Problem removing the hard drive on my Sony VGN-SZ583N

[slickcondo]

Hi everyone,

I'm new on here and I hope I have posted this in the right place and that someone can help me.

I am trying to remove the hard drive of my Sony VGN-SZ583N ( Asia model number), but it seems something is stopping it from being lifted up or slide to the right and being lifted up. I have already removed the 3 screws of the hard drive holder.

I suspect the ribbon cable need to be disconnected first before the hard drive can be taken out. But I am not sure how to do this as there seem to be 3 possible places that I could try,
The first is to prise apart the black plastic part that is directly connected to the hard drive.
The second is the thin plastic strip that is after the black plastic part furthest away from the hard drive. This seems to be holding the ribbon cable on top of the black plastic part and
The third is the other end of the ribbon cable that sits on top of a small black plastic square which is attached to the motherboard/printed circuit board. If is is this place, should I just lift up the ribbon cable or both the ribbon cable and the black plastic square so that this comes out of the motherboard/printed circuit board ?

I have googled and seached for articles and videos for the past few days trying to find something that is clear on this, but all that I found are not clear and not specific. Is there any article or videos that shows this clearly ? On has anyone done this before and could advise ?

Any help that anyone could give on this will be greatly appreciated as I am stuck. I worry I am prise apart the wrong part and thus damaging the connectors/ribbon cable.

Many thanks for your help and suggestions.

 

[AntiZig]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

The whole cable has a configuration that it has two connectors on each side, I think in your case they are black and the wiring in the middle, what you're calling ribbon. under no circumstances do you want to separate those 3 parts, as that will effectively damage the cable.

ok you have to disconnect the first black plastic thingy that you describe (that's the IDE/sata cable that transfers the data).

it should simply slide out of the harddrive socket

I think you might find the pictures here helpful:
http/www.easy-computer-tech.com/hard-drive.html

 

[slickcondo]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

The whole cable has a configuration that it has two connectors on each side, I think in your case they are black and the wiring in the middle, what you're calling ribbon. under no circumstances do you want to separate those 3 parts, as that will effectively damage the cable.

ok you have to disconnect the first black plastic thingy that you describe (that's the IDE/sata cable that transfers the data).

it should simply slide out of the harddrive socket

I think you might find the pictures here helpful:
http/www.easy-computer-tech.com/hard-drive.html

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome and for the link.

Unfortunately, the cable that connects from the motherboard to my SATA hard drive is a ribbon cable, not a cable like the red one shown on the link you gave. It is a broad band type and I cannot dislodge it from the hard drive. Not sure if I am dislodging it at the right place. But also having removed the screws to the hard drive holder, I also can't lift it up as there are a few kinks which is part of the laptop case that is stopping it from being lifted up. I also can't slide it to the right to get it clear of the kink so that I can lift it up because the hard drive holder is blocked by a part of the motherboard for it to be moved to the right.

I've made a sketch, but I can't find how to attach it here. Perhaps this link may give you a better idea
http/www.insidemylaptop.com/how-take-apart-sony-vaio-vgn-sz-series-laptop/
as it is similar to the model I have.

The only problem is that I am not too clear about Step 13, on that link when it said lift up the clip at the right to remove the ribbon. But to the right, there is no clip to lift up - just the cable going into it.

Then from Step 15 onwards, it says disconnect the ribbon cable. But I am not sure if it is disconnecting it from the motherboard side (where the yellow arrow is) or at the hard drive side. I am not sure if the yellow arrow is pointing to the screws to be removed or to where the cable is to be disconnected.

I tried the hard drive side where the hard drive metal meets the black plastic clip. But it it does not budge. I tried to get a flat head screw driver between them, but I can't make a gap to instert the screw driver so that I can prise it apart, although I am not sure if this is the right place to do it.

If it is referring to the motherboard side, do I remove the whole thing from the base of the motherboard or just where the cable sits as it is sitting on top of a black square plastic protruding up from the motherboard.

Hope this helps to give you a clearer picture and the problem I am facing.

Many thanks

 

[AntiZig]

ahh I see your predicament now, great job finding that guide on your own.

from the pictures it seems that you need to be disconnection on the motherboard end
basically, where that yellow arrow is, that's the piece that should come out toghether with HDD when you lift it out.

in step 16 that black piece (just plastic with probably contacts facing down, this is probably where the connection is actually made) to the left seems to be gone, so I'm assuming it gets to stay with the mobo. you probably just have to slide the orange piece that is connected to the cable from under the black plastic.

regarding step 13, it's simply a latch mechanism that holds the cable connector in place, as you can see in the picture there's a small arrow on the side indicating where the latch is, so as instructions say, lifting it should unlock it, allowing you to disconnect the cable. If you don't see one, chances are they probably just skipped putting it in (unless you can see it mounted in vertical orientation to the side). So assume that there's no latch and try tugging on the connection, if nothing is holding it, it should come out.

to attach your own picture, use a website like www.imageshack.us to upload your picture and then copy the Forum link and paste it in your post
your own sketch would be good, if you could make a picture that would be even better, because I'm sure it's slightly different on your computer than what they got on the website

 

[slickcondo]

ahh I see your predicament now, great job finding that guide on your own.

from the pictures it seems that you need to be disconnection on the motherboard end
basically, where that yellow arrow is, that's the piece that should come out toghether with HDD when you lift it out.

