SHARP M4000 Problem

My m4000 has had the same problem as member "strand" had with his m4000. He wrote in an earlier thread:

"My Sharp M4000 was coming up with the "Operating System not Found" black screen leading the Sharp support people to believe that the hard drive was dead. I had a local tech check it out and he found that hard drive is fine but the data ribbon that connects the mother board to both the hard drive and cd-rom had been worn through...I contacted Sharp but they said they can only replace the entire motherboard and require that I send in the laptop for repair. This will cost a lot and take 10-14 days.

I am looking for a way to buy just the data ribbon alone and then install it myself. Any ideas on how to get my hands on this specific part? I have posted a photo of the data ribbon here

htt p://tinyurl.co m/3942y3" (remove extra space between the 't' and the 'p', and the 'o' and the 'm', if you want to see what the ribbon looks like)

I wondered if anyone knew where this 'data-ribbon' could be bought and if anyone else had this problem with this particular laptop.

 

Fortunately, this "sharp m4000 problem" is no longer. "Fixing" the laptop was only a matter of reconnecting a loose connector to the motherboard. One should, therefore, apologize for posting a thread that overestimated the real issue here.

Apparently, the hard disk/optical drive connector became disconnected due to normal usage. Normal use means typing on the "H" and "J" keys and the keys nearby too vigorously and not being careful when setting down the laptop on a table.

Now I have two complaints. The first complaint is why Sharp did not find a permanent solution to this loose connector problem. The second time I received the error message of "operating system not found", I re-sent the laptop to Sharp and in return I was given a working laptop. However, the laptop failed again and the warranty expired.

But instead of trying to reconnect the loose connector, I had a laptop repair technician inspect the laptop. After asking for the counsel of three laptop repair technicians, located in three cities located more than twenty miles apart--this, I thought, would certify that these technicians were not colluding with each other--the common recommendation was to buy a new laptop with core duo technology or prepare to pay over $350 dollars to have a new motherboard installed. Moreover, I paid the technicians an inspection fee that I could never recover. . Does someone have a rational explanation for the deceptive and misleading advice of laptop technicians?

Also, why did Sharp design a laptop that originally sold for nearly two thousand dollars when its hard disk and optical drive become detached during normal computer usage.