bent pin on hard drive- did i "f" the motherboard.....ARGH!

[gery350]

hey guys. i think i screwed my motherboard. basicly i was swapping hard drives and one of the hard drives fell. long story short. iput the drive in with a bent pin which was making contact with another pin. now i only get the ibm page upon startup.. the setup page sees the hard drive but the hard drive light only comes on for a second when you enter bios settings. i tried booting from the ultrabay with another hard drive but same response. im thinking maybe the bent pin shorted something out and fried the mother board. what do you guys think.
thanks, gery

[robert213]

What happens when you startup using Windows safe-mode (lightly tap [F8] key)?

Is BIOS setup able to pull HDD settings off of HD (press [F2] key)?

I was able to straighten bend pins on one of my HD(s), by lightly prying with the connector on my Apricorn DriveWire USB to external HD adapter.

[tom lightbody]

another straightening tool is a 0.5 mm fine lead
mechanical pencil, lead removed

[gery350]

my issue isnt the bent pin. the problem is i cant load windows cause it never turns the hard drive on. doesnt work on the ultrabay or regular hard drive bay either.

[vanaya]

Check the IDE Connector from the backside. Maybe the contacts just got pushed out enough not to make contact. This exact samething happened to my R40 and I pushed them back in. Worked like a charm until I forgot about the fix and replaced the drive

[gery350]

thanks guys. ok heres what i did...............
i removed the battery and let it sit for a few hours and bingo. i couldnt believe it. i dont know if theres some type of reset or circuit protection device but its working now.
thanks to all who replied.
gery

[qviri]

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