Well its been abused for 3 years in crazy temperatures and something is broken. Cold mornings I go the no hard disk found message which went away after the car warmed up - I put up with it. Yesterday though the message wouldn't go away so I opened it up. A couple of things I saw...

1) I have corrosion on one of the corner mainboard screws - normal?
2) I have deposits of something between the connectors on the IDE-header
3) I think one of my pins is off the board.

What do you guys think? A simple clean of the board with a cotton bud? Or send it to someone?

Apologies for the pathetic photography. My excuse is I had not much light!

Corrosion on Screw - Should I be worried moisture is in the unit?


IDE Header - bottom middle shows my suspect connector. Note 'stuff' between contacts


Zoomed-in Shot of suspect problem