HDD GURU FORUMS

Hello,

You need to use 1 - 1.2 A fuse!
If it blows, there still a short component.

Never use bigger fuse for a hard disk while try to recover!

Regars,
Janos

hello datasolution,

how about telling us each component's specs? I have a couple of very good electronics stores in my town (even tho I live in Santiago, Chile), and I'd like to buy those components new. I don't want to risk further damage to my Samsung HD501LJ and the data in it.

I still can't tell by your comments what component 1 and component 2 really are. Help! Samsung won't help me at all.

Days pass and I keep hearing more and more horror stories from people on the internet who have this same problem (with Samsung and other hdd brands) they plug their drives (mostly new) and smoke starts to appear on their units.

Thanks to you all for your unvaluable help.

I thought I went over the specs to the point of beating the dead horse to a pulp. Your question is like:

"I've just bought a new car, and I NEED to find the exact chemical composition gasoline that it came with from the factory. Don't tell me to just go to a gas station. I want the EXACT gas the manufacturer used."

Well, if you want that, it's not here. I don't know. I'd bet the Engineers who designed the drive don't know (Parts substitutions happen all the time). Samsung doesn't seem to be telling you either. Good luck with that duck chase tho...

If by chance you're interested in fixing the drive, and by chance the only thing wrong with your drive is a blown fuse, then all the info you need is in this thread.

Hi everyone,
it sems that I have totally same problem nad totally sam disk.
(if my english will be bad then tell me about it and I will give better explanation what I mean)

Cause of damage
Cause of damage is ME. I'm so stupid.
Power supply of my external enclosure burned so I tried to connect similar power supply that I have. It was same manufacturer and quite similar type of external box. But there were different connectors. So I connected power supply connector and enclosure by simple cables. It worked fine but then I wanted to change disk and I wasn't careful and forget for reflection of connectors and swap 5V and 12V connector. Disk blowed.

Now, if I try to start disk then it smells and fumes in part on picture:
I checked that solder melts in part in red ring on picture.



What solution?
First, I want to buy another disk and try to swap PCB and safe data
Then I would like to try to repair damaged disk.

But I read that swapping would be probably problem:
http://datacent.com/datarecovery/hdd/samsung/HD501LJ

Is this information true?

I don't mean money safe like reason because I want another external disk to backup first disk anyway. So new boughten disk will be in use.
I have already HD501LJ in order to buy it. Should I cancel that order, skip swapping of PCB and start to solve problem like in this thread?

Thank you for answers

Please, delete my previous Post and add information about replacement of terms "fuse" and "TVS diode" of barbaroja to first post of thread!

Now I finish studying of this threat from beginning carefully and now I think that I understand to all the things.

First, I attached final true description of Samsung HD501LJ parts.

Zero-ohm link (Zero-ohm resistor) made like SMT resistor
and
Transient voltage suppression diode (TVS diode).

It sems that I have totally same problem nad totally same disk.

Cause of damage
Cause of damage is me. I'm so stupid.
Power supply of my external enclosure burned so I tried to connect similar power supply that I have. It was same manufacturer and quite similar type of external box. But there were different connectors. So I connected power supply connector and enclosure by simple cables. It worked fine but then I wanted to change disk and I wasn't careful and forget for reflection of connectors and swap 5V and 12V connector. Disk blowed.

Now, if I try to start disk then it smells and fumes near TVS diode for 5V (on picture):
I checked that solder melts too.

TVS diode for 5V is printed with something like:
]¦¦740 HE
TVS diode for 12V is printed with:
]¦¦740 LE

Zero-ohm resistor (part printed with "0") looks OK (thanks to weak power suply for external enclosure).

So now I need to know alternative to TVS diode for 5V - is this enough information that it's for 5V in shop?

P.S.: Before reading this thread I thought about buying same HDD and swap all the PCB but I read that swapping wouldn't be useful:
http://datacent.com/datarecovery/hdd/samsung/HD501LJ

YES! HDD works again after removing TVS!

