Macbook Pro 13 Unibody Late 2011 Optical Drive Replacement Repair Guide

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

                          30 - 45 minutes

Sections

Lower Case
2 steps
Battery Connection
2 steps
Optical Drive
11 steps
Optical Drive
1 step

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BackMacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011
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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              Lower Case

Remove the following ten screws:
Three 14.4 mm Phillips #00 screws
Three 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws
Four 3.5 mm shouldered Phillips #00 screws
When replacing the small screws, align them perpendicular to the slight curvature of the case (they don’t go straight down).

Remove the following ten screws:

Three 14.4 mm Phillips #00 screws

Three 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws

Four 3.5 mm shouldered Phillips #00 screws

When replacing the small screws, align them perpendicular to the slight curvature of the case (they don’t go straight down).

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Step 2

Use your fingers to pry the lower case away from the body of the MacBook near the vent.
Remove the lower case.

Use your fingers to pry the lower case away from the body of the MacBook near the vent.

Remove the lower case.

Step 3

              Battery Connection

Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.
It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to “walk” it out of its socket. Be careful with the corners of the connectors, they can be easily broken off.

Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.

It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to “walk” it out of its socket. Be careful with the corners of the connectors, they can be easily broken off.

Step 4

Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

Step 5

              Optical Drive

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Step 6

Carefully pull the camera cable out of its socket on the logic board.

Pull the cable parallel to the face of the logic board. Pulling it upward may damage the logic board or the cable itself.

Step 7

Carefully move the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable out of the way as you peel the camera cable off the adhesive securing it to the subwoofer and the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.
De-route the camera cable out from under the retaining finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Carefully move the AirPort/Bluetooth ribbon cable out of the way as you peel the camera cable off the adhesive securing it to the subwoofer and the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

De-route the camera cable out from under the retaining finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Step 8

Use the tip of a spudger to pry the antenna connector closest to the logic board up from its socket on the AirPort/Bluetooth board.
De-route the antenna cable from under the finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Use the tip of a spudger to pry the antenna connector closest to the logic board up from its socket on the AirPort/Bluetooth board.

De-route the antenna cable from under the finger molded into the AirPort/Bluetooth bracket.

Step 9

Remove the following five screws:
Two 10.3 mm Phillips screws
Two 3.1 mm Phillips screws
One 5 mm Phillips screw

Remove the following five screws:

Two 10.3 mm Phillips screws

Two 3.1 mm Phillips screws

One 5 mm Phillips screw

Step 10

Pull the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the Subwoofer upward near the center of the side of the optical drive until they clear each other.
Move the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the subwoofer away from the top of the optical drive.

Pull the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the Subwoofer upward near the center of the side of the optical drive until they clear each other.

Move the AirPort/Bluetooth assembly and the subwoofer away from the top of the optical drive.

Step 11

Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable out from under the retaining finger near the side of the optical drive.
Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable upward to disconnect it from the logic board.

Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable out from under the retaining finger near the side of the optical drive.

Pull the right speaker/subwoofer cable upward to disconnect it from the logic board.

Step 12

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the hard drive cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.
Bend the hard drive cable away from the optical drive.

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the hard drive cable connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Bend the hard drive cable away from the optical drive.

Step 13

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the optical drive connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Use the flat end of a spudger to pry the optical drive connector up from its socket on the logic board.

Step 14

Remove the three 2.7 mm Phillips screws securing the optical drive to the upper case.

Remove the three 2.7 mm Phillips screws securing the optical drive to the upper case.

Step 15

Pull the optical drive upward from its edge closest to the display and remove it from the upper case.

Pull the optical drive upward from its edge closest to the display and remove it from the upper case.

Step 16

              Optical Drive

Pull the optical drive cable away from the optical drive.
Be sure to pull on the connector, not the cable itself.
Remove the two black Phillips #0 screws securing the small metal mounting bracket. Transfer this bracket to your new optical drive or hard drive enclosure.

Pull the optical drive cable away from the optical drive.

Be sure to pull on the connector, not the cable itself.

Remove the two black Phillips #0 screws securing the small metal mounting bracket. Transfer this bracket to your new optical drive or hard drive enclosure.

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

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                                      with 4 other contributors

                    Phillip Takahashi

Member since: 08/22/2011

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Muhammad Farooqi - Nov 25, 2017

Wow thanks.

I finally successfully installed caddy for extra hdd. Thanks ALLAH. and thank you guys.

I actually swapped my internal hdd with an ssd. And put hdd into caddy. And replaced caddy with this dvd drive.

After installing I realized I shouldn’t move my internal hdd to caddy. I could just put ssd into caddy. And make that my startup disk.

Anyways. It was a great experience with removing HDD and DVD Drive.

Joe - Jan 19, 2018

I would NOT use the SSD in the caddy and have that be your startup disk. The optical drive uses PATA instead of SATA and is older transfer speed.

Introduction#

What you need#

Introduction

What you need