Introduction
The main board of the machine.
What you need
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Power down your Mac mini, disconnect all of the cables, and flip it over.
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Insert the Jimmy into the crack between the aluminum top housing and the plastic lower housing.
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The Jimmy should reach a stop about 3/8" down.
Ask FixBot
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Gently bend the Jimmy outwards to pry the crack open a little larger and lift the lower housing up a small amount.
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Once you have the first side free, rotate the Mac mini and start prying up on the front edge.
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Use the same prying motion to both bend the clips inward and lift the lower housing up out of the top housing.
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You may need to move the Jimmy along the edge to pry up all of the clips. Be patient and do a little bit at a time.
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Flip the Mac mini back over and lift the top housing off of the lower housing.
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Grasp the Airport antenna board and lift it off of the two plastic posts holding it in place. You may need to push back the black plastic tab jutting through the lower left corner of the board.
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Remove the yellow tape securing the power button cable to the black plastic framework.
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Remove the three black Phillips screws securing the plastic framework to the logic board and lower case.
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Grasp the optical drive and mass storage unit in one hand and lift up enough so that you can see beneath it.
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With your free hand, pull the Bluetooth cable up from Bluetooth board and unplug the Airport antenna cable from the right of the Airport card. Caution: both of these connections are very small. When re-assembling unit after repair, you may want to remove the two screws holding the airport card to the assembly and lift the card up and out to re-attach the cables.
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Remove the two silver Phillips screws from the corners of the modem board.
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Pull the modem up from its connector. If it sticks, just wiggle it back and forth a bit as you pull up.
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Remove the two silver Phillips screws from the corners of the wireless interface board.
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Grasp the board at the front and back, and lift up on the front until the board pulls free of its connector.
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Grasp the RAM chip at the end opposite of the back ports, and pull directly up.
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Push the PRAM battery in and pull it up. You'll have to push the battery in further than you'd expect in order to get it to pop free.
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Remove the single black Phillips screw from the front left corner of the logic board.
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Use one hand to slide a spudger underneath the logic board and the other to pull back on the black sleep light unit. Lift up the with the spudger to free the logic board from the lower case and use both hands to slide the logic board toward you.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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Attached Documents
3 Guide Comments
You are supposed to replace the heat transfer pad on the bottom case when you remove the logic board. If this pad doesn’t make good contact with the GPU, you’ll get overheating and the unit will goto sleep after a short time.
My Mac Mini G4 is missing the screws for the HDD/DVD carrier and the one screw for the logic board. Can you tell me where I can buy these or give me specs so I can find replacements on eBay?
