Help, T43 type 1871 does not see HDD0

[mpcook]

I think I know the answer, likely bad system board, but I thought I would ask. I have tried several known good drives in this unit which stopped booting a while ago with first blue screens, then "OS Not Found". I had my son send it back to me and the HDD looks fine to me when attached to another unit. When installed (this is a Fujitsu MHV2120), once or twice I noticed that while in the BIOS, the T43 sees and identifies the drive, but not always. When trying to do a restore factory drive contents from CD, I get the following error: Internal error has occurred, and then something like...this process cannot continue. I have tried three different recovery CD's, so I think I have good CD's.

Other than system board, does anyone have any other ideas? HDD is good, and CD's are good.

Thanks
Mike

[RealBlackStuff]

I would say Southbridge (big Intel chip under the wifi-card).
Try putting some pressure on it and then see if it boots.

[mpcook]

I thought I had it beat as I had an MBR error on the drive so I thought maybe I lucked out and it really was just a drive problem. But could not get through the recovery process and then blue screen, and then it lost the drive again, so I will get to the Southbridge today after I recover from Thanksgiving breakfast and see what's up with it.

[mbr12]

I had the same problem. The Southbridge chip controls several things, right? If it was the chip, wouldn't there be other issues?
I never did figure out the solution.

[ajkula66]

I had the same problem. The Southbridge chip controls several things, right? If it was the chip, wouldn't there be other issues?

Not necessarily.

Sometimes it's just the USB ports. Or the keyboard. Or the hard drive.

Sometimes it's a combo.

[mpcook]

So far I only have the drive problem, but it's hard to tell without having a running machine. I may try to boot from a hard drive in the CD drive bay with windows 7 and see what happens. I removed the palm rest to get to the Southbridge chip and tried pressing on it, no difference that I could tell but being in the middle of trying to install recovery CD's, was not a good way to check things out; so it is not very easy to get a simple diagnosis. However, I am pretty sure the drive is good, the ram is good, the CD drive is good.

[mpcook]

Brief update....the T43 is running perfectly fine for 24 hours now on Windows 7. After giving up on three sets of XP IBM recovery disks, pressing on the Southbridge Chip made no difference....I thoroughly wiped the drive and then tried a Win7 Pro disk and attempted a full install and everything went perfect. Been running for a day so far. I ran the TVTB stress test and will run it again today 10x. I have to say I also slipped some cardboard between the wireless card and the chip, so I cannot say for sure what is operative here. I may get a bit more out of it before it crashes again, or maybe it's just fine (??). I am noticing the T43 is running a bit hot, 60 - 70 C with TPFC running, otherwise it's looking good. I haven't had my hands on a T43 (this one was my son's) for a couple of years and I love it ... again. What a great machine.

[mpcook]

JIC anyone needs to know, the T43 is still running. It's pretty hot (runs under low load in the low-mid 60's). However, I have a couple of strips of bamboo under the wifi card pressing on the Southbridge, and most importantly, it is sitting still and not being moved. I have a feeling if I start moving it around, it will fail again. So, in the end, I probably still need to find or build a replacement for my son. It is currently fine as a print server and a web surfer.

[RealBlackStuff]

AFAIK the 1871 has Intel graphics.
I have a drop-in replacement mobo from an R52 (also with Intel gfx), that would work fine in your machine.
It comes with TTAV134's BIOS, so no 1802 (wifi) or 2010 (HD) errors.
PM me if interested.