Mijn probleem
I walked away from my computer for a few minutes and when I came back I had the flashing question mark folder - the computer wasn't communicating with the hard drive. I had recently (one year and two month previously) upgraded the original hard drive to an SSD. I still had the old drive, so I put that back in. Same problem. The MacBook Pro didn't start and I got the flashing question mark.
Mijn oplossing
Maybe the hard drive wasn't the problem. Starting the computer with the SSD as an external hard drive (via a SATA/USB adapter) worked. The computer start and ran fine, with no down time since I'm now back to the current hard drive. Of course it's a little slow and it's not the ideal solution. Since the SSD worked, I next replaced the hard drive cable and installed the SSD internally. Same problem - flashing question mark.
Mijn advies
I haven't gone any further with repairs, but I've narrowed it down to three possibilities. The new had drive cable that I installed was bad, I installed it improperly or damaged it during installation, or (dread!) the logic board is faulty and is not talking to the SSD. I don't see how I could have installed the cable wrong, but damage is a possibility. Anyway, I'm wondering if there's any test I could do before repairing/replacing the logic board. Any suggestions?
Één opmerking
@gekaki, Thank you for sharing your story with us. You've done the troubleshooting steps we normally recommend to identify if the hard drive is bad or if the hard drive cable is defective.
Some background: Although those cables tested before being sold, there is a design flaw which results in them having issues in the wild which are impossible to screen for. Sorry about that! It doesn't mean the cable you received was defective right out of the gate per se, but just that those hard drive cables are notorious for failing due to a design flaw in those machines, which Apple has not admitted to (to my knowledge). Since the replacements for most machines we sell are OEM they, unfortunately, suffer from the same design flaws.
But don't worry, unlike Apple, we back that cable up with our Lifetime Warranty.
I recommend contacting our customer support team and requesting a warranty replacement. Please reference this post and include your order number. You can submit a ticket here: help.ifixit.com
Christopher Fernandes - Antwoord