I had a classic Apple in the display of my iBook and want to do the same thing on my MacBook. Anyone have a guide on disassembly? The iBook was insanely easy.. no exposed screws on the MacBook though.

If you ever have a question about disassembly or part replacement, the best place to start is iFixIt.com. They have a MacBook guide at this page. That should be all you'll need.

Pretty sure its in the service manual. You'll have to see if you can find one.

Okay, guess whats a royal pain with the MacBooks? You guessed it. Display housing stuff.

Unfortunately, Apple learned from their history of mistakes in regard to attaching everything to the front display bezel. Now, the lid is like a pan, and holds everything in, with the front bezel plastics clipping in place. The trick is to take a small flat blade, credit card style, or screwdriver style, what-have-you, and pop it out of place, starting along the top edge, and working your way down the sides. From there, its a matter of screw hunting and cable routing in order to get the LCD panel out of the housing, so you can color your Apple.

I know. Totally not what anyone wanted to hear. But, thats the breakdown.

At least the front bezel is nice and flexible, unlike the Aluminium PowerBooks which are a pain to get back together properly.

Dude, (title) That is so cool! How? I really need to get into that case someday.

Personaly, I don't give a fuzz about the new comps. I plan on just upgrading my iBook. All the parts I need I can find to upgrade my iBook to the level of one of those, except for the iSight, but I'm sure apple will have someway of buying that separatly someday. If I do get a new comp, it's gonna be a desktop.

And before I get any sarcastic comments, I figured out the classic logo.

Is there pictures of the MacBook screen disassembly?

i dont know of any pictures, but be careful when it comes off, there is a small magnet that can fall out, it's used by your macbook to detect when you close the screen

It's actually really easy you can pull off the front bezel with your finger nails and a credit or ID card then you remove the 12 screws holding the LCD in and after that you can tilt the LCD down I suggest that you put down a towel on your key board just for safety then you need to pull off the paper in front of the apple and then your at the apple... But it is painted white so I pulled the apple off of my G3 iBook and used it in the place of the one in the mac book.

display with the bezel off

man i would love to mess around with the color of my MacBook Pro (im thinking a red LED) but man would my parents be pissed.

Visual imp, you are aware that the thing that lights the apple on the back of the display is the backlight of the LCD. The only way to change the color is to use transparent red films/gels.

I actually just did this to my macbook, along with swapping out the keys from a black macbook keyboard.



Here are some more shots: http://flickr.com/photos/brutalentropy/sets/72157594572407560/

In hindsight, after my long ago previous post in this thread, I stand corrected. Its actually prettty easy to do this, assuming you have the supplies. If you carefully pry off the front bezel, you'll see a seried of small philips head screws all around the left, top, and right of the display. remove them. You dont have to remove the small ones near the isight. Pry the display away from the bottom, rather than the top, and slide it downward. it'll come right out. On the back of the housing, you'll see some LCD buffer pads. the big center one needs to be removed. I start by separating it with a flat single edge razor blade, then pull it off carefully. Set it aside, you want to put it back. Once you've removed it, you'll see your apple logo.

Notice that its white, unlike the old ibooks. Its also held in place with adhesive like always. I've found that by pressing on the outside of the display with moderate force, you can get the adhesive to let go, and you can pop it out. Now you have to get that white paint off.

Just so its said, this isnt the same white paint as ibooks and such. Alcohol wont remove it. you have to sand. Go to your auto parts store, and get some 2000 grit sandpaper. Get a polishing cloth, and some 3M rubbing compound. Then head back home to the sink. Soak the sandpaper, and soak the apple logo. put the paper on a flat surface, and put the apple logo on the paper. begin sanding in a curcular motion. Move the logo on the paper, not the other way round. The flat surface will help you sand evenly. As you go, you'll see white particles build up in the water on the paper. Rinse things off regularly to get rid of the removed paint particles. You'll see the apple start to clear up. Once its clear, dry it off and check it. it should have a haze to it. If its uneven, keep sanding. You want a light, uniform  swirl pattern. Once you're there, break out the rubbing compound. You dont need a lot. A pea sized amount will suffice. put it on your polishing cloth, and start polishing. work in a circular manner periodically, wipe away the excess, and look at what you've got. When its crystal clear, you're done.

