MacBook Air A1465 2013 Palm Rest Replacement
Here at PC 911, we received a MacBook Air A1465 2013 that was hit on the left side by the ports, it was all caved in. The board was bent, USB and Thunderbolt ports were completely bent as well. We ran a check on the entire unit and it was still responsive. The fix was to replace the palm rest. This was done in various steps; first, the back cover was removed by removing a couple of screws, then came the batteries which came off by lifting one flex attaching it to the board and removing 5 screws then lifting it up, from there disconnect the flexes on the CPU fan and the 3 screws holding it in place and the fan comes out, next remove 3 flexes and 4 screws on the board and it would come off.
Once we took it out the board was bent which shouldn’t be a problem unless there is tension when we place it on the new palm rest. With the new palm rest on hand, we placed the board over it and re-attached the keyboard backlight flex and then the other flexes and screws. The speakers came off easily since they had a flex connecting it to the board and were glued on and which shouldn’t be a problem as you can snap it into place on the new palm rest. Next came the trackpad which was also simple, it consisted of removing more flexes and screws and re-attaching it on the new palm rest. Once everything was complete with the new palm rest we carried on to LCD replacement which consisted of removing pull tabs that attached the screen to the old palm rest, from there we removed some screws holding down the screen by the hinge which is attached to the old palm rest, once complete you can move the screen to the new palm rest, by attaching it with the screws so its held in place and attaching the flex under one that was over the CPU fan and the other one lays right on top of it. We made sure every flex and screw were in place, then re-attach the battery with the flex and the screws. Once everything was in place, we booted the MAC and it turned on quite well like brand new, speakers worked, keyboard and the backlights worked, trackpad too, with everything functioning well, the repair was a success. And that’s what’s going on today at PC 911.