call me old-fashioned but I still love
making Nick CDs for my friends which is
why I was especially sad when I dropped
my math book causing my optical drive to
fail fortunately I was able to repair it
and it's as good as new
hi I'm MJ with iFixit and today I'm
going to show you how to replace the
optical drive in your MacBook this video
is just an overview so as I repair this
computer I'll try to give you some tips
on the trickier parts you'll notice it's
actually pretty easy but you'll still
want to follow the step by step
instructions and the repair guide on our
site
the MacBook that I'm working on is an
original core duo model if you're not
sure which model you have check the ID
or Mac section at ifixit.com because not
every macbook uses the same kind of
optical drive as far as tools are
concerned you won't need a whole lot to
complete this repair I've got a Phillips
double zero screwdriver from our 26
piece bit driver kit a plastic spudger a
coin and of course my replacement
optical drive I also have a screw tray
which isn't totally necessary but their
end up being a lot of screws and this
keeps them organized pretty well now
that I've got all of my parts and tools
laid out I can get started first thing
I'm going to do is remove the battery
and to do that I'm just going to use my
coin and unscrew the battery locking
screw and it should just come right out
there are three screws holding this
memory door in place so I'm going to go
ahead and remove those
and this should just come right out of
the computer
there are several screws I'm going to
have to remove before the top case will
come off but make sure you're following
the repair guide because you don't need
to remove every single screw that's
visible only the ones that are necessary
ok with all those screws removed I
should be able to slip over my computer
and start removing the top case I'm
going to start by kind of gently prying
it up towards the back of the computer
and as I get around to the front when I
run into a problem I'm going to use my
spudger and kind of like rotate it up to
release the latch which is sometimes
more difficult down near the trackpad
there we go now don't go yanking this
off right away because there is a ribbon
cable that's keeping the top case
connected to the logic board so you want
to disconnect that with your spudger
first so with the top case removed we
can see the optical drive right in front
of us but don't get too excited because
there are several cables and screws for
me to disconnect and remove before we
even get to the optical drive I'm going
to start that by removing the hard drive
because there are two screws hidden
underneath it
there
with all those ribbon cables
disconnected and screws removed we can
remove the optical drive from the
computer and there are a few bits of
this that we're going to transfer over
to the new optical drive this ribbon
cable this bluetooth antenna holder
there's a bracket on this side and a
bracket on the other side the bracket on
this side is held on with adhesive so
you're going to use your spudger to kind
of pry it up you might bend it but try
not to and if you encounter considerable
difficulty you could use a heat gun or
hair dryer to remove it
now there's probably enough adhesive on
these bits that you could reuse the
existing adhesive on the new optical
drive but in case there's not you could
just use contact cement okay
that's it all I have to do is transfer
these bits over to the new optical drive
reassemble this MacBook and I'm back to
making mix CDs for my friends of course
you can find all the parts and tools for
this and many other repairs at
ifixit.com if you run into problems
during your repairs there are lots of
solutions in their MacBook or pair
manual on our site thanks for watching
and happy repairing