Pop the Apple logo back in and you're ready for the next step. I use 3M Multi-purpose inkjet/laser transparency film for my substrate. Any office supply should sell it. Work out your art in photoshop, gimp, whatever, and print it to the film. Test print a couple times, to make sure you've got it nailed. Then, stick the film over the Apple. I usually put it in place with simple scotch tape. Re-apply the display padding with scotch tape around the edges, put everything back together, and you're done!

If anyone's interested, I have the .jpeg I created for the rainbow apple I've been doing for all my coworkers. Let me know and I'll pass it around.

Please do pass it around.  I'd love to use it as a size guideline for the one I've been working on.

Okay, so here's the image I created in CS3. its a pretty simple .gif file thats 2.5 x 2.0 at 72 dpi. Granted, I was working at 300 dpi, but thats me. If anyone wants a larger file, I'll re-export it, zip it and post a DL link to it, hosted on MYM.com

DPI isn't really an issue since it's a square composed of recatangles.  It's completely resizeable. ;-)

I just did mine today. No help at all. I feel special.
I was pretty shocked to find that people have modded there MacBooks so quickly.

Link.

I do have one question, though. Does modding my monitor like this void the warranty? I'd think it would considering I am using a screwdriver to do this.

It might just be me but I dont think the link works.

This forum has a bit different settings n' such, and I didn't know exactly how to post URL's.

Alternative Links, I hope you don't mind.

Photobucket:


Backup - Imageshack.us


Registered just to get your pic.

Nope, I dont care. Its just a square with colors. I created it so I could do the mod for several colleagues. I then posted it here to share. You want to link go right ahead. Just remember where you got it.

And welcome to the community

Hey, no problem. All the credit to you.

Do you know of a source for the plastic Apple logos? I'd rather not sand down an irreplaceable item.

I'm planning on going for a WinOS/Linux Apple Logo mod. Something like
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs5/i/2004/303/b/c/Think_Linux_by_ShekharPalash.jpg
plus
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs11/i/2006/255/a/7/Mac_wannabe_when_grow_up_by_grnemo.jpg

Apple ships the display housing as a complete part. Finished goods, as we call it. the apple logo is part of that finished piece. So, apple logos by themselves are pretty hard to come by. An entire MacBook display housing would be easier, however, since everything is mounted in that housing, its not something thats super easy or cheap to come by. However, the plus is that everything behind it is white, so if you're patient with the wet sanding and polishing, you'll do well.

The other option would be a local apple service provider. Not the apple retail store mine you, but a local dealer. An Apple Specialist. They tend to have a pretty good stock of junk parts laying around, so its plausible that they may have a dead macbook, or a case. If you make friends with your local dealer, they might hook you up with something they have, or keep an eye out for something that might normally go in the trash. So, something to consider.

Bummer. Was hoping it would be a cheap, quick, and easy buy. I'm near a non-offical, but Mac only store that a friend of mine works in, and I also know the main mac certified repair guy for a local uni so I'll have to check with them.


I'll be sure to post on this site once I complete the mod. Got some photofiltreing to do first though (do you know a good image app for Mac OSX non-GIMP?).

This logo is the essence of what I want, but I just don't like how this one looks.


Again, want something more..
  plus 

The logo pops out of the display rear housing  pretty easily. And the housing isn't that expensive as Apple parts go. Its persuading someone to sell you one which you might struggle with.

Here's my Macbook Pro logo. :D  Yes it's real.

http://www.computer-choppers.com/pics/logodiamond.jpg

The clear Apple logo from an iBook rear housing fits right into the MacBook.

I was under the impression that the logos were different from model to model.  At least that's what I've found in my experience.

They often are. But I pulled the logo from my MacBook housing and didn't do a brilliant job of sanding it. Then I lost it. So I tried one from an iBook. Perfect fit.