Peter Hillman

I replaced the battery in my old iPad 1 Cellular model. What a PITA. You’ll break most of the clips, but it still holds together pretty well. There is a high risk of breaking the cellular antenna wires because the photo in this guide opening the display is for the Wi-Fi version, leaving out the location of the cellular board and the short length of the antenna wires. So one of the cellular wires broke the moment I raised the display, unaware that the wires were short. The wire pulled right out of the copper connector. No big deal. I replaced the battery just for fun to see if I could resurrect this old iPad that would no longer turn on. So I did it and it is back together and everything works except cell service, but I would never use cell service with it anyway. Wi-Fi works because the antenna is the Apple logo. Nice to boot up iOS 5.1.1, but it is worthless these days.

You don’t need adhesive with a new battery pack. It will hold in place with the existing adhesive and once the iPad is reassembled, it won’t fall apart.

Yes, most of the clips break easily, but I was able to reassemble the iPad by putting the left side in first at an angle, and then snapping in the rest of it. Even though most of the clips break, it still holds together pretty tight.

The photo above is the Wi-Fi version because the cellular communication board is missing in the photo. As I lifted the display, following the instructions, one of the cellular antennas snapped right out of the copper connector exposing bare wire. No big deal because it is an iPad 1 and no one would ever use cellular with an original iPad anyway. Not these days. But be very careful lifting the display because the antenna wires for the cellular board are very short and break easily.

I purchased the HDD cable with the bracket, so my installation was a breeze. Remove the old cable and install the new one. Four screws and done. Here was my problem with the MacBook Pro 13 Mid-2012. Bought the i7 model off Craigslist from a student. Seller said the hard drive went bad and she replaced it with a smaller 250GB drive. I thought no big deal because I was going to install an SSD anyway. I bought a 500GB SSD and it would not boot. Rapidly flashing Apple, No sign, and Folder with question mark. The drive booted fine with an external USB case. 750GB drive would not even recognize in the MacBook. Went to Apple and they would not touch it since it had a third-party drive installed, but they suggested replacing the cable since everything else worked. Sure enough, the HDD cable was bad and the replacement cable works perfectly! The 500GB SSD is recognized and boots OS X. Easy fix. So if your hard drive appears bad, check it first, and then determine if the cable is bad.

There are too many steps in this guide that are unnecessary. Reading the comments, it seems like people are making mistakes and having problems. Follow the online video at OWC and it is an easier process, although still advanced. When you buy an SSD kit, it includes the proper length SATA cable and thermal double-sided tape. Someone commented about an SSD bracket behind the optical drive. Apple did not include the SSD bracket unless you bought the Mac build-to-order directly from Apple with their SSD installed. That is why thermal double-sided tape is used to secure the drive behind the optical drive. It won't go anywhere because the drive rests on the top of the optical bracket when you press it against the back panel, and the optical drive is re-installed in front of the SSD holding it in place. I did this upgrade about a year ago using a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD and it is awesome.