your computer would be close to useless
without your trackpad and if yours is in
need of a little love you've come to the
right place because today I'm going to
show you how to replace the trackpad in
your 13-inch MacBook Air hi I'm
Gwendolyn with iFixit and for this
repair you're going to need a p5
pentalobe screwdriver a phillips double
zero screwdriver a spudger and a t5 Torx
screwdriver I have all the tools I need
and I also have my magnetic mat it's not
listed as one of the required tools but
I never do a repair without it it helps
me stay organized and keeps me from
losing important parts today I'm working
on an early 2015 version of the MacBook
Air while some of the steps are very
similar to other versions of the MacBook
Air always follow the step by step guide
for your specific machine you can find
all the guys on ifixit.com these guides
not only walk you through the complete
repair but you can also see comments and
notes from other users who have followed
it to help you when you do your repair
let's get started first things first
make sure your computer is completely
turned off and disconnected from any
power source then flip your air over so
we can tackle the back panel to do that
we're going to unscrew the pentalobe
screws holding it in place there are 10
screws total but there are two that are
right under where the display meet the
case that are a different size so make
sure you separate those from the rest on
your magnetic mat when you take them out
now you can pull the lower case off with
your fingers before we go any further
we're going to disconnect the battery
Apple made this part easy for us by
adding a plastic pull tab pull it
towards the front of the air to
disconnect the battery from the logic
board but make sure you don't pull up
and damage the connector now that the
battery is disconnected let's work on
removing it starting with the five t5
screws securing the battery to the upper
case two of those five screws are a
different size so just make sure you
label them correctly when you take them
out
time to take the battery out but make
sure you avoid squeezing or touching the
four exposed lithium polymer cells take
the battery out by lifting the edge
nearest the logic board with the battery
out of the way we can see the trackpad
ribbon cable in order to disconnect that
we need to release the retaining flap on
the ZIF connector with the tip of our
spudger and then pull it directly out of
the connector next is the keyboard
ribbon cable this one is fun because
it's folded over on itself while
carefully lifting the keyboard ribbon
cable with one hand use the tip of your
spudger to flip up the retaining plaque
then you can pull the cable from the
connector okay onto the phillips screws
holding the trackpad in place there's
quite a few 12 to be exact
1/2 or for the upper case in the other
half are for the brackets this is where
the magnetic map really comes in handy
those are small screws and they love to
roll away when you're not looking once
the screws are out you can remove the
brackets from the air
one more screw stands in our way a t5
torx set screw near the front edge of
the upper case now that there's nothing
holding our trackpad down all we have to
do is lift up with our spreader and
remove it from the upper case for
reassembly we recommend you follow the
step by step guide on ifixit.com
in Reverse or you can watch the MacBook
Air reassembly video on our channel you
can find all the parts and tools you
need for this and many other repairs at
ifixit.com and let us know how it goes
you can find me on twitter at Gwendolyn
gay or follow i fix it add i fix it
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