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Featured Guide

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

18

Time Required

                          30 minutes - 1 hour

Sections

3

  • Top Housing
  • 6 steps
  • Mass Storage Unit
  • 5 steps
  • Hard Drive
  • 7 steps

Flags

1

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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              Top Housing
  • Power down your Mac mini, disconnect all of the cables, and flip it over.
  • Insert the Jimmy into the crack between the aluminum top housing and the plastic lower housing.
  • The Jimmy should reach a stop about 3/8" down.

Power down your Mac mini, disconnect all of the cables, and flip it over.

Insert the Jimmy into the crack between the aluminum top housing and the plastic lower housing.

The Jimmy should reach a stop about 3/8" down.

1024

Step 2

  • Gently bend the Jimmy outwards to pry the crack open a little larger and lift the lower housing up a small amount.
  • There are several plastic clips on the lower housing that fit into a channel in the aluminum top housing. Your goal is to use the Jimmy to push these clips inward enough to free them from the channel, while gently pulling up on the lower housing.

Gently bend the Jimmy outwards to pry the crack open a little larger and lift the lower housing up a small amount.

There are several plastic clips on the lower housing that fit into a channel in the aluminum top housing. Your goal is to use the Jimmy to push these clips inward enough to free them from the channel, while gently pulling up on the lower housing.

Step 3

  • Once you have the first side free, rotate the Mac mini and start prying up on the front edge.
  • Use the same prying motion to both bend the clips inward and lift the lower housing up out of the top housing.

Once you have the first side free, rotate the Mac mini and start prying up on the front edge.

Use the same prying motion to both bend the clips inward and lift the lower housing up out of the top housing.

Step 4

  • You may need to move the Jimmy along the edge to pry up all of the clips. Be patient and do a little bit at a time.

You may need to move the Jimmy along the edge to pry up all of the clips. Be patient and do a little bit at a time.

Step 5

  • Keep working around the perimeter, freeing the clips along the final edge.

Keep working around the perimeter, freeing the clips along the final edge.

Step 6

  • Flip the Mac mini back over and lift the top housing off of the lower housing.

Flip the Mac mini back over and lift the top housing off of the lower housing.

Step 7

              Mass Storage Unit
  • If your mini does not have Airport installed, then skip this step.
  • Grasp the Airport antenna board and lift it off of the two plastic posts holding it in place. You may need to push back the black plastic tab jutting through the lower left corner of the board.

If your mini does not have Airport installed, then skip this step.

Grasp the Airport antenna board and lift it off of the two plastic posts holding it in place. You may need to push back the black plastic tab jutting through the lower left corner of the board.

Step 8

  • Remove the yellow tape securing the power button cable to the black plastic framework.

Remove the yellow tape securing the power button cable to the black plastic framework.

Step 9

  • Remove the three black Phillips screws securing the plastic framework to the logic board and lower case.

Remove the three black Phillips screws securing the plastic framework to the logic board and lower case.

Step 10

  • Grasp the optical drive and mass storage unit in one hand and lift up enough so that you can see beneath it.

Grasp the optical drive and mass storage unit in one hand and lift up enough so that you can see beneath it.

Step 11

  • If your mini has neither an Airport card nor a Bluetooth board, you can simply lift the optical drive up and away. Otherwise, you need to disconnect the Airport and/or Bluetooth antenna cables first.
  • With your free hand, pull the Bluetooth cable up from Bluetooth board and unplug the Airport antenna cable from the right of the Airport card. Caution: both of these connections are very small. When re-assembling unit after repair, you may want to remove the two screws holding the airport card to the assembly and lift the card up and out to re-attach the cables.

If your mini has neither an Airport card nor a Bluetooth board, you can simply lift the optical drive up and away. Otherwise, you need to disconnect the Airport and/or Bluetooth antenna cables first.

With your free hand, pull the Bluetooth cable up from Bluetooth board and unplug the Airport antenna cable from the right of the Airport card. Caution: both of these connections are very small. When re-assembling unit after repair, you may want to remove the two screws holding the airport card to the assembly and lift the card up and out to re-attach the cables.

