CF30FQS64AM hard drive not recognised in bios

I have a CF-30 MkII as I understand it, and so far I have tried two different hard drives and a SSD, but the bios will not recognise them. I realise that the caddy could be a problem, but I have no way of testing that at present. I tried the search function here but so far have found nothing which seems to relate. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Paul

 

full model number please
hard drive model and size?

 

Hi Shawn, I thought I gave the full model number in the title? CF30FQS64AM Serial # 8JKYB96026. am I missing something? The hard drive is a WD1600BE 160Gb. The SSD is a Lighton LJH256V2G - 11.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yes you did...
I am more tired than I thought.

I best not give much technical advice until I get some sleep.

It's a fair guess that the caddy (actually the cable) is the problem.
If you want to tinker, you could remove the cable from the caddy.
Then remove the bottom plate of the CF30. insulate the area where the caddy goes with something. Paper or tape???
Plug the cable and drive assembly in while it is not in the caddy. Then see if the drive is recognized.
Make sure the cable is the correct direction. If it is not in the caddy, it can be plugged in upside down.
The Chinese cable assemblies are slightly too short where they plug into the laptop.

 

Cable,rare but it happens.

 

I'll double down with Kerry... Cable rarely... But it does happen. A lot of times when municipalities (or whomever) have to go through a bunch of Toughbooks to remove the drives from the caddies... They can get a little overzealous... But this should be an easy spot. I have 3-4 caddy cables now in my shop where they were torn while the person was attempting to remove the old drive from the caddy or it packaging. If you spot a small tear you *could* attempt to solder it... But you are best off buying another cable or caddy as this must be your issue. DO NOT buy the Chinese replacements!

The only other thing I can think of is bad RAM... But this usually prevents you from booting at all. I just had this issue... Installed new RAM and it was bad. I couldn't even boot into the BIOS.

 

yeppers ...
i have seen torn cables .
got a caddy with one a while back .

soldering them ... uuuggghhh ... been there , tried that .

the OP stated that the drives are not even showing up in the bios ...
it might be that the +5VDC supply line to the machine-side connector is not present .
i would check for this before going any further .

 

I was going to mention ram too. I had one the other day that showed the bad ram in the bios.....they are always multiples of 1024 but one stick had a lower reading....inconsistent. First time I saw that in bios and still the machine booted. (shakes head)

 

Thanks for all the replies. Will check out another caddy, and have a closer look at the cable when I get a chance. Really appreciate all of your help.