Replacement Battery for 2015 MacBook

Attempt

Joseph Wright · · Pittsburgh

2015 MacBook 8,1

Today I'm going to try to replace the battery in the 12" MacBook Retina from 2015 [wikipedia].

This unique Apple laptop already cost me too much time but it's a nerd compulsion.

I've tried to put Linux on it and that is it's own misadventure. The keyboard needs a SPI driver and I'm not finding enough help online in this niche.

I feel like I'm fighting for and against something by trying to preserve this MacBook. Everything about it resists repair.

It was a interesting laptop to use. That's probably why I'm attached to it and got it in the first place.

It probably was a market experiment from Apple to rework an iPad design into a netbook form factor. It only had one USB C port and was passively cooled. AND it has the infamous butterfly keyboard which didn't cause me problems. If I get it working I might elaborate on my experience.

iFixit

I ordered a full kit from iFixit: MacBook 12" Retina (Early 2015) Battery

And here is the guide: Retina MacBook 2015 Battery Replacement

The guide is tagged as "Difficult" and take 2-3 hours; 51 steps to replace the battery. Then I have to put it back together.

Starting

12:17 Making coffee

12:27 Preparing work area

12:35 Actually starting the guide

12:49 Confusing the screws already.
"Note the orientation of the screws as you remove them—they need to be reinstalled at a slight angle."
"READ EVERY STEP, AND EVERY COMMENT FOR THAT STEP BEFORE ATTEMPTING! Go slow. Think first. Be organized. No probs."

01:00 I'm struggling to separate the bottom on step 2 because I'm not experienced with the amount of forces required. I do know I'll be sorry if I force and break something. I now realize that the appeal of this waste of time is in experiencing technology that seems alien. The fit of of this peice is very precise and feels like it is locking in with vacuum pressure.

01:25 Opened it up and powered down the battery. Noticing grime and corrosion spots.

02:06 On step 21, trying to work off a glued down ribbon cable. Might need a hari dryer.

02:13 I may have damaged the ribbon cable, the black coating stuck to the glue and traces are visible. I should have used a hair dryer to warm up the glue.

02:35 Taking a break, about to pull of logic board.

Battery removal

03:54 Starting back to work from break. Decided I'm going to clean up the crud. I now remember that I spilled matcha green tea all over the keyboard.

04:21 Starting preparing working with acetone to remove the battery glue.

04:58 Removed the first battery cell. I couldn't get the acetone to reach the glue and I wasn't sure how much force I should put on this battery.

06:19 Successfully removed the 6 cell battery bullshit. I don't know if the acetone works well enough on the glue or what. Now I need to get rid of this battery. I knew this was going to take all day. Going to cook a pizza.

Back from pizza

07:38 Cleaned off all the glue. 99% alcohol worked fine and smelled better than the acetone.

08:06 Placed the new battery from iFixit. It doesn't look like its the same shape as the original but I double checked the order and it's supposed to be correct. I am now putting things back together.

08:33 Going smoothly. Cleaning corrosion in spots.

08:56 I put everything back together but the battery cells arn't adhering down and it rattles. A general issue I had was not knowing how deep ribbon cable connectors needed to go back in; the pictures weren't great for that.

First boot

08:59 Reviewing the battery calibration and first boot process.
"To avoid logic board damage, when your MacBook repair is complete but before powering it on, connect it to low-voltage power using a 5-Watt iPhone charger and a USB-C to USB-A cable."
Going to let it charge over night..

Day 2: Success

It booted into the Ubuntu install. Keyboard and trackpad don't work but that's probably from the Apple SPI driver issue I've seen before.

A USB keyboard is working so I can see the dmesg output:

[  168.629294] spi_master spi1: failed to transfer one message from queue
[  168.833381] applespi spi-APP000D:00: SPI transfer timed out
[  168.833408] applespi spi-APP000D:00: Error reading from device: -110
[  168.833426] spi_master spi1: failed to transfer one message from queue
[  169.037378] applespi spi-APP000D:00: SPI transfer timed out
[  169.037405] applespi spi-APP000D:00: Error reading from device: -110
[  169.037422] spi_master spi1: failed to transfer one message from queue

If I want to make sure the repair was clean I should reinstall macOS because there were reports of keyboard not initializing correctly.

With a fresh battery I can now troubleshoot Linux without juggling a power cable and a USB keyboard but I might revert to macOS to get my money's worth with this install.

I occasionally check for progress on the Linux support of this MacbBook model and it does seem like there is consistent progress since I've started looking.

Surprise update

The track pad and keyboard started working again with no changes from me. The only thing I did was do the battery calibration cycle:

  1. After installing new battery charge up with 5 watt 1 amp Apple charger and then charge 2 more hours. I did this over night and the Ubuntu log in showed up by itself at some point, I'm not sure if this effects anything.
  2. Let the battery drain to zero
  3. Charge battery back up to 100% from zero

I think this supports the idea that a really weak and faulty battery will introduce bugs in the hardware initialization. I should have said earlier that the battery didn't hold a charge. But maybe this magic fix was also from cleaning up corrosion.

Glad that's over.

Notes

  • Pay someone else to do this unless you want the practice. I think this was great to check my skills but also I wouldn't have tried this unless the iFixit kit and guide wasn't very clear.
  • Magnetic screw board is required to keep track of screws
  • Headlamp is also important
  • Keep sharp things away from lithium batteries. Don't get comfortable.
  • Companies should make repairable products
  • It's good to open up old laptops and check for corrosion spots