3 times of replacement of Hard drive Cable within 2 years

First of all, this isn't a place to rant and rave. Everyone who helps here is a "volunteer", with no Apple employees around. Most of us who assist others do not care to read rants nor really want to help anyone who feels it necessary to write long-winded complaints. If you feel the need, you can do it here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

To answer your ONLY question in your treatise, since the HDD cable is not a moving part, but manufactured to tight tolerances, it could be stressed or something. Or, since this is a rather rare failure, maybe there's something you're doing as a user, like keeping it in a moist environment.

Hi OrangeMarlin,

Even you are "volunteer" helper, your answers can not ensure your right to insult other members!

I think, although there are some "emotional" factors in thread of Dad of Noel, his descriptions are not "rant and rave", as you said. At least, some users like me can learn from his experience:

- Damage of HD cable may be a recurrent and unpredictable matter.

- Bad HD cable can be a reason of boot up screen with question mark folder.

Finally, his question for avoiding this problem is reasonable, I might add.

I recognize everybody have their own expressions, which sometimes lead into some disturbances for the readers. But a short, polite reminder would be the sign of educated community, right?

Thanks

Are you sure it is the cables that have gone bad or maybe it could been the cables have somehow come loose at the connection to the motherboard. With repeated heating and cooling, expansion and contraction, of the motherboard (Logic board in Apple world) and of the hard drive cable connector it may of worked itself loose causing a poor connection betweem them.

To have 2 hard drive cables fail in any computer, notebook or desktop, is cause for suspision that there is something else going on that is causing them to fail or look like they have failed, as in a loose connection at the motherboard.

Honestly I have worked on many notebooks of all ages, shapes, sizes, makes and models and I do not remember any others, other then Macbooks and Pro, that use a cable to connect the hard drive to the motherboard. On most the drive connects directly to a fixed socket on the motherboard or to a socket that is affixed to a hard part of the case/chassis of the notebook.

Dad of Noel wrote:

Anyone can tell me how to prevent HDD cable from bad situation again?

I doubt it. However, you should submit a complaint to Apple (this is not the right place for it).

One time of repair could be explained as "unlucky" or mistake on production line. 3 times within 2 years can not say as sporadic or random mistake. Obviously, there is an systemic problem with Apple HDD cables

Actually, that's not obvious at all.

First, SATA cable issues are not specific to Apple. You can find, for instance, plenty of complaints on Toshiba forums. (Off-hand, it does seem to me that we didn't use to have so many problems with the old, parallel, ATA cables, but I can't be sure.)

Second, you could, for instance, have a small random manufacturing defect in a component which touches the cable. When the component warms up, that defect might damage the cable. This would explain the short life of the cables in your machine w/o the necessity of postulating a systemic issue. Of course, this is pure speculation, but it demonstrates the defect in your logic.

Third, the fact is that we, the consumers, demand ever more powerful products, in ever smaller sizes and comparatively lower prices. Apple, which is no different from any other major corp, is reacting by, among other measures, cutting corners on quality (as well as finding cheaper labour elsewhere). This is the reality which all of us have helped to bring about.

I know full well that this is cold comfort to you. But I'm afraid there is nothing else. For most of us, life is hard, bitter, and unfair.

If I were you, I'd make sure to keep all the documentation about the SATA cable problems, and, if it happened again, I'd complain once more to Apple, this time escalating it as far up the corporate food chain as I could.

Dad of Noel: For the sake of discussion, let's assume that only ten million MBPs using that cable have been sold in the past few years. The actual number is higher, but I don't know how much higher. Then let's assume (very generously, I suspect) that for every person posting in that thread you've linked whose hard drive cable has failed or worked loose, there are 500 other people with the same problem who never came here to post about it. That makes about 5000 users out of ten million who have bad or loose cables, or one in 2,000. I wouldn't call that a common problem. And based on my daily participation in this forum for several years, I think this estimate of the problem's frequency is way, way too high.

Dad of Noel wrote:

[…] 3 times within 2 years can not say as sporadic or random mistake. Obviously, there is an systemic problem […]

[…] Looking on this thread, I have seen defect HDD cables of MBP is common. This fact makes me assume an systemic issue for this Apple ribbon […]

I see. The arguments have changed, but the conclusion has remained the same… Do you think there might be the tiniest bit of a logical flaw in this sequence?

And, of course, you're very welcome.

Alain Chou wrote:

Hi OrangeMarlin,

Even you are "volunteer" helper, your answers can not ensure your right to insult other members!

I think, although there are some "emotional" factors in thread of Dad of Noel, his descriptions are not "rant and rave", as you said. At least, some users like me can learn from his experience:

- Damage of HD cable may be a recurrent and unpredictable matter.

- Bad HD cable can be a reason of boot up screen with question mark folder.

Finally, his question for avoiding this problem is reasonable, I might add.

I recognize everybody have their own expressions, which sometimes lead into some disturbances for the readers. But a short, polite reminder would be the sign of educated community, right?

Thanks

If it were allowed here, I'd tell you what to do with your rude insulting condescending commentary.

You are not alone. I own a Apple repair shop and I have replaced 12 hard drive cables in 13" MacBook Pros in the last 8 months or so.

One client came in and asked specifically to have her hard drive cable replaced. She said she had been to Apple 18 months before and they replaced it. Then a year later that one failed and was replaced a second time. The third time she came to me and asked for a cable and sure enough, that fixed the problem.

So yes, there is a history of these cables failing. The ones I have seen have not been pinched or stressed in any way. They are not loose. They simply fail.

I'm sitting here typing on a MacBook Pro 2011 with a HDD connected as external.

The internal cable failed for the second time in 2.5years, first time 6 mos. out of warranty, exactly the timing of the first two failures of your customer.

Apple got my money the first time, and wants it again. They really should do a recall.

My company provides repair services for Apple equipment. Failure of the internal drive ribbon cables in Unibody notebooks is somewhat common - we see about 1 failed cable per month. While no one knows for sure why they fail, our hypothesis is that repeated heating and cooling causes the spring-loaded pins on the logic board side of the cable to loose tension, eventually resulting in a poor or high-resistance coupling.

Like some posters here, we have replaced multiple cables in the same machines, and the one thing these machines have had in common is that they are used frequently and are very mobile - as opposed to being used predominantly on a desk. To save affected users reading this some time and aggravation, we've tried numerous methods to salvage these cables to no avail. When they fail, replacement seems to be the only remedy. The cable costs about $30 and can be replaced fairly easily if you're comfortable dissembling your notebook (and out of warranty). If having a shop perform the job, you should not be charged for more than 30 minutes labor.

Hope this helps,

John G

I am having the same issue I believe that i am on my fourth macbook pro sata cord replacement. This is stupid that apple won't redesign the product. I am hoping maybe a makerspace community could redesign and create a solution. This cord also controls the sleep wake of the computer, if this cord breaks your computer could never go to sleep again. I had this problem for a little bit this eventually caused my motherboard graphics card to fail, and me paying 300 dollars to apple to rebuild my motherboard. During the last replacement the apple technician told me to never carry my laptop in a bag with the laptop on, even if the computer is a sleep. Turn it off before placing it in a bag. I am not sure why that will keep the cord working longer and in better shape, he stated something to do with computer temperatures, so some other B.S. not realizing that I am a computer science major.

Question:

Possible solution in the macbook pros, remove the optical drive and place sata harddrive/ssd in a optical drive caddy? has anyone done this? is it a viable solution? would there be a performance hit? like Sata III to Sata II?