Re: Bent Pins, Lost Screws

From: Jeff Kinz (jkinz_at_kinz.org)
Date: 02/04/05

  • Next message: James McKenzie: "Re: Gmail Invites" 
    Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 22:17:39 -0500
To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@redhat.com>

    On Thu, Feb 03, 2005 at 10:08:15PM -0500, Robert L Cochran wrote:
    > When I installed a new hard drive in my aging Sony Vaio PCG-F350 laptop
    > this evening, two tragedies befell me. The worst...shudder!...is that I
    > fumbled one of the 3 mounting screws for the hard drive cage on the
    > motherboard, and I can't find the darn screw. It's somewhere in the guts
    > of the laptop, possibly around the region of the touch pad. So far, the
    > motherboard hasn't shorted out or shown strange problems. But the hard
    > drive light stays on all the time now -- unusual -- and I had to turn
    > off acpi in the 667 kernel. Can anyone suggest how to find a screw
    > dropped in a laptop's motherboard area?

    Keep the power off!
    I suggest continued shaking interspersed with further dis-assembly of
    the laptop until you find the screw or go mad (whichever comes first).

    I wouldn't power the unit back up until I had the screw out. It could
    be very costly.

    Start with lots of shaking, all directions, all orientations, until you
    get a rattle, then try to maneuver the little bugger to an opening.

    >
    > The second problem is that when I removed the IDE connector from the old
    > hard drive, I bent 2 of the pins on the old drive. But not too badly. I
    > was able to bend one pin back with a jeweler's screwdriver and might be
    > able to bend them both back with a needle nose pliers. This is a 6 Gb
    > IBM Travelstar drive. Is there a better way to straighten hard drive pins?

    Nope, but if you are very careful that will work fine.

    >
    > Sony did not make removing a hard drive easy to do with the Vaio
    > notebooks in this series. You have to remove the keyboard and then
    > unscrew the drive cage from the motherboard.

    Many laptops are similarly difficult. Good Luck. 

    -- 
Linux/Open Source:  Your infrastructure belongs to you, free, forever.
Idealism:  "Realism applied over a longer time period"
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
http://kinz.org
http://www.fedoratracker.org http://www.fedorafaq.org
http://www.fedoranews.org
Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
-- 
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@redhat.com
To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
  • Next message: James McKenzie: "Re: Gmail Invites"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Bent Pins, Lost Screws
      ... >> motherboard hasn't shorted out or shown strange problems. ... > the laptop until you find the screw or go mad. ... minutes (until the water boils for coffee). ...
      (Fedora)
    • Re: Bent Pins, Lost Screws
      ... >> motherboard hasn't shorted out or shown strange problems. ... > the laptop until you find the screw or go mad. ... minutes (until the water boils for coffee). ...
      (Fedora)
    • Bent Pins, Lost Screws
      ... When I installed a new hard drive in my aging Sony Vaio PCG-F350 laptop ... motherboard hasn't shorted out or shown strange problems. ... Is there a better way to straighten hard drive pins? ...
      (Fedora)
    • Re: Bent Pins, Lost Screws
      ... >> the hard drive cage on the motherboard, and I can't find the darn ... It's somewhere in the guts of the laptop, ... the motherboard hasn't shorted out ... >> Can anyone suggest how to find a screw dropped in a laptop's ...
      (Fedora)
    • Re: Bent Pins, Lost Screws
      ... and I can't find the darn screw. ... > of the laptop, possibly around the region of the touch pad. ... > motherboard hasn't shorted out or shown strange problems. ... Clear out an area where you can definitely see and hear the screw fall. ...
      (Fedora)