All thanks to this forum!

Now what is TVS with strange number ]¦¦740 HE?

Hi,

Just a big thankyou for all the posts on this subject. I've had the exact same thing with this drive and luckily I was in the posession of the same type in order to compare volatges, resistances etc.

As per the other cases, the '000' resistor had blown as a result of (or because of) the 5V TVS. After removing this TVS and soldering a link across the '000' the drive starts up and I'm busy hoovering the data off it!

Many thanks

Don't forget to not use the drive after the data is comes out...
This drive have no longer protections, and will burn badly next time, so this is not safe!

Janos

I know that it's dangerous, but I used HDD without TVS (on new enclosure, certainly). It works a few weeks till I have chance to recovery data. It worked fine, fortunately.

If you want to use the good hdd (without tvs), i suggest to try to find another (almost any model) dead samsung hdd from ebay, and move the good TVS from the bad hdd to your.
The TVS have only 2 type, the 5V and the 12V type.
If you match the voltage side, you only need to match the polarity as well, and you are done.
The drive is safe again.

Janos

Thank you, I know. I have TVS yet. I buy them in in shop. I know about polarity and will be carefull.

But I have soldering gun only. I must wait for soldering iron which safer and doesn't have voltage peaks that can destroy TVS.

So finally, here is my HDD with new TVS SMBJ5.0A SMD

I haven't read through all the suggestions, but when I have a blown board, I do not try to fix it because of the simple reason that many other IC's are also blown when the "fuse" blew. The fuse acts too slow to prevent the other components from being damaged!

The only jub of this fuse is to prevent fire on the board! I had this happen many times in the last 20 years in the PC business.

The good intentions of others are admirable, but all the help they suggest will just lead to frustration and maybe loss of all data after you think you have the correct component.

The only practical and only real solution is to buy another identical knows working drive (ebay, craigs list, etc.) and swap the board.

Sometimes this didn't fix the problem either, because there is a read/write head pre-amp inside the drive itself which was also blown. This is another tiny circuit board with electronics on it inside the cover. There's no way you can replace this yourself.

If you try another board and it doesn't work, your only solution is to send it to someone that specializes in data recovery. The actually remove the platters in a clean room environment and install it in a known good drive to recover the data.

Trust me, fooling around with replacing components is useless. I've been there and done that many times, and never was able to fix a board. Swapping it with a know good one is the only solution.

Most of the people who are posting solutions such as "Remove TVS" are actually professional data recovery technicians who enjoy helping out alittle in their free time. I am a DR tech for a small Socal based company and I can say that removing a TVS is not big issue at all as long as you make sure your power source is secure, and you are only running the drive long enough to extract the valuable data.

... and swapping boards do not always (brand and model depending) work.
Try to do it on Toshiba and you'll be amazed, or on some IBM...
Sometimes from a good board then after swap the bad boards are two.

This doesn't apply to pro service, naturally. But people always believe in their Internet god, so why worry? When it's good, it's good, when it's bad, usually the loss is limited to some pics , porn and warez. So why worry ?

Times are changed...

Hi all,

Thanks to all of you for your comments and help. I have the exact same problem as detailled throughout the post.

I would like to test shorts on the PCB, but I'm not sure how to use the multimeter. Could you give me precisions ?

Should I realize the test with PSU connected ?
The multimeter should be in which mode ? ohmmeter ? voltmeter ?

Thks again!

No, without power supply!!!!!

You will use Ohm-meter. When resistivity is 0 then TVS is bad, when infinity than TVS is OK.

How To Use A Multimeter

Hello people,

I tested my PCU for shorts around the 2 TVS and the jumper.

I read the following values (calibre 2000kohms)

jumper : 1365
TVS 5V : I read 1
TVS 12V : 43

What do you think of those values ?

Thank you so much again for your answers,

5V TVS should be good - 1 on the left side of display means infinity.

Please decrease range of resistance. If 12V TVS will be infinity then it's OK too.


Jumper is a conductor and it should have low unmeasurable resistance.