Powerbook G4 not recognizing its own internal hard drive.

bluecoyote · #1 May 9th, 2009, 01:55 PM

I have a Powerbook G4 Aluminum (15", 1.3ghz) which recently started having issues where the spinwheel would appear randomly even under light usage for about 30 seconds. This problem got worse and worse until eventually the computer started up with a question mark. I had assumed the hard drive failed.

I took my Powerbook to the local Apple authorized repair center, and had them put in a new Hard Drive. It worked fine for roughly a week, then the same thing started happening. I assumed the new hard drive had failed. They took a look at it, and the hard drive was fine. They tightened all of the cables and I was good to go for another week

If I boot off of an external drive, SOMETIMES the internal "Macintosh HD" will appear. Sometimes not. I've tried doing a clean install of Leopard, and this has not worked either- it does not recognize the internal drive.

What on earth could be the culprit?

ElDiabloConCaca · #2 May 9th, 2009, 02:46 PM

It could be something as catastrophic as a bad logic board (which is generally expensive to have replaced/repaired), or as simple as a damaged hard drive cable.

Have the service center put a new hard drive ribbon cable in and see if that helps the problem. Since you took the computer in with the problem of the hard drive sporadically being recognized, and that problem still is not fixed, they shouldn't charge you again (or at least not very much).

DeltaMac · #3 May 9th, 2009, 02:47 PM

If your PowerBook will not reliably recognize the hard drive - the hard drive could still be bad. With a new replacement, and now the same problem, that seems much less likely, but still possible.
Or, the IDE drive cable, which is a fragile ribbon, could be the culprit. You'd need to try a replacement for a week or two to find out.
Or, if both of those have been eliminated, you have the IDE drive controller, which is part of the logic board - so, you would replace the logic board.
I'd try a second new hard drive, and a different ribbon cable, just to make sure.... Your local Apple service shop may have a different idea, but the logic board may get to take the blame here.
Ask about a 'flat-rate repair', which is a full-service repair of problems that would usually be a warranty repair, but your system is out of warranty. For example, accidental damage won't be repaired - but a failed logic board might be included in that type of repair. Then you get to decide if you want to spend $400 or so to repair your PowerBook -

djackmac · #4 May 9th, 2009, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

Have the service center put a new hard drive ribbon cable in and see if that helps the problem. Since you took the computer in with the problem of the hard drive sporadically being recognized, and that problem still is not fixed, they shouldn't charge you again (or at least not very much).

You may want to check on that 1st. If we have a customer that comes into our shop saying he has a bad hard drive and wants it replaced, I do just that and replace the hard drive. If he comes back later and says he still having the same problem, then that could go one of two ways. If he payed me to diagnose it, and I said it was a bad hard drive originally, then he is covered. If he came in and waved the diag fee we charge and just said replace the hard drive. He would possibly be paying the diag fee + for an additional repair if his problem now isn't a result of a bad HD we supplied him or bad worksmanship.

I know this sounds strange but you may want to check your RAM. Some of the 15' powerbooks were famous for the one of the RAM slots going bad which means logic board. The symptoms you are having don't sound like it, but when the logic board is acting funky there could be a variety of symptoms.

bluecoyote · #5 May 10th, 2009, 12:41 PM

Thank you all for your replies!

I will try to contact the repair center for an IDE drive cable replacement- hopefully, that is what is wrong, since a logic board replacement is simply too expensive.

I also did run Memtest on the Powerbook, and everything checked out ok, so I think it's safe to rule that out.

djackmac · #6 May 10th, 2009, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluecoyote

Thank you all for your replies!

I will try to contact the repair center for an IDE drive cable replacement- hopefully, that is what is wrong, since a logic board replacement is simply too expensive.

I also did run Memtest on the Powerbook, and everything checked out ok, so I think it's safe to rule that out.

I wouldn't rule out memory until I got the machine booting either internally or through an external HD and got into system profiler to see both chips. Memtest can pass all day long if the slot is empty or it doesn't see the other RAM slot which is usually the issue when the slot goes bad.

Why didn't you just pay the shop to diag the machine for you as opposed to having them throw all of these different parts at it?