[quietjim]

I have a Pismo which recently stopped working. It simply gives a blank grey screen. It will, however, boot if the hard disk is removed and an external firewire hard disk is connected. This makes me suspect the HD cable is broken. Is this cable soldered to the logic board or is it a press fit? I saw it listed on one of the parts vendors for $29 and if it's press I can do that; I'm not up to soldering however.

Also: any recommendations for parts vendors appreciated.

thanks!

[romeosc]

If you leave drive in and boot holding down otion key will it give you chance to boot from external drive and run utilities?

[tooki]

The ribbon is indeed press-on.

Have you tried the Pismo's drive externally? Have you tried another internal drive?

I ask because cables are, generally speaking, extremely reliable, and don't just randomly fail.

tooki

[quietjim]

I have two hard disks, the orginal one and a 50 GB Hitachi. The machine will not work with a drive mounted internally, connected via the internal cable. The machine will boot with either drive if there is no internal drive. If there is an internal drive, it does not finish booting.