Step 12

              Hard Drive
  • Remove the three long, black Phillips screws from the corners of the fan. These screws are strongly threaded, and will offer significant resistance.
  • There is no screw in the bottom left corner.

Remove the three long, black Phillips screws from the corners of the fan. These screws are strongly threaded, and will offer significant resistance.

There is no screw in the bottom left corner.

Step 13

  • Lift the fan out of the computer.

Lift the fan out of the computer.

Step 14

  • Peel up the yellow tape securing the speaker and fan cables to the bottom of the hard drive.

Peel up the yellow tape securing the speaker and fan cables to the bottom of the hard drive.

Step 15

  • Use a #1 Phillips to remove the two screws attaching the right side of the hard drive to the plastic framework. You’ll need to angle the screwdriver down to get access to the lower right screw. Be sure to apply steady force to the screws and turn slowly so as not to strip them.

Use a #1 Phillips to remove the two screws attaching the right side of the hard drive to the plastic framework. You’ll need to angle the screwdriver down to get access to the lower right screw. Be sure to apply steady force to the screws and turn slowly so as not to strip them.

Step 16

  • Use the same screwdriver and steady force to remove the two screws attaching the left side of the hard drive to the plastic framework.

Use the same screwdriver and steady force to remove the two screws attaching the left side of the hard drive to the plastic framework.

Step 17

  • Use a spudger to pry the hard drive away from the interface board. Wedge the flat end of the spudger between the interface board and the far right side of hard drive and wiggle back and forth until the hard drive slides out about a sixteenth of an inch. Then move to the other side and repeat the procedure. Go back and forth until the hard drive slides free.
  • When reinstalling the hard drive, make sure that you don’t slide the top pins into the lower row of holes.

Use a spudger to pry the hard drive away from the interface board. Wedge the flat end of the spudger between the interface board and the far right side of hard drive and wiggle back and forth until the hard drive slides out about a sixteenth of an inch. Then move to the other side and repeat the procedure. Go back and forth until the hard drive slides free.

When reinstalling the hard drive, make sure that you don’t slide the top pins into the lower row of holes.

Step 18

  • Lift the hard drive out of the assembly.

Lift the hard drive out of the assembly.

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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Attached Documents

  • Mac-Mini-PowerPC-Screw-Guide.pdf
  • PDF - 234.52 kb
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Mac-Mini-PowerPC-Screw-Guide.pdf

PDF - 234.52 kb

Author

                                      with 6 other contributors 


                    iRobot

Member since: 09/24/2009

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LambdaCalculus - Oct 10, 2017

Reply

Pulled the 40GB drive from my Mac Mini G4 and replaced it with a solid state drive (mSATA to PATA enclosure with a 120GB mSATA drive). Since my Mac Mini runs MorphOS instead of OS X, it’s been absolutely screaming; MorphOS booted in 10 seconds on the HDD, and now it’s “blink and you’ll miss it” fast on the SSD! :)

Al Hartman - Jan 11, 2019

Reply

I dropped the three screws on the floor and can’t find them. What size are these screws so I can buy new ones?

fordeverblue - Mar 18, 2021

Reply

I made those changes with an PATA to SATA adapter but my SSD isn’t recognized, do you have a solution or a specific accessory?

Another problem I have is in C704 capacitor (closely to the processor backward from DVI port) that is broken…Do you know what are the main characteristics of it to change it? Thanks…

glaurung - Apr 19, 2021

Reply

@fordeverblue Check the jumper settings on the drive. The optical drive and the hard drive share the same channel, so one has to be set to primary and the other to secondary (“master” and “slave”). “Cable Select” won’t work AFAIK. A lot of Apple combo drives have no jumpers and are always primary, so the HDD has to be secondary. Some PATA to IDE adapters have no jumpers or have jumpers without documentation, so some trial and error may be in order.

fordeverblue - Apr 19, 2021

Reply

Hi, thanks for your advice. I was thinking that the HDD was the primary but if you say that the Combo Drive is I will try to put the Jumper as Secondary.