I did it! Opened Intel Mac all by myself!

Ok i definitly understand what your saying now, thank you for making it clear for me, even if you did already lol... So since it says there are no user upgradable parts, and I DO upgrade the parts by myself, but everything is fine, what am i voiding by doing that? or am i not voiding anything and Apple is just suggesting i stay out of there?

By the way thanks for all of this, simplifying and answering these on demand questions, it is very useful for future knowledge of what i can and cannot do.

Sal,

The warranty is not voided.
If you install parts, the warranty doesn't cover the parts you installed. Any damage you do because / while you installed parts also isn't covered.

If Apple does the work, Apple covers the new parts. If an AASP does the work, the AASP covers the new parts.

Apple is strongly suggesting you stay out because it's easy to do unintentional damage if you don't know exactly what you're doing.

-Wayne

great, thanks for everything Extremely useful help!! Now i know i can do the simple stuff by myself. Thanks Again

SaL

Good to hear others aren't afraid to do a little hood popping for a little tune up here and there.

Couple things I found useful:

1) Keep a small toolbox, cardboard box, or styrofoam block behind your mini so that when you 'flip' it apart there is no undue stress on the brown (audio?) cable. Stops you juggling since you can just rest the thing on it.

2) That whole 'hinge' idea is wrong. It's a vertical connector. Try flipping the mini over and carefully separating it in a vertical motion and then folding it back. You might want to tape the airport card somewhere while you do this as it gets in the way a bit. When you see the slot inside you'll understand. Reassembly is easier if you line up the area over the right hand side heat sink them let the connector do its job.

3) BEFORE you do anything (oops should be 1) look at exactly where the airport cable is routed.

4) The screws are the furthest screws in the four corners and they face down. If you have a small clear plastic box with dividers just orient the box the same way as the mac (this is along the lines of what was said so extra pluses on that one) and put the screws in the corresponding boxes.

5) No idea what the connector in the front is..thermal sensor, speaker, ir, etc..anyways I used a pair of curved tweezers and a 01 flathead to assist. Putting it back was easier with the case slightly lifted and w/ fingers. If you don't know which way it goes look at the bottom of it. The side w/ the contacts goes towards the front of your mini.

6) RAM INSTALLATION. Removal is easy. Pull the top taps apart, slide the card out. Pull the bottom tabs apart, slide the card out. Installation IS NOT backwards. Install both modules before pressing them down.

kinda like

-insert the bottom module at the 45 degree angle and LEAVE it up, but seated.
-insert the top module at the 45 degree angle.
-make sure both modules are seated
-push the bottom module down until the clips engage
-push the top module down until the clips engage
-make sure they are seated.

7) TEST IT.
If you're anti-static buzzword compliant then you don't need to put the four retainer screws in to test it. Don't put the case back on either, just plug in the monitor, a keyboard and mouse, power, and start. Check your audio output (optical as well if it's hooked up), USB, firewire, airport, bluetooth, and front row/ir. Make sure the RAM shows up.

I didn't have any problems w/ a short and long 00 driver, but I used curved tweezers to hold any of the screws to prevent the dreaded 'I don't wanna shake it out' syndrome.

NOTE: I found my airport reception was lower when the cover was off AND it also reduced reception for other machines in the immediate area (significantly). Once the cover is on it's fine. This may have to do with the spring being pressed down, the shielding the base rests on or whatever. Just make sure you have SOME connectivity when you test. I would turn BT and airport on and off while testing as well.

All good. Ok, now slap the thing together and if you made a scratch you're the man/woman because that whole 'wah my <insert apple product> has use evidence' thing is getting really tired.

As to the warranty. The simplified idea is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson-MossWarrantyAct

The basic deal is like aftermarket parts for a car. Manufacturers would tie you into 'chevy vega headlights only' installed only by a 'chevrolet dealer' using a 'gm' and not 'chevrolet dealer' will void your warranty. People who owned the country at that point (instead of voters getting owned) went 'hey that *****' so basically IF you live in a region where a warranty act like this applies (and check state, federal, and your international agreements) you can put whatever headlights or ram you want in your car/vehicle and as long as you don't break anything it's fine. In fact, as stated even if something unfortunate happens the onus is on the manufacturer to prove that it was your fault.

Don't ignore 'no user serviceable parts' labels unless you know what you are doing. It's a good way to get injured or break something, but in this instance in California (sorry I'm here where Apple is and participates in retail) you're covered. Plus there's no long turn around or drive to an apple store.

Oh yeah, and get the low latency memory in matched pairs when you can. You might want to xbench the thing before and after, but regardless of the change it's always good to have a full tank of RAM.

Nothing against chevy... and if I didn't like Apple products I wouldn't even be here.

Enjoy your machine and good job w/ the spatula.

Good Luck,
-j

Guess maybe someone could help me in this topic. I'm planning to open my Intel mini to upgrade the ram from 1Gb to 2 Gb. For the moment, i'd like to ask you guys if someone has a confiugruation similar to mine (1,66 Core duoi, tiger v.7 and 1GB of ram) If on "About this mac" you find 1GB of ram or 768 ram total. I'm a bit worried about having a module damaged for some reason. Checked out the support site, but i coudln't find any link to support team questions form.

Could you please help me?

Thanks a lot

Andrea

On my Mini i get 1gb ram. What does your memory banks say in the System Profiler?

Mine reads:

DIMM0/BANK 0:

Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR2 SDRAM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK

DIMM1/BANK 1:

Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR2 SDRAM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK

Yours sounds as if you have a 256 + 512 installed

OK I would love for anyone to prove me wrong on this. A Core "2" Duo in a Intel Mac Mini? From what I've seen so far that's impossible. The first reason why is I haven't seen a Core 2 Duo processor upgrade that has the same ZIF slot as the Intel Mac Mini. Secondly, to upgrade from a 32 bit processor to a 64 bit processor won't work without making significant changes to the logic board. That's just my input on that. I would love if somebody could prove me wrong on this so I can have a reason to save up for the Core 2 Duo upgrade.

Josh

Hey Josh,

What you need is called the Merom Core 2 Duo, that one is the same socket so its a drop in upgrade on any Intel Mac Mini. I just got my 1.83 Core 2 Duo and I'll be installing it over the weekend. I'm excited to see the performance difference with my 1.83 Core Duo.

🙂

Oh and if you're looking for a place in the US to buy, check out http://www.newegg.com

I am not affiliated with Newegg nor do I receive any compensation. Just a good value.

Greg

Hey Greg,

Thanks so much for the reply! Wow this is really neat that we could upgrade the Mini's processor to a Core 2 Duo. Just out of curiosity let me know how the upgrade went (I'm really curious to see if the OS will recognized the processor as a 64 bit processor).

Josh