Bent Pins, Lost Screws

[Robert L Cochran]

David Liguori wrote:

>
>
> Robert L Cochran wrote:
>
>> When I installed a new hard drive in my aging Sony Vaio PCG-F350 
>> laptop this evening, two tragedies befell me. The 
>> worst...shudder!...is that I fumbled one of the 3 mounting screws for 
>> the hard drive cage on the motherboard, and I can't find the darn 
>> screw. It's somewhere in the guts of the laptop, possibly around the 
>> region of the touch pad. So far, the motherboard hasn't shorted out 
>> or shown strange problems. But the hard drive light stays on all the 
>> time now -- unusual -- and I had to turn off acpi in the 667 kernel. 
>> Can anyone suggest how to find a screw dropped in a laptop's 
>> motherboard area?
>
>
> Clear out an area where you can definitely see and hear the screw 
> fall.  Dismantle the machine as far as possible and give it a good 
> shake, in all different directions and orientations.
>
> A corollary to Murphy's Law says a screw will always fall so as to 
> cause the most damage.  If you haven't been bitten by this yet, you 
> will.  So I too recommend not powering up the computer again until you 
> find the screw.
>
> -- 
> David Liguori
>
I have taken apart a fair bit of the laptop's surface components: the 
speaker plate, the keyboard, and the upper frame with the touchpad. The 
lost screw has been found, jammed between two capacitors on the 
motherboard. It has been extracted and returned to its home the drive 
cage. However, I still wasn't using my head very well, and the very thin 
ribbon that connects the touchpad to the motherboard tore off from the 
motherboard connector when I removed the upper frame. The ribbon is so 
thin and narrow, it is more like a film. Does anyone know how I can 
reconnect it? Otherise I am out a touchpad, I guess.

Thanks for the help!

Bob