Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Battery Day


Lately, the batteries in my iPhone and MacBook Pro have been discharging rapidly. The iPhone is over five years old and the MacBook is over six years old, so I figured it was time to replace their original batteries.

Amazon sells replacement battery kits for $15 and $50 respectively. Both kits include all the tools required for the task.

I viewed how-to videos on YouTube. The only difficult part of the tasks seemed to be removing the old batteries, which were attached to the iPhone and MacBook cases with a two-sided tape-like adhesive. In the past, I've handled worse do-it-yourself computer tasks successfully, so I ordered the batteries from Amazon.

Saturday was Battery Day.

The iPhone battery replacement was not too bad. Working with the tiny screws with my 68-year-old eyes was the most difficult part of the task.

Removing the two-sided tape was a little tricky. You are supposed to grab the tape at one end of the battery and pull it out from under the battery, but the tape kept ripping in my fingers tips. I finally used a needle nose plier to get a good grip on the tape and pulled it out.

The job took about 30 minutes from start to finish and was a success. The iPhone is now like new with regard to its battery discharge rate.

The MacBook Pro battery replacement was easier than I expected because the glue holding the battery to the computer case had dried out over the past six years and it did not take much prying with a small chisel to free the battery. It took about 45 minutes to do the job and like the iPhone, the MacBook Pro's battery discharge rate is like new now.

I would have completed the MacBook battery replacement more quickly except that I had a big surprise when I opened the case: dust all over the interior of the computer including large dustballs, as you can see in the photo above. It took an extra 10 to 15 minutes to remove all the dust before I screwed the cover back on to the MacBook case.

I was very pleased with the results. Besides saving money, I also saved time by avoiding a visit to the Apple store.




Source: Cellfina
Being read in a good way! (Source: Cellfina)




The Bigwood Twins
The Bigwood Twins, early 20th Century professional femulators

3 comments:

  1. Good work, Shana -- you must not have been wearing your blonde wig! Ha!

    I thought Iphones and MACBooks were sealed. If so, how did all that mess get in there? Should that be a concern?

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    1. The iPhone was clean as a whistle. As far as I can tell, there are no openings in the case that create a pathway for foreign material.

      On the other hand, the MacBook Pro has vents for its internal fans. After six years, a lot of air goes through those fans along with any foreign matter in the air. It doesn't help that we have cats, which usually cuddle up next to me when I am hacking away at the Mac!

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  2. There's little known about the Bigwood Twins, but this essay from TG Forum collects what scraps there are, plus a couple more photos. https://tgforum.com/tgf-rerun-in-search-of-the-bigwood-twins/

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