Changing battery in a MBP 2011 13"

[Peter Franks]

As a complete technophobe, how much damage can I make by swapping out a battery

Health says 83%
Cycles shows 1042

In truth, the battery life has been a shocker since new really, but now it's far worse. 5 years in I suppose it's to be expected, when you're on it every day. But question is, is it just an unscrew and replace or do I lose the memory of what's on it, and is it more complicated when you've got no clue what you're doing, and finally, is it worth it or will I still have a lousy battery life. It's just videos emailing, twittering, and just basic Photoshop stuff. No gaming. Little music etc. Or is it just worth chucking in for a new model?

After seeing their new price hikes, I'm not in a rush to upgrade at the moment. But need it for work every day. Also, while I'm there, is HD worth changing for a SSD too? Actually scrub that, because I know that will involve backing up and a danger of losing everything on it, and reinstalling the OS which I don't want to get into?

Thanks

 

[JohnDS]

How to replace the battery: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Late+2011+Battery+Replacement/7649

How to replace the hard drive:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Late+2011+Hard+Drive+Replacement/7656
[doublepost=1478725357][/doublepost]Backing up and restoring the hard drive is not at all difficult and you can put the old drive into an external USB case and keep it as a backup. Frankly, with a 5 year old drive you are more likely to lose data because the drive fails than you are to lose data switching drives.

Anyway, you do have a full up-to-date backup anyway, right?

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks, Ermmmmm.....Kind of! I plug in a 500GB external every couple of months and let Time Machine do it's thing, but I've no idea how to use it, like restoring it, and I've no idea how much of it is backed up on there, like the OS or stuff like Photoshop, Word, iDVD etc. etc. Not a clue.

'Spudger'?!

 

[hobowankenobi]

Thanks, Ermmmmm.....Kind of! I plug in a 500GB external every couple of months and let Time Machine do it's thing, but I've no idea how to use it, like restoring it, and I've no idea how much of it is backed up on there, like the OS or stuff like Photoshop, Word, iDVD etc. etc. Not a clue.

'Spudger'?!

Spudger....is simply a plastic (non-metal....non-conducting) prying tool. you can can use most anything plastic, including guitar pics.

As for Time Machine, it is very easy. If you use it in the default setting....everything is backed up. As long as it runs, you have space, and there are no errors....it's very simple. You can restore individual files, or everything.


And yes, a SSD will make a huge improvement in overall performance. Will make you happy like you had a new machine.....at least for read and right performance.

 

[kiwipeso1]

As a complete technophobe, how much damage can I make by swapping out a battery

Health says 83%
Cycles shows 1042

In truth, the battery life has been a shocker since new really, but now it's far worse. 5 years in I suppose it's to be expected, when you're on it every day. But question is, is it just an unscrew and replace or do I lose the memory of what's on it, and is it more complicated when you've got no clue what you're doing, and finally, is it worth it or will I still have a lousy battery life. It's just videos emailing, twittering, and just basic Photoshop stuff. No gaming. Little music etc. Or is it just worth chucking in for a new model?

After seeing their new price hikes, I'm not in a rush to upgrade at the moment. But need it for work every day. Also, while I'm there, is HD worth changing for a SSD too? Actually scrub that, because I know that will involve backing up and a danger of losing everything on it, and reinstalling the OS which I don't want to get into?

Thanks

Health is good at that amount of cycles. But yes, it's easy to replace the battery and the HDD.
All you do to replace the HDD is just get the SDD in a drive dock with carbon copy cloner and transfer the drive over.
Then you install the SDD and it will run about ten times faster simply because it's not a physical moving disk.

The battery is best ordered now, then changed over when you are fed up with performance. (As parts maybe difficult to find later.)

