Introduction
Use this guide to replace a damaged heat sink or to reapply thermal paste.
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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 contact its socket.
My macbook air's configuration (Mid-2011 core i5) has a different battery connector. It slides into a receptacle on the logic board. If your battery connector does not look like the one pictured, use the pointy end of a spudger to depress the small indentation in the middle of the battery connector cable terminal, and pull aft to release the clasp mechanism.
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Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the SSD to the logic board.
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Use a spudger to help lift the free end of the SSD just enough to grab it with your other hand.
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Pull the drive straight out of its socket and remove it from the logic board.
When you've completed all these steps to replace your SSD, don't despair if the MacBook Air shows a flashing folder with a question mark when you first power up the MacBook Air.
- Power off the machine, then keep the option key (= Alt key) pressed down, power on the machine again, and keep the option key pressed down until a prompt appears.
- If you've set a firmware password, then type it in at the prompt
- You should now be prompted for a hard drive to boot from. Select "EFI Boot"
- The MacBook Air should now boot to a window showing "OS X Utilities"
- Click on the at the top left, then select "Startup Disk..."
- Select your SDD/Hard drive, and restart.
When replacing the SSD, be careful about the connector orientation. Replacement boards look almost the same if they are upside-down. Note that the connector is not reversible - there is a notch that will only line up if the board is right-side up. If it doesn't seem to line up, flip the board over.
can i ask some links for some ssd’s that are compatible with that macbook model ?
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the I/O board cable up from its socket on the I/O board.
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Peel the I/O board cable up from the adhesive securing it to the fan.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the I/O board connector up and out of its socket on the logic board
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Remove the I/O board cable.
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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 5.2 mm T5 Torx screws
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One 3.6 mm T5 Torx screw
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Lift the fan out of the upper case and carefully pull the fan ribbon cable out of its socket as you remove it from the Air.
The replacement fan's ribbon cable is a few mm longer than the original. I t will loop upwards a bit after mounting. The rubber lip on top of the old fan needs to be transferred to the new fan.
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Remove the four 2.5 mm T5 Torx screws securing the heat sink to the logic board.
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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.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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Un commentaire
I did this last night to my macbook air 11" mid 2012. I had been running at 100 to 105°C, and had up to 10 minute delays coming back from a sleep, while the CPU hit 100% with high temps. When I got into the macbook, it was pretty easy... though the parts are small. Getting to the heatsink was easier than I have found on most desktop ATX case machines. The thermal paste on the CPU was dried and cake-like. I gently removed the paste with the spudger, and it came off easily. I cleaned it up with Arctic paste remover and cleaner, and then reassembled with arctic silver 5. I used the long, rice grain - like bead of grease approach, rather than the recommended smearing technique. Right now, I have a number apps open, and am running at 60°C (vs. the mid 90°C range), and it comes back from sleep immediatly. I don't see the dreaded kernal_task, and i have loaded up the machine and it only hits about 85°. I think in general, I am running about 30°C cooler, and the machine is performing like new again.
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 - Réponse
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 -
I sourced all the parts from ifixit, plus a magnetic project mat which I found to be very useful for organising the teardown and reassembly.
Allen - Réponse
The magnetic mat is
GERARD SZAREK -