Changing the Screen on a Unibody Macbook

There are a few different types of Macbook that you may come across. First of all they are divided into a standard Macbook, a Macbook pro and a Macbook Air. Then depending on what year it was made, you'll find something called a unibody. This article aims to describe the principal differences between all of these

All Modern Macbooks are now unibody. This means that there is no 'trim' as such around the LCD, but a sheet of glass covering the entire panel. This serves a number of purposes, including protecting the panel itself and acting as a diffuser to help even distribute the image output, resulting in enhanced color reproduction and a seemingly sharp display. Also, what with Apple being Apple, it does look much better than the non unibody models.

You may have come here because you have damaged your Macbook screen. After all, Macbook screen replacement is what we do best. So you may be sitting there, having decided to have a go at it yourself, looking at your unibody Macbook and wondering, How do I take that off? And there lies the problem.

The design of the Unibody uses no screws to fix the glass panel to the LCD panel, making it appear to be one solid piece, and it does look great. Removing this panel requires some special tools and special skills.

You'll need:

A low powered hot air gun

nylon spatula

at least one (preferably 2) suction cups

Patience, a steady hand and some skill

Nylon dental pick

It should go without saying that using a hot air gun on such a sensitive device needs to be done with great care. Too much heat and you risk causing damage to the underlining cabling and circuitry. Too little and you risk damaging the glass, causing you further expense.

The process is:

Soften the adhesive behind the glass with the hot air gun.

As you're doing this, gently lift the glass with a suction cup until the glass starts to come away.

Insert the nylon spatula under the glass and carefully work into the adhesive, still applying gentle heat from the hot air gun.

Work your way all around until you have lifted the entire glass.

A second suction cup will help you lift the glass more evenly.

Store the glass in a safe, dust free location.

Disconnect the cable from the inverter.

Unscrew the LCD from the hinges and gently remove, taking care to ensure that no cable remain connected.

Next insert a new LCD into the hinges and carefully fasten the screws.

Now, reattach the inverter cable (REALLY fiddly, a nylon dental pick will help a lot here).

Ensure that the glass is dust free. At this point it is strongly recommended that you change the adhesive tape.

Carefully line up the glass to the shape of the body.

Gently push the glass over the LCD panel.

Use the hot air gun to gently soften the adhesive to give a good grip on the trim.