How to fix spring loaded IDE connector on a T43?

[wincen]

I have an old IBM Thinkpad T43 with a bad IDE connector. Basically the IDE connector does not press together properly anymore which obviously prevents contact with the motherboard. Of course without contact the hard drive cannot be found by the BIOS.

The only way for the BIOS to detect the hard drive is if i press the connectors together myself (laptop taken apart of course) and keep pressing down on the connector. I've tried just pushing the connector down to stay in contact, but they don't stay pressed up against each other since they are spring loaded. Does anyone know how to fix this thing?

Below is a link to a picture of my bad T43 spring loaded IDE connector. You can see the gap circled in red.
http://imgur.com/6iLkE

[RealBlackStuff]

Just makes me wonder: do you have the correct HD caddy with all 4 screws mounted?
And the HD upside down, i.e. HD label pointing to the bottom of the laptop?

[wincen]

I've seen lots of people asking if the hard drive is upside down on other posts. I can assure you the hard drive is not upside down. My T43 has been taken apart and I am turn it on and off with the motherboard completely exposed. I am 100% sure the hard drive is plugged in correctly.

The caddy itself isn't even a factor right now because it's not on since my system is all exposed. When i do put the caddy back, it doesn't actually push the ide controller down. Is it supposed to do that?

[rkawakami]

Uh, I think you better clear something up... when you say that your drive "is not upside down", that's not the proper answer to be giving. The proper response is, "yes, the drive IS upside down". That is the correct orientation for T4x hard drives. Assuming that the laptop is in its normal orientation (keyboard up, lid open, etc.), the hard drive slides into the bay with the "top" side of the drive (aka, the label side) facing DOWN towards the desk/lap/whatever the laptop is sitting on. The "bottom" (or printed circuit board side) of the drive should be facing UP. Of course you should normally not be able to see that side since the drive should also be encased in the metal caddy with the proper screws holding it on. The screw heads are are used to guide the drive's pins into the IDE socket on the motherboard. If you have your system torn down, then I'm not sure that the screw/caddy matters, but the drive should still be in "upside down". The caddy and/or screws should NOT be causing the IDE connector to "make contact".

I don't believe that the IDE connector on the motherboard should move at all. It should be firmly soldered down to the motherboard. If you are getting movement between the two parts of the connector shown in your picture (the 44 sockets at the top and the base of the connector), then it sounds like the connector has delaminated. The only way to fix that would be to replace the connector.

[wincen]

Yes, then my hard drive is upside down, properly connected to the IDE connector.

Thanks for the diagnosis. How does one go about replacing the IDE connector? Are there any guides on how to do so?

[poshgeordie]

Hi - I've just had a look at the picture in your first post and to me that looks entirely normal - I've compared it to a board I've got here.

Look at the other side of the connector and you should see wire "loops" from the bottom (solder part) of the connector to the top half (IDE part).
You'll also find that when pressing on the top half, it moves up and down slightly by the spring action of the loops.

A possible but increasingly common problem on T43's is that the HDD is not seen and is due to the southbridge chip becoming unsoldered.

To test this, with the board as it is in the picture, connect the HDD (upside down!) into the IDE connector, making sure that the top and bottom sets of pins on the HDD mate with both rows on the IDE connector.

Remove the wireless card (front centre of the motherboard - is underneath the trackpad); the Southbridge (SB) chip is the big square chip under the card.

Power up the Thinkpad and press on the SB chip. Does the HDD now work?

If it is that then the SB needs reflowing, that is resoldering and there are companies in the US who can do this for you. (For more info about reflowing see my square blue advert at the top of every page, but note that I'm based in UK and carriage between our countries is too high to make it viable.)

Good luck
Nick

[wincen]

Thanks for the tip poshgeordie. I'll take a look at the SB chip later tonight, but I have to admit I am a little skeptical since the hard drive will read if I push down on the IDE connector (I have top push quite hard though).

Would pushing down on the IDE connector somehow affect the SB chip?

[poshgeordie]

It is possible that it will affect the SB, but I think a bit of experimentation is needed to try and pin it down to one or the other.

Maybe it's worth having a look at the motherboard solder joints on the IDE connector as well or "sweating" them (using a soldering iron to remelt the solder joints) to see if that helps.

[wincen]

So I tired pressing down on the SB chip. It gets fairly hot pretty quickly right? That didn't seem to change anything. However I decided to push down on the motherboard on the left side of the motherboard and the BIOS detected the hard drive.

I tried this several more times, and it seems like poshgeordie was right that the IDE connector is normal. However it does not seem to be the SB connector, i think, but just the motherboard needing to be pushed down????

I don't know if the description makes any sense. I don't understand why this seems to work. Perhaps I need to screw the motherboard in tighter? I'm not sure..... why pushing down on the motherboard causes the bios to find the hard drive. Any explanations? This seems pretty bizarre to me and I'd like to understand what is going on.

[wincen]

i spoke too soon on the SB chip. I just tried it one more time, and pushing down on the chip seems to cause the BIOS to detect the hard drive. Hmmm, if this is the real problem then I'm glad to figure out what exactly is wrong.

I have no experience soldering. Does the level of experience to fix this need to be quite high?

[poshgeordie]

Good morning wincen

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but as you say you now know what the problem is.

The SB is a hard working chip which controls almost everything except the graphics, CPU and memory (in general).

Have a look at this document which shows what the various major chips do and you'll see what I mean.

The "Other Devices" mentioned are the likes of the Keyboard, CD and HD drives.

To give you a practical example of the problems this chip can have, I've just come into work and tested a T43 which fires up and gives a display, but neither the keyboard or HD work unless I press on the SB. We'll reball the chip and it'll then work fine.

As to what you can do, you're right in that it's a skilful operation requiring expensive equipment, though some people have tried using hot air guns with some success - see the sticky in the T4x section. Note though that it's very hit and miss with a high probability of permanent damage to the chip and motherboard.
As an example someone who'd already tried this sent us their laptop and we found the chip and surrounding board burnt black and fit for the trash....

Some more information on Infrared reflowing and reballing is this YouTube video. Apologies for the sales type video but it's a great demonstration of how IR reflowing / reballing is done.

There are companies in the US such as GPU Medics and do a search within the forums on what people think of them.