Help! Asus a7v, duron 600 @ 1050, IBM Desktar 30gb ATA100 , bad power connector on hard drive, it br

[devilfire]

Hey, this hard drive has been working good for awhile, but recently it hasn't been detected randomly on boots (a7v with most current drivers on everything) and so i took a look at the drive. i noticed that the little bridge that goes from the green part on the drive and the thing that pops up when you put in the power supply plug. its kinda hard to explain unless you have one, its right next to the power plug, on the bottom. I think its the 7v...might be the 12v one i don't remember, too lazy to go check. Anyways, i had to push it back down a few times with a toothpick (non conductive right?!), and it has worked, but i kept wondering about a more perm solution. Just a few minutes ago it broke off after being wiggled around so much. It looks like it just needs a little soder. I'm 15, not really the perfectionist with a sodering iron, so what should i do? Is there a place i can take it to get sodered back together? help!!! huge lan party in like 4 days...must...get...it...fixed...

[FRANK]

I've read that this has become an issue with the newer 75gig models. It may be a good idea to look in their website and see what you find. How old is it? And did you buy it "retail" or 'OEM", you may still be under warranty. If nothing try sending their tech an E-Mail and maybe they'll give you some relief.

Good Luck!


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[devilfire]

well, is there any way it could be fixed before my lan friday? it looks like the soder came apart..it could be done in minutes if i could find somebody to soder it, where could i find somebody!? It was OEM too.

[proze]

i've got the same problem on the same drive.. well, mine hasn't broken off yet, but it's getting there. man you'd think that ibm would make decent connectors for such an awesome drive!

[proze]

devilfire (Apr 23, 2001 11:56 p.m.):
well, is there any way it could be fixed before my lan friday? it looks like the soder came apart..it could be done in minutes if i could find somebody to soder it, where could i find somebody!? It was OEM too.

just remembered:
ibm has an online rma page... you enter your drive's batch number and serial number and it tells your whether your drive is under their warranty. then you can get an instant rma if it's still under their general warranty and you want one... check there to see if your's is under warranty... you wouldn't have it by friday though.

if you're desperate, then phone a tv repair shop or other electronics repair shop and ask them if they could do it.. chances are they could, as the guys there are normally pretty damn good with a soldering iron. it'll void your warranty with ibm, though!!

[FRANK]

From what I understand, it has to do with the plastic cases on the hard drive (flexes too much). I believe it has been addressed on the newer units.

[devilfire]

hey, i checked the online thing, and it said the warranty is still valid. But what about all my stuff? i don't really want to pay for data recovery...i don't really want anybody to see what's on this..can ibm just soder it back on and send me back the drive or something?

[devilfire]

also, why would trying to soder it back on void the warranty? it says WARRANTY VOID IF ANY LABEL/SCREW IS REMOVED OR BROKEN. I don't have to take off any labels/touch any screws