Introduction
You can install hard drives up to 9mm thick.
What you need
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Use a coin to turn both battery locking screws 90 degrees to the left.
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Remove the battery cover.
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Remove the battery from the computer by pulling up on the plastic tab.
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Pull the keyboard release tabs toward you and lift up on the keyboard until it pops free. Note that the keyboard ribbon is still attached to the logic board, so you cannot completely remove the keyboard yet.
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If the keyboard does not come free, use a small flathead screwdriver to turn the keyboard locking screw (between F4 and F5 key) 180 degrees in either direction and try again.
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Rotate the keyboard away from the screen and rest it face-down on the trackpad area.
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Grasp the clear plastic tab on the airport card and pull up and toward the display.
Note to those who want to install an airport card to a laptop here that doesn't have a card. The proper orientation is with the bar code facing up, and the "Airport" artwork and logo facing down. There are small slots on the bottom of the card that fit into pins below the trackpad. You will know it is properly slotted because the top of the card will touch the handles of the RAM shield.
The proper orientation of the antenna is that it is plugged in from the right side of the top of the airport card, with the cable winding up from the right to the left.
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Pull the CD-ROM drive tray partly out.
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Remove the silver Phillips screw from the plastic casing.
Note to people whose Clamshell ibook doesn't have the CD tray cover any more -- you do not have to open the drive for this part because when you flip the machine to remove the screw, it will be visible. The cover normally obscures this part.
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Turn the computer over.
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Remove the three Phillips screws.
Please note: these screws can (and may!) strip easily, so take extra care in removing them!
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1) With your fingernails, grasp the locking bar on either side and pull up a small amount (about 1/16" or 2 mm).
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2) After disengaging the locking bar, slide the cable out of the connector.
In part 1, you can use a small flat-blade screwdriver to lift the locking bar. This will not put pressure on the cable itself. Each end of the locking bar will click when it has been lifted sufficiently.
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Grasp the upper case on either side of the keyboard space and rotate up and away from the screen.
When replacing the upper case, test the trackpad button to make sure it clicks before proceeding. If it does not operate properly, remove the upper case and reattach it.
Once you free the back half, pull the the case forward, not up so much, or you’ll break the tabs on the sides by the optical drive on the right, and about the same place on the left.
I second this.
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If the optical drive is not open, use a straightened paperclip to open it now.
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Remove the 5 mm standoff.
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Remove the following Phillips screws:
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Remove the longer Phillips screw from the middle-rear of the modem shield.
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Remove the three identical Phillips screws, two on either side of the EMI fingers, and the remaining one on the right side of the modem shield.
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Remove the larger Phillips screw that secures the EMI fingers to the modem board.
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Remove the EMI fingers.
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Remove the Phillips screw from the left hinge.
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Peel up the airport cable from beneath the yellow tape.
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Remove the three small Phillips screws from the clutch cover.
When reinstalling, hold the display so the clutch cover is flush with the panel below. Make sure no wires are caught before tightening the screws.
Note that there are small hooks that hold the clutch cover down. When reinstalling, be sure to hook the cover to them from the back, or you will have problems with the cover catching on the lid as you close it.
I second this..
Jamba -
I third this. Couldn’t figure out why the lid was clunking after reinstalling. Note they’re plastic and facing away from the device.
205style -
When putting the computer back together, I recommend screwing down the clutch cover before the larger display screws, since the clutch cover can move around a lot.
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Remove the two small Phillips screws from the RJ-11 board.
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Deroute the speaker cable from the metal framework and disconnect it from the logic board.
I don’t believe you need to deroute the speaker cable; just disconnect it from the logic board and leave it taped on where it is.
I second this.
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There are six screws to remove (if you have an iBook without Firewire the screw circled in orange will not be present):
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Two short, flat-headed Phillips screws near the battery compartment.
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One short, round-headed Phillips near the speaker cable connector. (This is present on some models, but not others - especially the older ones)
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One short, flat-headed Phillips between the ethernet and USB ports.
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One short, flat-headed Phillips to the left of the hole-y (polite laughter) area.
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One long, round-headed Phillips screw near the power receptacle.
When reassembling, don’t forget to re run the audio cable through the hole in the EMI shield, the one just above the screw with the orange circle on the left side of the picture. Ask me how I know.
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Lift the right side of the EMI shield up and pull it out of the computer.
Note when reassembling, it is easy to bend the small shield tabs in the upper left area following the curve of the case when putting it back. So be careful.
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Remove the three 5 mm standoffs securing the hard drive to the logic board.
If you don’t have a nut driver, loosen the standoffs with needle nosed pliers, and then thread a screw from one of the earlier steps into the standoff until it is snug, then unscrew the screw and the standoff as one.
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Pull the hard drive cable up from the logic board, using the plastic loop.
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Lift the hard drive, with metal bracket attached, from the logic board.
Note that when reassembling the computer, there are small slots on the bottom of the hard drive bay frame that slot in to very small slots on the motherboard / logic board. If you have trouble putting the hard drive frame back on, check for these slots.
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Take the metal bracket away from the hard drive.
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Disconnect the hard drive cable from the hard drive by applying even pressure on both sides while maintaining a firm grip on the drive itself.
This is far from being tricky, nothing more than removing a bare classic IDE cable from any old PC. Just have to pull the ribbon gently and it comes free easily…
Compared to all the junk we had to remove in all f***ing previous 35 steps to access a stupid hard drive (which should be the FIRST most accessible part after RAM and battery!), trust me, this is NOTHING!
Moreover, you don't have to remove all the standoffs from the bracket to get the HDD: only untighten them a little bit so you can slightly move the bracket from the HDD in order to lift it.
Hmm. I hope to add a comment that actuallyally informs, as opposed to criticizes. When reassembling, there are two tabs on the hard drive bracket that slot into slots on the logic board. Take care to re mount the bracket properly, or things wont fit later in the reassembly.
Note to folks who want to use a compact flash/SSD to IDE adapter, that the IDE cable here has a pin blocked in the middle of the row, which was designed that way to make sure the cable was plugged in the correct orientation to the original type of hard drive. You might find your adapter does not have a pin removed and that will block you from plugging in the ibook's IDE cable. So you will have to snap off the corresponding pin on your adapter for the cable to fit.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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Attached Documents
8 Comments
after several assembly and disassemblies I found an SSD solution that works - essentially a PATA/EID to SD card adaptor from ebay (china source) for a few bucks and then I used carbon copy cloner to image and clone the active 6GB disk. My failed attempts involved 32GB SSD from Kingspan - would not boot (with any Jumper setting - very frustrating with a 30min each assemble/disassemble to test!)
Hi, thanks for the SD card adapter suggestion. Super helpful. Are you able to provide a link or item name please for the adapter? Thank you.
Great guide, I followed to the end. I swapped out my drive for a compact flash adapter and a 16GB card. My Clamshell runs absolutely silently. I’m hoping this will extend the battery life, too.
One thing I noticed when putting the display back on is the segment between the joints had to fit on to some hooks on the lower part of the case. That allowed the tiny screw holes between the joints to line up nicely.
Made the mistake of not fitting these hooks on the lower part of the case before finishing disassembly - I was wondering why the clutch cover was so difficult to re-attach, and this was the culprit. Thanks for this comment
Oh my gosh this was a stressful disassembly. I really didn’t want to take it apart again. Especially around the screen attachments. I worked up a sweat just doing that and getting frustrated. But I did it. And my back and neck hate me for it. LOL
How large of a drive will this clamshell support? I heard something like 128gb?
