Acer Wants To Charge $199 For SATA Cable >:(

While attempting to replace the standard 320GB hard drive for a SSD in an 1810T, I broke the SATA ribbon cable and retention plastic clip. I called up Acer parts, and they were unable to produce a part number and said I would have to send it in for repair. Initially, the Acer CSR claimed I would only have to pay for shipping and they would replace the part for free. However, after calling in again, it was suddenly $199 since the damage was customer induced. Altogether, the shipping, parts, and labor together are nowhere near $199 to replace these 2 parts, so you can imagine I'm quite disappointed with Acer They steadfastly refused to offer anything less than $199 to repair these parts, and their "level 2 technician" seemed to think the motherboard would need replacement, despite all indications to the contrary

Anyhow, does anyone know the P/N for the SATA ribbon cable and/or retention clip? Can I source it anywhere else?

Thanks.

 

Have you had any success with this issue, I have the same problem

 

So turning to the suddenly very valuable broken bit (and assuming the crowbar damage to the MB that acer fear is not true) What exactly is broken about the old cable & clip ?

 

The retention clip has come away from the cable, I can get it to work with some jimmying but I fear it wont hold or will slip off. Seems like it should be an extremely easy fix but I can't find the part anywhere and acer wont give or sell me one.

 

The price quoted does seem a bit high if it is only the cable and the clip. You might like to complain on a few review pages and see if things change although it sounds like you admit you broke it.

I can believe the retention clip is not stocked separately from the MB. although I am sure the ribbon cable will be. Depending on where you are in your warranty You could approach an out of warranty laptop service centre to see if they can source parts or transplant some from a scrapped Acer or other maker

 

if it is just the flat cable that is broken, it is no big deal

however, if the clip is actually broken you have to replace the entire mainboard.

Had to do this for a few clients. Unless you can source just the clip and repair the board the fee seems about right.

 

It is an awful lot of the price of the laptop.

Of course returning to basics you are trying to connect about 22 pins on the HDD to the motherboard. The horrible but cheap and forget your warranty solution would be to break up the connector on the motherboard and solder links from the exposed pins to the intact tracks of the SATA ribbon cable. I think having heard the costs this might be my first thought if it was 3 years old . . but I am less enthused with butchering a new unit.

Horrible, but 30 mins work for anyone capable of re-working at component level

 

I presume you pulled the ribbon without releasing the clamp ?

 

I Bought it used with no hd and the cable was already damaged. I'm not even sure I'm using the correct terminology when describing the cable so I've attached a picture, basically the cable has come away from the white thing at the end.

AS1410 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

Good idea but need a close up of what is broken to really help.

It looks like the sort where you have to lift the bit with the tab on a few mm above the rest of the socket to release the ribbon cable. The cable when released has nothing on the end - just bare connections that are pressed against matching connections in the socket when the wedge is pressed back down again. Even if the top of the wedge tab is broken it is possible to shove the wedge down with a screwdriver. depends what damage
if any to the cable. This does not looks damaged to me.


ps be careful posting your Windows Key in pics (cant read it in the one you posted anyway)

 

have you tried putting some plastic into the conector? If the cable has only connections on one side, you could put some thin plastic between the socket and the cable side with no conections, so it presures the conections to the socket.