Serious HD issue (no detection)

[awesomerobot]

Ok - so I think I've been duped unfortunately.

So, I buy a used Macbook on eBay (yeah, you know where this is going)

The user listed it as "Flashing grey folder icon, I don't know much about computers so I'm selling it as is"

So I think, great - he just has a dead HD, and doesn't want to bother fixing it. No big deal. So I buy the laptop, and the thing already has the HD removed upon opening it... great. I suppose I shouldn't have assumed that he DIDN'T open the laptop - so maybe that's stupidity on my part, whatever. Fingers crossed, I put in a new HD.

So the problem is - I install a new HD, boot from CD, open disk utility - and low and behold, no HD detected. I'm fairly knowledgeable about the hardware - but not really enough to diagnose this visually if I were to open it.

So what could be the issue here? Are there a multitude of things it could be - and I'll have to pay someone to check it out? or does it just generally mean I'm screwed? Everything else seems to work fine - I can boot into Linux using an external drive, it's just not detecting a HD.

 

[Apple Ink]

Seems that either the port (SATA) or the controller has fried up.... your best bet would be to take it up to a good repair shop and confirm the repair costs.... if they are beyond reasoning (which seems more likely to happen as you'll most probably require a Logic Board replacement) file up to ebay and hope for the best..

Fingers crossed!

 

[awesomerobot]

Thanks for the speedy response

That's what I was looking for before paying $50 to have it diagnosed by a local Apple Certified service shop. (I've checked them out before, they're pretty good)

I hope that it's not the logic board - which would be way too expensive to have replaced, and if it is hopefully I can recoup most of what I paid by reselling it, although - I probably won't because I'd be more upfront about the actual issues than the initial seller was.

Ah well, you win some and you lose some.

Seems that either the port (SATA) or the controller has fried up.... your best bet would be to take it up to a good repair shop and confirm the repair costs.... if they are beyond reasoning (which seems more likely to happen as you'll most probably require a Logic Board replacement) file up to ebay and hope for the best..

Fingers crossed!