Spring-Loaded Hard Drive Connector Error on Thinkpad T43 (Resolved)

If you get problem with spring-loaded hard drive connector error on motherboard of Thinkpad T43, you might want to read these tips on resolving the issue. The laptop can’t operate at all unless you press down on the palm rest above the spring-loaded drive connector.

Thinkpad T43

You can see this connector appears to be designed to move up & down on two posts. The 44 hard drive pins appears to connect indirectly to the motherboard via 44 springs in this assembly. Some people argue that doing assemble, the system must be manually compressed to communicate with the hard drive.

Spring-loaded hard drive connector on T43 motherboard is a complicated mechanism and you should take below procedure before assembling or changing anything inside, just to be safe.

Press right below the right ALT key and to the right of the trackpad. Does the system still unable to work? If you took the palm rest off, then press down on the battery socket, does it restore the system to operation?

If it so, means the T43 board itself may not be cracked. But it could be the connectors of the BIOS battery jack to the board and this about a $3 repair. What you need to do is cut off the connector and replace with a new one or cut off and resolder to ensure the circuit is solid.

If the T61 board is cracked, you can shim it with some quality neoprene since Neoprene wont’ shrink like Styrofoam when exposed to heat and pressure. Shimmed boards will work but requiring the extra stress of tightening it back. And the worst it can create other breaks since you’re bowing the deck so much the stress has to go somewhere.

Also, the system will work better if it remains stationery since a shimmed laptop will shift when bring it under general conditions.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Spring-Loaded Hard Drive Connector Error on Thinkpad T43 (Resolved)”

  1. [...] googled a bit and discovered, that this was a known problem. The laptop worked fine, if I put pressure on the right spot on the [...]

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