This is not a complete, comprehensive mod guide, but a few people were asking for some photos from my recent Modbook lower-half swap where I yanked the bottom off my intel GMA modbook, and replaced it with the brand new white nvidia Macbook.
First off, don't attempt this unless you are confident in you laptop dis/assembly skills, and willing to void your warrantee. If you hose your Modbook, it's your own damn fault. OK, I am not going to go through a full step by step takeapart guide because ifixit has a great guide. Grab a box of ziplock bags. As you complete each step, place the screws that were removed in that step in a ziplock bag, and label the bag with a sharpie after the step. Just write "step 6" for example on the bag. Stack your ziplock bags on eachother as you go. This way when you work backwards through the guide to reassemble your modbook/macbook, you won't be confused over which screws go where. If you use this little trick, you will never end up with left-over screws, or put the wrong screws in the wrong places. I learned this trick taking apart powerbooks, those are a real pain.
Start with the brand new or donor macbook. Follow the guide linked above. follow the guide all the way to the end. You will now have a prepped and ready donor half. Below is the donorbook opened up.
Now follow the same guide again for you Modbook. When you get to step 12, open your modbook up like a sandwich by rotating the upper half 180 and carefully setting it glass-down on the table to the exhaust side of the lower-half. The internal cables have some slack, but just be careful. Pretend there is a hinge at the exhaust/top. Pivot from the exhaust port as you fold open and set it down right next to the bottom-half. See the photo below. It shows how your Modbook should be opened up, and worked on.
You can now follow the rest of the guide to unplug the wiring that is connected to the Axiotron top-panel. At this point, just get the top panel fully unplugged. If you are afraid you will forget where to plug things back in, take your digital camera, set it to macro, and snap photos as you go. Take a nice 5+ megapixel photo right after you open the modbook. Refer back to this photo if you get confused. On the upper left side of the Modbook lower-half is the top end of a conspicuous ribbon cable. Unplug any cables from the top assembly where they connect to this ribbon. Leave the ribbon in place (more on the ribbon below). Set the top assembly to the side when it is fully disconnected.
There will be 2 main differences between your donor half, and the modbook. A) The plastic insert over your exhaust grill will need to be removed from the donor:
And B) There is a custom power ribbon on the modbook that goes from the magsafe to the battey, and connects to the top panel. You can see the conspicuous ribbon in the photo below:
And here is a closeup of the top end of the ribbon:
And the battery end of the cable: The middle of the cable is a circuit board with long pins that is plugged into the logic board. It is obstructed by the steel support piece that runs next to the plug. Unscrew and lift up that support bar if you can't get to where it plugs into the logic board. Carefully pry up the circuit and cable with it from the logic board. Be gentle with the ribbon, the circuit board, and the long pins.
The end of the power ribbon is held in place to the battery bay by 2 screws: This video shows the battery cable being removed from the chassis. This is assuming you have already unplugged it from the logic board.
After you have removed the battery cable/Axiotron ribbon, transplant it to the donor. Position the screen assembly next to the new lower half and reconnect all the wiring.
When you have properly reconnected all of the wiring follow the ifixit disassembly instructions in reverse to rebuild your new Modbook.
Hello everyone! I wanted to upgrade my Modbook (Macbook 2008) to Macbook mid 2009. After doing all the disassembly and reassembly my upgraded modbook shows a glitched startup screen and followed by bright static screen. I have tested the modbook screen with the 2008 insides to verify that it is not broken, but after connecting it back to 2009 the same thing happens. The 2009 macbook works perfectly with the original macbook screen, but not with the modbook screen. Is there something I have not noticed? Can anyone help?
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