Ever heard of a SATA cable failing?

[Blondie :)]

Hey all,

I just finished putting my laptop back together after it gave me quite a scare this evening. I turned it on, and I got a blinking question mark instead of the apple logo. At that point, I plugged my external hard drive in and attempted to repair my hard drive using disk utility. Funny thing is, my hard drive didn't show up upon opening disk utility.

From there, I opened up my laptop to see what could be happening. I unseated the hard drive and jimmied around with the SATA cable. At that point, my computer started back up normally! However, when putting it back together, the hard drive stopped responding again.

I took the computer apart again and fully unplugged the SATA cable and reseated it. Everything seems to be working now, but I fear my SATA cable may be on the way out. Has anyone heard of this problem before?

Does anyone know if there's a place I can get a new SATA cable from? I might be able to take a trip to the apple store next week, so I can go from there.

Cheers.

 

[Xerotech]

I believe ifixit.com have them. Enter your model number to search up parts.
A ? icon may also indicate the hard drive may be failing or firmware issues. I had numerous problems with my Force 3.

 

[Blondie :)]

iFixit is currently sold out of cables First place I went after my computer turned back on way iFixit though! Thanks for the tip.

 

[Raunien]

I currently had a SATA cable fail. I went to the apple store and they replaced it for around 50 dollars. I think the part was 30-40 dollars + 15 dollars for labor. This is if you're out of warranty. If not, they'll do it for free.

 

[triplelucky]

I had a mid 2009 MBP 15 that acted the same way.

I bought a new cable and it was still the same.

It ended up being that the pins on the inside of the HD connector on the logic board had oxidized a little and made the connection flakey.

After working on the connector the original cable was good to go.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I had a mid 2009 MBP 15 that acted the same way.

I bought a new cable and it was still the same.

It ended up being that the pins on the inside of the HD connector on the logic board had oxidized a little and made the connection flakey.

After working on the connector the original cable was good to go.

I have a mid-2009 too that is constantly losing connection. My connector at least looked clean though. What should I look for? Do you have any pictures by chance?

OP, it's not unheard of with older MBPs, especially the 2009 (if that's what you have; can't see signatures on mobile if it's there).

 

[nateo200]

Happened to me 3 times! Was $50 for the parts and labor but the guy felt bad that I was out of warranty and only charged me the $17 something for the labor...it was the head genius I guess I got lucky

 

[triplelucky]

I have a mid-2009 too that is constantly losing connection. My connector at least looked clean though. What should I look for? Do you have any pictures by chance?

OP, it's not unheard of with older MBPs, especially the 2009 (if that's what you have; can't see signatures on mobile if it's there).

Well after replacing the cable with a new one and having the same problem right away I was looking at that logic board connector with a loupe and good light. It looked a little tarnished on the outside rows of pins that are on the inside of the connector.

I tried to clean it with alcohol but that didn’t work.

I ended up using a pin that I sort of “raked back and forth” gently, but enough to brighten them up, across those pins.

That ended up working with the original “bad cable”

I wouldn’t recommend anyone doing this because if you arse up that logic board connector you’ll have to replace it.

Anyway that was my experience with it.