Mac Mini Hard Drive Swap. Now CD is non-functional

[chopper]

Broke the cardinal rule: never work on hardware when you're tired.

Swapped the hard drive in a first gen Intel Mac mini tonight. As I was buttoning it back together I noticed that the copper-colored cable in the back of the unit--supposed to be a audio cable??-- was hanging loose. I tried to insert it into the connection on the back of the CD unit but it won't stay.

And now the CD will not accept discs. The unit does power up.

Is there a way to reattach this cable?

Here's what a it looks like--one for sale on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Intel-Mac-Mini...dZViewItem

[Gareth]

Having never seen the inside of a Mini, I may not know what I'm talking about, but that cable doesn't look like anything that would attached to the optical drive.

Looks like it should go into a connector on the motherboard. The connector on the mobo should have a little panel that flips down, you insert the cable, then flip the panel back up to secure the cable.

[SKYLANE]

Sometimes that type of ribbon needs to have a plastic ledge on the mating piece slightly lifted. Then you slide the ribbon end into the connector followed by pushing down the plastic ledge to hold it in place.

I have been inside of a Mac Mini Intel, but have not needed to mess with the ribbon in question. So, I too, can not speak to exactly the configuration of the mating connector. I am fairly certain though you will need to manipulate some sort of locking feature on the connector side.

[OWC Jamie]

Yep look for a connector with a white top. The ribbon slides into that; all you need to do is lift that white top up - it's got locks on the sides to keep you from removing it and then slide the ribbon cable down - there will be a white line on the ribbon showing how far it is to go into the connector, and then press the lock back down, pinching the cable tight to the connector.
I have seen them damaged beyond repair though.... hopefully you did not destroy it.

[anonymouse1]

As a last resort, you might be able to glue it in.

[chopper]

THANKS. Got it. But the CD drive is still non-functional. I'll have to take it apart again ..

[DRR]

FYI That ribbon is a digital audio cable of some sort. I forgot to plug mine back in, and the mac lost all sound ability. Also, in system profiler, it did not recognize any audio hardware at all.

It should not influence whether your drive can read discs or not, though.