Hi, I recently came across (acquired) an old but pristine Siemens-Nixdorf PCD-3nsx notebook (I am including a reference picture, albeit from Wikimedia).

The machine is in absolutely beautiful condition, just a few things don't work. The CMOS battery is cooked (I got that from selftest). On my first try to power it up, the computer started beeping and dark smoke emerged from the fan grill. I thought it was done, but on removing the main battery, everything started working smoothly, the computer booted (so I guess the main charging circuit is blown). But the thing troubling me the most is the internal HDD (Conner CP-4044), which is not getting recognized by the system.

(Just before I say anything, I am not really comfortable with any deep repairs of the components. The notebook is in a really beautiful condition, and because it is a piece of history, I would like to keep it that way. That is the reason I don't want to deeply mess with the bios or solder anything on the main boards. Opening the brittle plastic case without breaking anything was a hell on its own.)

I want to carry the notebook, and the HDD is the only thing preventing normal usage (in my opinion, I don't care about the battery). So I wanted to replace it with something, that would work. After reading a few posts and articles, my focus landed on cards that can convert CF cards to be able to communicate on the strange 44-pin ATA interface. But few thing concern me, for example the bi0s not recognizing the card (I don't care if I insert 1GB CF and be only able to use 40 or 80MB). Also I found, that the card used this way have problems with wear leveling and burning out quickly. The card I found is this one (sorry for the czech language, it is our local shop, I will do my best to include the pictures and translation of the (sparse) specifications).

https://www.kaufland.cz/product/528403779/?ut … 364403734&gQT=1

CF card to vertical 2,5 inch HDD IDE with 44-pin connector adaptor (for Linux DOS Windows)
1. Master/slave switch is optional and supports all CF cards in HDD mode
2. Suitable for notebooks with IDE slots and mini-ITX types I, II and microdrive compact flash
3. Due to it working in True-Ide mode and supporting UDMA, you can run any operating system

Please excuse my sporadic understanding of the topic, I'm trying to learn. Do you think this card would work with this computer without doing any large modifications to the BIOS?

Thanks for any help.