HDD troubleshooting

[cgbrace]

I have a Gateway 200 laptop that has had HDD issues over the last few
months. In March, the original HDD crashed completely and had to be
replaced by me (not under warranty, of course). After about one month,
the I got the BSOD with the new HDD in place. After running GWScan, I
got a "drive cable error." I unplugged and checked the cable (which is
the ribbon cable-to-pulg adapter), but didn't see anything obvious.
When I tried restarting, everything went fine. A couple of weeks
later, the same thing... unplugged and replugged the cable, everything
worked fine. This has happened two times since and everytime
unplugging the cable momentarily and replugging it back in "fixes" the
problem. Could really just be a cable problem, or is it more likely
something on the motherboard side? I have held off on getting
diagnostics done, since I can't work easily without this computer for
5-10 days.

Thanks!

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a Gateway 200 laptop that has had HDD issues over the last few
months. In March, the original HDD crashed completely and had to be
replaced by me (not under warranty, of course). After about one
month, the I got the BSOD with the new HDD in place. After running
GWScan, I got a "drive cable error." I unplugged and checked the
cable (which is the ribbon cable-to-pulg adapter), but didn't see
anything obvious. When I tried restarting, everything went fine. A
couple of weeks later, the same thing... unplugged and replugged the
cable, everything worked fine. This has happened two times since and
everytime unplugging the cable momentarily and replugging it back in
"fixes" the problem. Could really just be a cable problem,

Yes, the technology used with any ribbon cable isnt bullet proof.

The little things that bite the cable can bend when the cable is
assembled and create a bad connection that produces that result.

or is it more likely something on the motherboard side?

You can certainly have a dry joint there. Cheapest to try the cable first tho.