

I then removed the fan:

These fans are small, but move lots of air

Then the RAM cards were removed. They snapped right out of their slots from the motherboard. Knowing how to remove RAM was useful later when I upgraded RAM in my old laptop. Check that post out for more information.

Dusty and old, but you served us well. And now your watch has ended.

Now only the motherboard and battery remain!

Looks pretty empty

Removing the battery is a bit precarious, because you have to be careful when popping out the plug that connects to the motherboard, as there may be remaining charge in the battery that can shock you. If possible, use a grounding strap when removing the battery.

The battery and the heat sink.

Finally, we get to the motherboard. I am always fascinated by circuit boards, and the amount of engineering that has gone into creating something so delicate and yet so useful. Removing the motherboard  and being able to see what lies underneath was probably my favorite part of the entire process.

Bottom view of the motherboard

Turning over the motherboard we see the a bunch of components, and two green squares. These are the GPU and CPU of the computer. This model’s CPU ran at 2.26 GHz, which is pretty fast. However, clock speed is not a good indicator of the overall “fastness” of a computer. My current laptop is a Macbook Pro Mid 2012 and runs at 2.3 GHz, but runs way faster than those Late 2009 Macbooks. If you want a fast computer, make sure you have enough RAM (8 GB is usually enough) and an SSD drive.

Bottom view of the motherboard. Note the CPU and GPU still have thermal paste on them. That is where the heat sink attached, to lead as much heat away from the processors as possible.

With the screen detached nothing is really left in the main body of the laptop.

Now we can see the exposed trackpad that was underneath the battery. On older MacBooks the trackpad can stop working because the Lithium Ion battery swells, putting pressure on the trackpad from underneath. If this happens, seek immediate repairs!

Here are all three chassis parts laid out in a row.

The three containment pieces

With the entire MacBook now dismantled, I tried to organize the pieces in a neat and orderly fashion:

It went okay

I briefly considered trying to put the computer back together, but I’m pretty sure I accidentally snapped some crucial part early on. Now I know to be more careful next time, when it actually matters!

An attempt of putting the Laptop back together, without its containment.

Hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading!