Dave Kitabjian

I tried spudging the corner closer to the wires which was probably a bad idea. The corner broke off! I can't believe it was that brittle. So be careful. If it did it again, I'd aim for the corners AWAY from the wires or the sides themselves, though I seem to recall there not being much of a lip.

I tried to reconnect this IR plug, but managed to crush all the pins on the logic board. I was gentle the entire time, but I simply could not see how the two fit together, and I still don't. I broke off all the dangling pins and removed them and will now leave the IR connector dangle. These instructions should provide a better visualization for this step. And by the way, I had to remove this connector because I was replacing both drives of a Fusion logical volume.

Excellent guide except for one massive omission (unless I missed it somewhere): nowhere does it mention the limitation on the DRIVE THICKNESS.

I purchased the only Seagate 7200rpm 2.5" SATA drive greater than 1TB that I have been able to find (Constellation.2) for replacing my Fusion drive pair and when it arrived it looked thicker than most laptop drives. And sure enough, at 15mm, it will not fit in the "upper bay" where OEM spinner was installed. If you secure that 15mm into the drive bracket, you cannot get the bracket to properly seat into the case.

Looking at the OEM spinner, it's a 9.5mm. So now I have to return the drive that's too big and order a new drive. As my Fusion drive is failing, having further delay is not pleasant. And since my mini has been painstakingly disassembled, I'm not going to put it back together for the intervening 3-5 days it takes to get the new drive, as I already saw the IR(?) connector start to have pins pull out, and I had to redo that connector.

So now I'm down :-(

The idea of using packing tape to help the suction cup to adhere is clever and might have worked great. Not sure I'll ever get another chance to try, but I'll try to keep it in mind.

On a separate note, I finally took it into a local shop this week, and they confirmed that you can't just replace the broken glass; you have to replace the entire assembly of glass+foam+LCD, which is what they did. Or perhaps you can replace just the glass if you have fancy equipment that can allow you to separate the glass from the foam. And then there's the matter of the button, which seemed stuck to the glass, too.

The tech said this type of repair is about as user-serviceable as 2/10, so I think this should be marked as a very high level of difficulty.

There is a major problem with the information provided here.

I followed the advice of the staff and purchased on eBay a replacement glass with tools for our cracked glass problem. I then began to follow the guide shown here.

The first major problem is that the suction cup will not pull off the glass. I tried the suction on various surfaces, and it's very strong. So no doubt, the problem is the fact that the glass is cracked. But that's the whole reason we're trying to take it apart. Secondly, if this guide doesn't apply to cracked glass, that should be clearly stated and possible another guide should be provided.

As it is now, removing the "glass" from the foamy "gasket" underneath was nearly impossible, and the local tech now tells me that in this condition, it's essentially worthless.