Replacing CF button on x23

[The Spirit of X21]

Hello again!

Apparently my X23, while in excellent condition overall, is missing the blue button to the CF slot. Is it possible to repair this, or at the very least use the slot without the button?

[boon]

if you are able to take out the CF by hand, then it's fine. Safety remove hardware before taken out too.

[underclocker]

You can use the CF slot without the eject lever OR you can replace it.

Replacing it is not very easy, but possible. I did it. I purchased a dead X2x system board on eBay for $10 (any model X2x will work). I made sure it inlcuded the lever by carefully reviewing the pictures in the ad.

I was able to pry open the metal clips that hold the lever in place. The mechanism consists of a spring and a long blue lever. A metal hook is also part of the blue lever.

I reviewed the CF housing on the dead system board many times. Then I went to work on the other machine. I was able to pry up some of the CF housing on the second machine, just underneath the bottom cover of the laptop. I used a very small, thin screwdriver. I held the housing to the side and was actually able to slide the spring and lever into place and then get the CF housing to snap back in place. It all worked and the lever works perfectly. I am not sure I could do it again. Some was luck.

The alternative is to remove the system board and install the spring/lever with easy access to the CF housing. That would be much easier, but take a long time.

My only caution to you would be to ensure the entire lever mechanism has fallen out. You should be able to shine a light in the square hole and see the small metal CF card eject lever. If not, you have a little extra clean up work first. If your not sure what you're looking at, just insert a CF card in the slot, then insert a thin, small screwdriver to the back of the square hole (about 2 inches), it should press on the lever and eject the card.

Good luck.

P.S. The entire CF housing is not replaceable like the PC Card housing. The CF housing is soldered to the system board.