Zif adapter question

[dwilsonfl]

Just received three of the IDE to Zif adapters with cabling for Toshiba and Samsung/Hitachi.

They seem to have a 3.3v chip (AMS1117)

Two LEDs and inscription says LED1:+3.3V; LED2:ACTIVE

So do I need to desolder that chip, or is this one ready out of the box for a PATA/ZIF drive?

[Harryc]

Dave, please post a link to where you got it from. I can answer your question if I see it. This is for an X41?

[dwilsonfl]

http://tinyurl.com/agdyks

There you go Harry. It's for an X40

[Harryc]

I get a 'page not responding' message when accessing that url.

[dwilsonfl]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0294410522

[dwilsonfl]

and now that I read the description I think I wasted my money

unless I want to use a 1.8"ZIF in my t40 for some reason

[Harryc]

That is the correct adapter, here's a link to the one I bought for putting a ZIF drive in a X41.
http://cgi.ebay.com/1-8-TOSHIBA-Hard-Dr ... 0288203310
Back to your original question, look at what I did to the adapter in the thinkpads.com X41 project. You have to do the same thing.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 58&start=0

[dwilsonfl]

I was thinking I needed a 1.8" IDE to 1.8" ZIF

like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0331553082

what I have here is 2.5" to 1.8"

I am confused

[Harryc]

The connector in the X40/X41 is compatible with the adapter I linked to. The actual internal connector in the X40 has nothing to do with the drive's physical dimensions, maybe that's where you're getting hung up. You have the correct adapter and it will plug directly into the internal IDE connector in your X40.

[jimkn]

I am new to the forum but have followed the ZIP adapter thread thinking that I may
need to update the cranky drive in my X40.

Maybe this is old news but in the process of dismembering a Creative Zen Touch MP3 player to salvage a replacement drive (not) for my X40, I discovered that the Touch has a nice adapter cable connecting the PATA 20/40G drive with a ZIF socket on the Touch's main board.

It appears that this cable is 44-pins wide and it makes a nice folded 90-degree turn, similar to the one in the Lenovo replacement FRU assembly. This cable seemed to be perfect to connect to the ZIF socket on Hitachi ZIF drives, which I think is on the short side of the drive. The Hitachi ZIF drives seem to be reasonable priced.

I ordered a M-M 44-pin adapter from CablesOnline which will bridge the female 44-pin PATA connector on the cable to the female PATA connector on the computer.

Here is the question:
For the ZIF experts in the crowd, any clues on how I can determine if ZIF end of this cable is compatible with ZIF drives, either Samsung or Hitachi without buying a ZIF drive and trying it??

From Harryc's experiment, it appears that the cable supplied with the IDE/ZIF adapter is compatible with the Samsung drive??

Does anyone have a spare ZIF-ZIF cable from one of these adapters they would loan/sell for comparison with my cable? The adapters are supplied with two types of cables...one for Hitachi and one for Toshiba drives. Is the Hitachi style cable the one that works with the Samsung drives?

If this works, its a more expensive solution but seems to be cleaner and more compact solution that does not require any modifications.

Thanks

[sjthinkpader]

There are several versions of the ZIF connectors:

1. PATA ZIF, Hitach, Samsung, Toshiba
2. CEATA ZIF, Samsung for 4G iPod Classic
3. SATA ZIF, newer iPods

Generally the one that works for X40/X41 is item 1 above. The Toshiba drives use a thinner cable end and is usually white colored. Hitachi and Samsung PATA ZIF drives use the slightly thicker blue cable ends. Some members reported Toshiba drive will work with the blue end as well.

There are some nice PATA pin to ZIF adapters out there but more costly than the one most of us are buying.