in step 16 that black piece (just plastic with probably contacts facing down, this is probably where the connection is actually made) to the left seems to be gone, so I'm assuming it gets to stay with the mobo. you probably just have to slide the orange piece that is connected to the cable from under the black plastic.

regarding step 13, it's simply a latch mechanism that holds the cable connector in place, as you can see in the picture there's a small arrow on the side indicating where the latch is, so as instructions say, lifting it should unlock it, allowing you to disconnect the cable. If you don't see one, chances are they probably just skipped putting it in (unless you can see it mounted in vertical orientation to the side). So assume that there's no latch and try tugging on the connection, if nothing is holding it, it should come out.

to attach your own picture, use a website like www.imageshack.us to upload your picture and then copy the Forum link and paste it in your post
your own sketch would be good, if you could make a picture that would be even better, because I'm sure it's slightly different on your computer than what they got on the website

Thanks for getting back so swiftly.

Step 13 - there is no clip on the opposite side of where the ribbon cable goes in. But there are some sort of (I think) clips both on top and bottom of the connectors (ie on top of the yellow arrow and towards the bottom of the picture). But I am not sure if these are the clips to flip and I've read that they are very fragile and breaks easily if not done correctly.

Step 15 - if the narrow end side of the ribbon (at the motherboard side) can be disconnected, it makes things a lot easier to try and take the hard drive out.

I tried to attach a couple of jpeg pictures here, but the paste is grey out on the drop down menu when I right click it here after I copied the download I made I'll have to find out how to do this.

BTW, is there a way to calculate what is the max size replacement hard drive I can install. What info is needed to provide for someone in the know to calculate it for me ? It's not much point paying for GBs that the computer will not detect or use.

 

[AntiZig]

typical HDDs are of standard size, 2.5" or 3.5" anything that says it's the same size will fit into the mounting bracket

step 15 - the narrow end of the ribbon will still be attached to something (connector) which can be seen in step 16 picture as the orange piece of plastic/pcb

step 13 - it's hard to say either way without a picture

 

[slickcondo]

typical HDDs are of standard size, 2.5" or 3.5" anything that says it's the same size will fit into the mounting bracket

step 15 - the narrow end of the ribbon will still be attached to something (connector) which can be seen in step 16 picture as the orange piece of plastic/pcb

step 13 - it's hard to say either way without a picture

Sorry I didn't make it clear about the size. I was referring to the max memory size. Currently mine is 160GB. So what is the max I can go to for a replacement ?

Talking about the physical size, mine is currently 2.5". Does this mean I can't get one that is 3.5" or 1.8 " ?

Thanks for the clarification on Step 15.

Just so that you know, I've by chance came across a service handbook in PDF when I was googling. So a lot of things are a lot clearer regarding what to do. Thanks for your help in this respect.

 

[AntiZig]

ah so you've managed to get it out, excellent.

umm, as far as 2.5" go, I don't want to point my finger in the air and guess, but in July-August, 2009 WD made a 1Tb 2.5" HDD. I'm sure since then other companies picked up the trend and it's possible that you can even get 1.5-2Tb in a 2.5" but I'm not up to date on that market. You should be able to get a 1Tb drive in a 2.5" that's for sure.

if you meant to get an SSD, those I'm even less up to date on, but I think you should be able to get 2.5" at around 500Gb capacity, although that one will probably cost 10x the HDD.

 

[slickcondo]

ah so you've managed to get it out, excellent.

umm, as far as 2.5" go, I don't want to point my finger in the air and guess, but in July-August, 2009 WD made a 1Tb 2.5" HDD. I'm sure since then other companies picked up the trend and it's possible that you can even get 1.5-2Tb in a 2.5" but I'm not up to date on that market. You should be able to get a 1Tb drive in a 2.5" that's for sure.

if you meant to get an SSD, those I'm even less up to date on, but I think you should be able to get 2.5" at around 500Gb capacity, although that one will probably cost 10x the HDD.

I assume when you mention TG, it means that my BIOS can handle at high, in terms my memory, as this and there is no limitiation except my wallet ?

I've managed to removed the hard drive. I removed the ribbon cable from the motherboard end (the think end of the ribbon cable) and just lift up the orange part, not the whole part that is sticking up from the motherboard, then the hard drive comes out easily.

My next question - on the hard drive, there is a black plastic part that many pins goes into it. When this black plastic part is prised apart from the metal hard drive part, it shows all the pins sticking out of the hard drive (quite hard to prise this apart - I had to use a flat screw driver to do it and some pins are dented). Does this black plastic part need to be transferred to the new hard drive ? I have seen picture of both where the new hard drive comes with this black plastic part and some picture where the new hard drive comes just with all the pins showing without the black plastic part. Which is the correct new hard drive ? With or without the black plastic part that covers the pins sticking out from the hard drive ?

 

[slickcondo]

Just to give a final update:

I've found out that the black plastic part is only on a SATA drive and there is no plastic part, just the pins showing on a IDE drive. This black plastic part comes with all SATA drive. So there is no need to remove it from the old drive to transfer it to a new one. The black plastic part is where the ribbon cable connector plugs into.

I've now reinstalled a new hard drive and my laptop is now working without any problem - touch wood !!

Thanks for your help and support, AntiZig.

Isn't there a way to mark this thread as resolved ?

 

[AntiZig]

Glad you sorted everything out. As far as resolving the thread, there should be a "select best answer" button. If not, don't worry about it