MacBook Air A1466 from 2015 - repair advice?

[Troty]

Hello all,

My trusty 2015 MacBook is starting to show signs of wear. There's a system message to replace the battery, so I'll be doing that. In addition, the most commonly used keys have started to come undone (e, s, etc) and the rubber things the keys bounce off of have started to travel and regularly, a key won't make contact and I would need to stop work and nudge the rubber thing back into place with some sort of pointy implement. So I have decided to change the keyboard as well. So I will also be replacing the keyboard.

When I watched a youtube video on how to do that, it seems that replacing the keyboard means disassembling and reassembling the entire macbook. What other repairs and maintenance should I do? In particular:

1. Do I replace any other components even though they ain't broke? E.g. do I mess with the fan etc? On the one hand, any components I choose to replace will be new and thus wouldn't have seen 7 years of daily use. On the other hand, I will be replacing the components with chinese off-brand ones which may be of lower quality. Do you suggest replacing anything else and if so, what?

2. Any other suggested maintenance, given that I'll be opening the laptop anyway? I'm hoping to get another 5 yrs out of this laptop, so all advice is welcome and will be investigated. What else is a good idea to check out?

Thank you to anyone that takes the time to respond

 

[techiesteve]

Hello all,

My trusty 2015 MacBook is starting to show signs of wear. There's a system message to replace the battery, so I'll be doing that. In addition, the most commonly used keys have started to come undone (e, s, etc) and the rubber things the keys bounce off of have started to travel and regularly, a key won't make contact and I would need to stop work and nudge the rubber thing back into place with some sort of pointy implement. So I have decided to change the keyboard as well. So I will also be replacing the keyboard.

When I watched a youtube video on how to do that, it seems that replacing the keyboard means disassembling and reassembling the entire macbook. What other repairs and maintenance should I do? In particular:

1. Do I replace any other components even though they ain't broke? E.g. do I mess with the fan etc? On the one hand, any components I choose to replace will be new and thus wouldn't have seen 7 years of daily use. On the other hand, I will be replacing the components with chinese off-brand ones which may be of lower quality. Do you suggest replacing anything else and if so, what?

2. Any other suggested maintenance, given that I'll be opening the laptop anyway? I'm hoping to get another 5 yrs out of this laptop, so all advice is welcome and will be investigated. What else is a good idea to check out?

Thank you to anyone that takes the time to respond

The fan is reliable. Most I see seized had small cracked pieces of the black battery plastic in the fan. Keyboards wear, but you are already going to replace that. Removing the rivets that hold the keyboard in is a pain. I would check the contacts on each end of the IPD flex cable, as if liquid has previously entered via the gap around the trackpad in can tarnish connections at either end. Good luck with the repair.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Just an option, but you can get an "A-grade" (i.e. more or less like new) refurbished 2015 MacBook Pro for just a touch over $300:

https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-mp-apple-macbook-pro-2015-13-i5-2-7ghz-256-8gb-a-grade-refurbished

You may want to weigh that against the cost of purchasing things like an entire new keyboard and a new battery for your existing MacBook.

Another option is to purchase a refurbished MacBook of a later vintage for a bit more money:

macbook | Groupon

Discover and save on 1000s of great deals at nearby restaurants, spas, things to do, shopping, travel and more. Groupon: Own the Experience.

www.groupon.com

 

[krs]

I just bought an "A-Grade" 2017 MacBook Air from a place similar to what Randy suggested to replace a 2017 MBa with track pad and battery issues an I'm glad I did.
Cost was not really much more than replacing track pad and battery on our existing one and potentially I have the old one for parts. You also get an extra charger.
Besides, after-market batteries never seem to be as good as the original one (battery cycles on the old one were just over 1000).
I got the lowest cost 128GB SSD version and just replaced the SSD with the 512GB SSD in the old MBa.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I just bought an "A-Grade" 2017 MacBook Air from a place similar to what Randy suggested to replace a 2017 MBa with track pad and battery issues an I'm glad I did.

I've purchased a couple of grade-A refurbished MBP's from GroupOn, and they showed up almost indistinguishable from a new computer. I was so happy with the purchases that I felt like they made a mistake in sending me gear that was too good for what I paid.

One nice thing about purchasing a used or refurbished computer from a good source, is that unlike fixing your old Macbook yourself, you can return a purchase that you are unhappy with. GroupOn will sell you a three year repair plan for only $40. That's a lot of peace of mind for an older computer.

 

[Troty]

The fan is reliable. Most I see seized had small cracked pieces of the black battery plastic in the fan. Keyboards wear, but you are already going to replace that. Removing the rivets that hold the keyboard in is a pain. I would check the contacts on each end of the IPD flex cable, as if liquid has previously entered via the gap around the trackpad in can tarnish connections at either end. Good luck with the repair.

Thanks for the advice. It went well: I replaced the battery, cleaned the inside, especially the fan and the track pad, and reapplied thermal paste. In the end, I was too intimidated to replace the keyboard. What I think happened was, because I hadn't changed the thermal paste since the macbook was new, the glue holding the rubber ... bouncers? under the keys must have softened and the bouncers must have come off (what are those actually called?). Someone online claimed to be able to sell me glue that I can use to re-glue them. If that fails, I will also replace the plastic cross under the key. Then I will buy a new key - seems like there's places that sell them. I will replace the keyboard only if nothing else happens.

Overall, the machine runs much less hot and heat is more evenly distributed throughout the corpus. The track pad is also much more responsive after the clean-up. Not to mention, I gained a lot of confidence in my abilities and an understanding of how my machine works. I should have done this a while ago. Thank you for your advice. The fan did indeed seem to be alright, if a bit dusty.