Really weird Hard Drive recognition problem

[cuengr92]

I have a Lenovo y580. The hard drive is recognized and boots when not in its stock holder (tested the laptop upside down without it), but clicks and is not recognized by BIOS when it is secured in the holder. Any ideas?

 

[popatim]

is the holder shorting something out?
you can always just tape the drive in place though I'd put something under it if it were going into the sata port straight. cardboard works well.

 

[fzabkar]

Is the drive also upside down when you do this?

 

[cuengr92]

is the holder shorting something out?
you can always just tape the drive in place though I'd put something under it if it were going into the sata port straight. cardboard works well.

Had to be a short, but not sure what would cause it after working fine for a year. I've put some rubber "feet" I had from another device in to hold the drive in place and it works fine. Still need to add some more to allow mobility without loosening the SATA connectors.

 

[cuengr92]

Is the drive also upside down when you do this?

Not sure what you mean by "upside down". The drive of course only connects one way, so it is inverted when the laptop is upside down. I placed some rubber pieces inside to hold the drive in place while the laptop, and thus the drive, is right side up. It works fine. Don't know why the drive holder would cause a short or the drive not to work after a year with no problems before. BTW, did not open the laptop cover until the problem cropped up.

 

[fzabkar]

You could place some paper insulation around the drive if you suspect that the PCB is touching something.

However, I suspect that there may be a connection problem that shows up when the PCB is under stress. If it's a WD drive, then remove the PCB and clean up the HDA contact points on the PCB with a soft pencil eraser. Sometimes the oxidisation causes problems with the preamp inside the HDA.