 

[Peter Franks]

thank you people for your invaluable help, as usual.

wasn't sure that TM backed everything up, as I don't know what the score is with Office and Photoshop etc, as to if you're allowed to instal again? They're both legit and I do have the official original discs, but it might think it's being shared if it's installed again?

when you say 'health' is good, does that health just refer to battery life? if it does, it's not accurate maybe?
good shout about ordering it now too

 

[hobowankenobi]

thank you people for your invaluable help, as usual.

wasn't sure that TM backed everything up, as I don't know what the score is with Office and Photoshop etc, as to if you're allowed to instal again? They're both legit and I do have the official original discs, but it might think it's being shared if it's installed again?

Neither Adobe or MS apps should balk at a reinstall....on the same machine. Other factors are validated, not the HD or SSD, so replacing/upgrading is rarely an issue. Cloning to a different machine is a different story. And, since you are legit, a call to support can clear up any unlikely licensing glitch.

If you TM everything, and restore from TM, should not need to reinstall. Perhaps just re-enter license info.

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks for that!

 

[kiwipeso1]

thank you people for your invaluable help, as usual.

wasn't sure that TM backed everything up, as I don't know what the score is with Office and Photoshop etc, as to if you're allowed to instal again? They're both legit and I do have the official original discs, but it might think it's being shared if it's installed again?

when you say 'health' is good, does that health just refer to battery life? if it does, it's not accurate maybe?
good shout about ordering it now too

Considering that the battery is just past the assured 1000 cycles, it is in good health that it's lasted so well.
It is a good idea to order the battery now while you can get it, and just in case the battery dies off rapidly.
It is worthwhile going for a SSD, as the 2.5" sata SSDs are relatively cheap even at the 1TB range.
A good mate has the early 2011 17" MBP, and has done the SSD in the Superdrive slot, keeping the (upgraded) HDD in place. This allows for a massive speed increase (about 10x, except on system startup) where logic pro loads in 5 seconds with all the plugins, and battery life is extended significantly because the HDD can spin down every time he's not using it.
This would be a good arrangement to consider if you barely use DVDs anymore.

 

[Peter Franks]

I try to avoid DVD all the time now, because that can drain the battery from 100% to 20% in a flash, plus it's noisy, brings the fan up to high speed. It is confusing seeing good health when battery goes so quickly. Have not heard I could swap out the DVD for that but sounds like a great idea. Also noticed that many sites, but mainly YouTube that never used to make the fan work flat out, now comes on in just a few minutes on any decent quality HD clip on there. When MNP was new, 2011, fan never came on for YouTube anything.

 

[kiwipeso1]

I try to avoid DVD all the time now, because that can drain the battery from 100% to 20% in a flash, plus it's noisy, brings the fan up to high speed. It is confusing seeing good health when battery goes so quickly. Have not heard I could swap out the DVD for that but sounds like a great idea. Also noticed that many sites, but mainly YouTube that never used to make the fan work flat out, now comes on in just a few minutes on any decent quality HD clip on there. When MNP was new, 2011, fan never came on for YouTube anything.

You just get an adapter kit to fit the 2.5" Sata SSD in the DVD slot.
I would suggest that this could be done within half an hour or so, perhaps an hour if recycling the superdrive to an external drive enclosure.
This should get you enough life until your next MBP.

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks! If I"m adding a new drive to existing, is the back up/reinstall all still necessary or is this just an add on?

 

[kiwipeso1]

Thanks! If I"m adding a new drive to existing, is the back up/reinstall all still necessary or is this just an add on?

I would advise that you would prefer a new drive at least the same capacity or larger as the original drive.
Then it is up to you if you want to clone the drive over and have everything run ultra fast (with the ability to use the HDD as built in time machine backup drive), or if you want to have a minimal install on the SSD and keep the HDD as is.

I would suggest that the first option is best if you don't have a thunderbolt dock for USB 3 ports, but if you do have a TB dock for USB 3 ports, I'd use that for time machine backups (and keep the HDD as is.)

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks. Pretty sure I do have thunderbolt on the 2011. Yes.