My T23 will not read my HDD in the BIOS for one and for two, it won't read the HDD when I try installing an o/s. I tried two (2) different HDD and I know they work. Hmmmmm is this a MB issue ? What could I be doing wrong, again. Thanks guys. phewwwwwwww.

Try removing it and blowing out the hard drive pin connectors, in the bay. It might not be seating correctly.

And be sure to have all four screws in the caddy to help line the pins up with the socket.

Probably superfluous, but make sure they are PATA hard drives 320GB or smaller! (not SATA).

I did all of the above named blew air in the socket where the HDD goes and tried a 20 and 40 GB HDD IDE. Is this a mb issue ?

"superfluous" what is that ?

Sounds like your motherboard is toast. Unfortunately it may be worth more in parts. Sorry.

How much do you think it is worth ?

You have an LCD, housing, keyboard, HD, DVD or CD, power adapter...you can probably sell the parts on this forum or eBay. My guess is you have about $50 or more in parts...good luck. If you list the parts on the forum don't forget to include the prices.

Be sure to check the pins on the hard drives, just to make sure that they aren't bent. It could be that your MB died, or something might be loose inside. Are you comfortable taking it apart? You can always check where the HDD connector connects to the systemboard, just to make sure that it is seated right.

Also, superfluous basically means, in this example: "Needless to say".

"You can always check where the HDD connector connects to the systemboard, just to make sure that it is seated right."

Yes I was thinking of this all night. I think this is the area I should be working on as it just didn't feel tight enough. Thanks. I will let you guys know.

If it doesn't feel tight, you can always remove the keyboard bezel and insert the HDD and watch it go in, guiding it, just to make sure.

This is exactly what I did and it works perfectly. I guess I was to afraid of pushing hard in order to set properly. Seeing is believing ! Thanks to all.

Glad to hear that you are up and running!!

Despite all of the endless posts on this forum pointing to problems where the end result is "replace the system board", it really is rare to have to do that...with respect to the number of Thinkpads out there...

You can say that again

That just meant it was something obvious he was sure he didn't
have to tell you, but decided to err on the side of caution.

Hello! there is a similar problem! i have a few hard disks for my t23, 2.1gb, 12gb, 100gb.
But laptop recognizes only 2.1 disk every other disk i insert i hear it starts spinning and makes
standard head-movements sound. but i can't see disks nowhere can't install OS.
2.1gb works well. the disks are good, they work in other computers.
anyone?

How old/what version is your BIOS?