Toughest Apple laptop to take apart?

[gavinstubbs09]

Just curious, cast your vote!

Mine goes to the 12" PowerBook G4s. What a PITA to change the superdrive.

Oops. I meant 12" PB not 14" 😀

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Just curious, cast your vote!

Mine goes to the 12" PowerBook G4s. What a PITA to change the superdrive.

I believe the most difficult ones are iBook Clamshells. I had thought iBooks Snows/G4s and Aluminum PBs were tough to take apart, but you should see the horrible procedure you have to go through just to change the HD in an ORIGINAL iBook.

 

[eyoungren]

Just curious, cast your vote!

Mine goes to the 12" PowerBook G4s. What a PITA to change the superdrive.

Oops. I meant 12" PB not 14" 😀

I'd agree with you, except it's not in the poll!

17" AlBooks are the easiest.

 

[catzilla]

I believe the most difficult ones are iBook Clamshells. I had thought iBooks Snows/G4s and Aluminum PBs were tough to take apart, but you should see the horrible procedure you have to go through just to change the HD in an ORIGINAL iBook.

Absolutely.

 

[happyfrappy]

Number of screws the PowerBook G4 era takes the cake--my 12" PB G4 was a nightmare, early iBooks on the other hand weren't designed to be repaired/user serviceable... an old tech I knew at CompUSA often saw his manager approve replacement as it took too much repair tech time & led to backlogs of their repair que(customers with store-warranty not AppleCare).

...complex layout of Ice/Snow white iBook G3/PowerBook G4 era was the beginning of Apple switching to mail-in depot repair and dealers slowly exiting the repair side. (several local dealers in my area only do desktop Mac repair/part replacements but the new trashcan Mac Pro put a dent into that service area)

 

[weckart]

I believe the most difficult ones are iBook Clamshells. I had thought iBooks Snows/G4s and Aluminum PBs were tough to take apart, but you should see the horrible procedure you have to go through just to change the HD in an ORIGINAL iBook.

I have pulled apart every one in that list. By far the worst was the 12" PB. The Clamshell in retrospect was not that bad, except for reattaching the display (hint: put the three small screws in first), because it is sturdily built. With the 12" PB you are constantly worried about denting/twisting the palmrest/keyboard lid - plus the two fragile, hard to reach logic board cable sockets to detach the keyboard from.

Worse than any of those was the Macbook Pro Santa Rosa. That keyboard/palmrest lid does not come off easily at all with all those clips at the front.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

I have pulled apart every one in that list. By far the worst was the 12" PB. The Clamshell in retrospect was not that bad, except for reattaching the display (hint: put the three small screws in first), because it is sturdily built. With the 12" PB you are constantly worried about denting/twisting the palmrest/keyboard lid - plus the two fragile, hard to reach logic board cable sockets to detach the keyboard from.

Worse than any of those was the Macbook Pro Santa Rosa. That keyboard/palmrest lid does not come off easily at all with all those clips at the front.

Wow. Yeah, I'll take your word for it. I guess the Clamshells come in second.