How To: MacBook LCD Replacement

Macbook LCD Replacement Maybe your roommate stepped on your MacBook.
Or maybe you put your backpackand threw it into the overhead bin of an airplane and somebody
squashed it. Regardless of how it happens, broken LCDs are such a bummer, and the repair
will usually cost you a couple hundred dollars. Some people might even go out and buy a whole
new computer! Hi I'm mj with iFixit, and today I'm going to show you how to replace the LCD
on your MacBook yourself. It'll save you a lot of money, and it's actually pretty fun.
It's possible to replace the LCD on any MacBook, but today I'm specifically repairing an original
plastic MacBook, and as I do I'll give you some tips on the trickier parts. Before you
order your replacement LCD, it's important to know you've got the right part for the
right MacBook make sure you've got the right part for the right MacBook so check the model
number of your computer on our site first. What's great about this repair is that you
hardly need any tools to do it-- I've got a coin, a plastic spudger, a card that I don't
mind damaging, a Phillips 00 screwdriver from our 26 piece bit driver kit, our replacement
LCD of course and a screw tray which isn't totally necessary but it useful since there
are a lot of screws and a lot of steps.
This is just an overview, so when you're replacing your LCD it's important that you're following
the repair guide on our site. I've jumped ahead we'll get started with the display assembly
removed. It's is a good time to mention that although it is possible to replace your LCD
without removing the display assembly, I wouldn't really recommend it. Removing the display
assembly does take a little time, but I think it's worth it because in the end it's easier
and you're much less likely to break it Now that I've got my parts and tools laid out
I can get started on my repair.
We're going to use a card, a card that you don't mind damaging, to free up these little
plastic tabs along the side of the display that are holding the display bezel to the
display assembly. So what I am doing is releasing the tabs that hold the display bezel to the
display assembly. When you get near the iSight Camera your going to want to be a little more
gentle. As you're working your way around the display bezel some of the little grey
connector tabs might come free and that's not really a big deal, you just want to push
them down into the metal housing below. As you get to the bottom of the display you want
to make sure you are inserting the card in between the metal frame and the bezel, and
not between the metal frame and the LCD.
The Next thing I am going to do is remove the clutch cover and i am going to start by
taking out these three screws. You want to be careful not just to pull this thing off,
take these cables and kind of slide them out of the gap you've made. Like that. And I will
do the same thing over here...
on the other side.
So, now that the clutch cover has been removed we can see the inverter board. This actually
powers the back light for the LCD and if your back light goes out, it's probably not the
LCD that's the problem, it's probably this inverter board.
I am just disconnecting by unplugging the cables on either side.
Now I am going to use my plastic spudger to remove this bezel on the left side. Just going
to insert and push it towards the LCD. It's important that you don't lift it up vertically
because these connectors are horizontal and if you do you might break your connectors
and then it won't go back on.
Ok, I got that one off, now I am basically going to do the same thing on the other side.
Now that I've removed both of these bezels I can get to unscrewing all the screws that
are holding the LCD in place. There are a lot of them and this is where the screw tray
comes in handy.
With all those screws removed you should be able to just lift the LCD up and out of the
case pretty easily.
I am going to put the case aside because we are not going to need it for a while and take
a quick look at the top of the back of your LCD, it's green and it's got some transparent
film on top your's may even say do not touch. You don't want to touch that area, it's bad
news and you can cause irreparable damage to your LCD if your not careful.
We're gonna flip this over and put this down and we're going to use my spudger to go underneath
these cables and take the tape off the back.
If something happens to the tape, or you throw it away, I guess it's no big deal you could
just use scotch tape to replace it.
Once you've got these cables free, you're going to set them aside because you are going
to use them on your replacement LCD.
So now that all that tape is loosened I can disconnect the iSight cable and this cable
here and take these off and put them aside.
All that's left to do is remove the screws around the perimeter of the frame, so we can
take the frame off. But before I can do that I need to de-route this cable. But you want
to be kind of careful, you don't want to yank on it.
So with the metal frame removed we can say Bye Bye to our old LCD and install our new
LCD.
Also while you're at it if you wanted to you could swap out the white Apple on the case
for the old school rainbow apple or a different color. It's kind of fun but totally something
different.
Obviously this repair doesn't require a whole lot of special knowledge or special tools
but if all those screws are too much trouble you could always just replace the entire display
assembly.
At ifixit.com you can find all the parts are tools for this and many other repairs. If
you run into any problems there are lots of solutions in the Answers section of our site.