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Is it necessary to open up the back lid of the MBPr to clean out dust?

Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
5,632
2,347
USA
I've seen a lot of threads on here where people have opened up their back lid and found ample amounts of dust.

My 1 year warranty is over. Now I'm on the AMEX warranty that extends the manufactures warranty for 1 year at no additional cost.

I was thinking it might be a good time to open up my MacBook what do you think?

Or is there too much risk involved?

Thanks in advance.
 
Make sure you have the correct driver and be aware that those screws are very easily stripped - I don't mean the threads, I mean the pentalobe recess in the heads. There are also two different screws used - keep track of which came from where and DO NOT lose them - replacements are very expensive.
 
newellj said:
Make sure you have the correct driver and be aware that those screws are very easily stripped - I don't mean the threads, I mean the pentalobe recess in the heads. There are also two different screws used - keep track of which came from where and DO NOT lose them - replacements are very expensive.
Click to expand...

They're all the same on the late 2013 13" retina. Unless I just lucked out and got them in straight by luck, because I mixed them up in a cup and selected them out at random when putting them back.

Works perfectly.
 
Hieveryone said:
They're all the same on the late 2013 13" retina. Unless I just lucked out and got them in straight by luck, because I mixed them up in a cup and selected them out at random when putting them back.

Works perfectly.
Click to expand...

I own one and took the back off this weekend. Two of the screws were different. You may have gotten lucky.
 
newellj said:
No, snug, tight and silent.
Click to expand...

How much did you tighten the screws? Did you tighten all the way till it was really tight? Or tighten it loosely?

Also, can you tell me the order which you tightened the screws or did you just do it random?

Thanks.
 
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Hieveryone said:
How much did you tighten the screws? Did you tighten all the way till it was really tight? Or tighten it loosely?

Also, can you tell me the order which you tightened the screws or did you just do it random?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

"Snug." Hard to define. It is really easy to overighten small fasteners. For myself, I would say "tight," but most people would have stripped the head before they said "tight." How's this: firm contact of the head with the bottom and then a little more. It's hard to describe.

I do't know if order matters but I have been a gear head for ~45 years and with something like this I instinctively start in the center and work out. In this case, the two inner screws on each of the long sides, then the single center screw on each of the short sides, then the four corner screws.

And to prove I'm really obsessive about things like this, I'll add that I did that in that order only till each was just barely screwed down, then went around again in the same order to snug them down. I'm sure that's overkill but it improves the odds of a piece like that going down evenly all around.
 
newellj said:
"Snug." Hard to define. It is really easy to overighten small fasteners. For myself, I would say "tight," but most people would have stripped the head before they said "tight." How's this: firm contact of the head with the bottom and then a little more. It's hard to describe.

I do't know if order matters but I have been a gear head for ~45 years and with something like this I instinctively start in the center and work out. In this case, the two inner screws on each of the long sides, then the single center screw on each of the short sides, then the four corner screws.

And to prove I'm really obsessive about things like this, I'll add that I did that in that order only till each was just barely screwed down, then went around again in the same order to snug them down. I'm sure that's overkill but it improves the odds of a piece like that going down evenly all around.
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks for the instruction. I just tightened mine as hard as I could and the creaking *SEEMS* to have gone away. Luckily nothing got stripped and it worked out nicely.

Will do some more testing and update later.
 
newellj said:
What brand/make driver were you using?
Click to expand...

I got the iFixit one.

The creaking is still there :( I was up till 6 am trying to fix it and it still hasn't worked

I dont know what to do.

EDIT: I just tried your method if screwing it back. So far so good. Will update later.

EDIT #2: So basically I did what you said, then I had to tighten as hard as I could 2 screws from where the creak was coming- the "middle side" and "bottom side" screws on the left side if you're staring at your screen. It would be the ones on the right when you flip the MacBook Pro over to do it.

So far it's working...but I don't have my hopes up. We'll see if this works.

Edit #3: I heard some creaking on the OTHER side. So I tightened as hard as I could 2 screws from there was creak was coming- again the "middle side" screw and "bottom side" on the right if you're looking at the screen- it would be on the left when you flip it.

I'm hearing creak OCCASIONALLY. I think I'm ok with it...I reserached other forums and they said it goes away on its own.

Edit #4: Ok, so I went on ahead and tightened the top two screws as hard as I could. Top meaning the ones closest to the screen if you're staring at it, closest to the vents. I then went on ahead and tightened the 4 middle screws as hard as I could.

Hopefully this works.
 
Last edited:
Hieveryone said:
I got the iFixit one.

The creaking is still there :( I was up till 6 am trying to fix it and it still hasn't worked

I dont know what to do.

EDIT: I just tried your method if screwing it back. So far so good. Will update later.

EDIT #2: So basically I did what you said, then I had to tighten as hard as I could 2 screws from where the creak was coming- the "middle side" and "bottom side" screws on the left side if you're staring at your screen. It would be the ones on the right when you flip the MacBook Pro over to do it.

So far it's working...but I don't have my hopes up. We'll see if this works.

Edit #3: I heard some creaking on the OTHER side. So I tightened as hard as I could 2 screws from there was creak was coming- again the "middle side" screw and "bottom side" on the right if you're looking at the screen- it would be on the left when you flip it.

I'm hearing creak OCCASIONALLY. I think I'm ok with it...I reserached other forums and they said it goes away on its own.

Edit #4: Ok, so I went on ahead and tightened the top two screws as hard as I could. Top meaning the ones closest to the screen if you're staring at it, closest to the vents. I then went on ahead and tightened the 4 middle screws as hard as I could.

Hopefully this works.
Click to expand...

Let us know...

I have the iFixit P5 driver and was not impressed with the fit. Be careful not to strip the heads!
 
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