iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2308 Optical Drive Replacement

Written By: Andrew Bookholt

Comments: 3

iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2308 Optical Drive Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

No estimate

Introduction

This guide is an internal prerequisite and should remain unpublished.

Tools

Step 1

Pull the optical drive thermal sensor connector straight away from its socket on the logic board.

While you’re here, disconnect that SD reader cable and don’t forget to plug it back in on your way back through: it’s not mentioned elsewhere in this guide.

Corvallis Computer - 29/05/20

For me this cable was by the hard drive with a grey and a black wire labeled “ODD_TEMP”

Bryan Remely -

Step 2

Remove the four 9 mm T10 Torx screws securing the optical drive to the outer case.

Step 3

Lift the inner edge of the optical drive and maneuver its connector past the frame attached to the logic board.
Carefully pull the optical drive off its mounting pins on the edge of the outer case to gain clearance for disconnecting the optical drive cable.

Step 4

Use the flat end of a spudger to help disconnect the optical drive cable.

Be sure this cable doesn’t get stuck under the logic board during reassembly. Mine was under it, I was able to get it out but connecting it to the SuperDrive required a bit of force because my cable is so short.

Javier Indesteege - 11/05/21