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Apple Certified Technician help needed! Folder Icon woes...

MIDI_EVIL

MIDI_EVIL

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 23, 2006
1,320
14
UK
Unfortunately, I have a 'folder question mark' icon when starting up my 13.3 MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2009.

This is what I've tried.

Taken the drive out and verified/repaired permissions.
Attached the drive externally via USB, booted from it and it's working this way.
PRAM reset
SMC reset
Tried multiple 2.5 HDD in the machine, and none boot.
I've even replaced the HDD, IR and Sleep LED cable, still nothing...!

I'm worried the logic board is the problem, but since the machine boots with HDD externally, I feel that this may not be the case.

My next attempt will be to take out the optical drive and install a drive in place of this instead...

Any help or advice appreciated. The machine is out of warranty so I'll try anything.
 
The SATA cable connecting the hard drive to the logic board has likely failed. Cheap, ~$20 (if that) part.
 
Thanks for your input guys, but I already mentioned that I have replaced this cable. The SATA cable also contains the components to the IR and Sleep light.

To reiterate, I have already changed the cable which attaches the HDD to the logic board.
 
perhaps it could be that the sata connector on the logic board has stopped functioning. Logic board repair or replacement might be the way out.
 
Do you see the boot drive when booting while keeping the Alt/Option key pressed?
If you do, manually select the drive from presented list, and once OS X is up, fix the Startup Disk designation in System Preferences.
 
priitv8 said:
Do you see the boot drive when booting while keeping the Alt/Option key pressed?
If you do, manually select the drive from presented list, and once OS X is up, fix the Startup Disk designation in System Preferences.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but that was one of the first things I tried. No drive was displaying internally. It worked externally.

Replacement cable did not work.

I have it working now using a caddy with an SSD inside, connected to the optical disk SATA port on the logic board.

It could be a massive coincidence that both cables were dud, and it still could be that I need only a new cable, but this is cheaper than both another cable and a new logic board! It works!!!
 
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