Chosen Solution
Hello! Hope everyone’s doing well. I am a girl newbie with anything to do with chips, cable, screws and what not so please excuse my embarrassingly lacking knowledge on the terminologies. I’m changing the ssd from the vaio duo 11 and there’s this orange flat cable thingy hovering over it that I am not sure how to remove safely. Your help is greatly appreciated! And if you can also enlighten me on what that orange cable is called, that’ll be awesome too :)
NOTE: I have safely removed all the screws and removed the cover without scratching or bumping into anything :). Thank you a million times! Image source: https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=i&rct=j…
Hi Nikka, Commonly, any flat flexible cable like this is called a flex cable or flat cable. It’s function is to deliver data or power, or both. In this case, I am not sure of the exact function, but if you’re referring to the big orange one sitting in the middle of the mother board, it’s inserted at both ends in ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) connectors. Basically, a ZIF connector consists of a connector where the flat cable is inserted, and a flap is flipped in place to pinch and retain the cable in place. To release the cable, flip up the flap to release the cable (in your picture, the flaps are black). Sometimes, the flap does not flip, but rather is to be pulled back by ~1 mm or less. Whatever you do, never exert force around ZIF connectors (or any other computer components). If you feel you have to force it, then something is wrong and you must stop before damaging anything. Here are a couple of videos (video 1) (video 2) to show you how to release the cable from a ZIF connector.
I’m sure you figured this out but just carefully pull the cable out. Some people call them ribbon cables or jumper cables but if you were ordering the part it would be called a FFC (Flexible Flat ) cable.
