Is motherboard hdd controller bad?

[irus]

this is a t42 with 64 mb ati mobility variety mobo. 80gb seagate hdd.

when i pulled out the hdd the battery was in but the power was off and the laptop was unplugged.

when i reinserted the hdd the live power cord was plugged in battery was in but the laptop power was off.

the hdd isnt being recognised in the bios now. the hdd led is constantly on

hdd is being recognised as an external usb however.

is the mobo hdd controller bad or something fried? is this supposed to happen?

[RealBlackStuff]

Infamous Southbridge going south...
You'll need a SB reflow/reball or a new mobo.
Check user gfsi on eBay for just ibm

[irus]

Infamous Southbridge going south...
You'll need a SB reflow/reball or a new mobo.
Check user gfsi on eBay for just ibm

thanks a bunch for the quick reply. otherwise i would have beaten myself over it

[irus]

Infamous Southbridge going south...
You'll need a SB reflow/reball or a new mobo.
Check user gfsi on eBay for just ibm

i had a look at that and it will be a little bit of a hassle to send this for a reflow

so i was seeing if something could be done.

i pulled out the cmos battery for a bit and pluged back the hard drive and this time it ran wild at full speed. it didnt say undetected just got stuck at the first bios boot up screen.

i wonder if this shows there is something that can be done?

[Neil]

You may be able to put some material like foam padding, cardboard or something between the Southbridge chip and the wifi adapter (and a little on top of the wifi adapter too), to apply a little pressure on the chip. It's not a fix, but it might make it work for a little while longer. Or, it might do nothing at all...but it's something to try.

[irus]

this probably wasnt a south bridge issue.

i removed the frame holding the hdd and dvd drive in place and removed the hard drive caddy.

seated the hdd to the mobo to my satisfaction turned on the system and it worked!

it was a loose connection.