My MBP has minor liquid damage. After cleaning up the exterior and interior (haven't flipped over the logic board because it has 2 stripped screws thanks to the "Genius" that the previous owner trusted to diagnose it), it only has 2 problems:
1. (irrelevant) The trackpad's button isn't recognized, even though physically it's fine and can move the cursor like usual.
2. (irrelevant) Backlight doesn't work on the keyboard.
3. The hard drive isn't mounted at all, resulting in the infamous gray question mark folder and an inability to reinstall the OS.
The hard drive is the only big problem, but it's not really the hard drive. I tried a drive from another mid-2009 MBP and it had the same results. Both drives pass SMART tests on PC's, so they're perfectly fine. Now for me it was a toss-up between the hard drive cable and the logic board's chipset. Thing is, it boots DVD's fine (including Linux LiveCD's... eww) and when I try to run Linux with the hard drive connected, the drive is recognized by Linux enough for it to TRY mounting it, but it fails.
I can pay the $25 for a cable but I've seen SO many stories of mid-2009 MBP's having faulty HDD cables. My mom actually works at the front desk of an AASP so is there any chance the repair guy there would be able to provide one instantly for free? I'm not dying to pay for a $25 knockoff cable and wait 3-5 days for it to come in the mail when according to the seller, this hard drive issue has nothing to do with the liquid damage.
Thanks guys!
1. (irrelevant) The trackpad's button isn't recognized, even though physically it's fine and can move the cursor like usual.
2. (irrelevant) Backlight doesn't work on the keyboard.
3. The hard drive isn't mounted at all, resulting in the infamous gray question mark folder and an inability to reinstall the OS.
The hard drive is the only big problem, but it's not really the hard drive. I tried a drive from another mid-2009 MBP and it had the same results. Both drives pass SMART tests on PC's, so they're perfectly fine. Now for me it was a toss-up between the hard drive cable and the logic board's chipset. Thing is, it boots DVD's fine (including Linux LiveCD's... eww) and when I try to run Linux with the hard drive connected, the drive is recognized by Linux enough for it to TRY mounting it, but it fails.
I can pay the $25 for a cable but I've seen SO many stories of mid-2009 MBP's having faulty HDD cables. My mom actually works at the front desk of an AASP so is there any chance the repair guy there would be able to provide one instantly for free? I'm not dying to pay for a $25 knockoff cable and wait 3-5 days for it to come in the mail when according to the seller, this hard drive issue has nothing to do with the liquid damage.
Thanks guys!