Seagate ST3300622A pcb smooth chip burnt... repair possible?

[pellepelleusa]

What I have in my hands is a burnt out HDD from my fiancee with all her high school / college photos on. If we had a 1000 dollars spare we would send it to a professional recovery service, her father is a computer professional and said he cannot fix it... I doubt that, since he did not spend much time evaluating the drive.

There is no spinning sound or any other noise coming from this HDD whenever it is on power supply.

So my plan is to remove the pcb (I think the smooth chip is burnt) and replace it with one pcb of the same HDD type I found on ebay (ST3300622A). Since the pcb number is almost never listed on ebay, I was wondering if it is worth the try to use the donor drives pcb even if the pcb numbers dont match but only the ST numbers.

My pcb number is 100373051.

I would like to replace the PCB and have read over some posts.
How likely is it that there are other parts broken of the hard drive that I cannot see from the outside, e.g. if the preamp is blown? Was it just a voltage spike that could lead to such damage?

Why do I have to replace the EEPROM chip (which I read in your forum). Can I not take the risk and not replace the ROM chip or will it destroy the drive? I do not have a hot air gun handy...

Couldnt figure out how to use the image urls, so I attached 3 photos of the pcb and drive and have more uploaded on http://www.flickr.com/photos/53109336@N07/

thanks for the help!

Attachments

[hddguy]

The EEPROM contains information specific to your individual Hard Disk which the disk depends on for normal disk operations.

The damaged chip is responsible for spindle motor operation, and as this is bad there is a definate chance of damage to the motor.

The best option is to have this disk professionally evaluated to at least identify if there is further damage. If this is not an option, then you can try transferring the EEPROM to a good PCB which is required, but if there are in fact other complications you could make things a little worse.

[BlackST]

... or fry the new PCB too. Who knows ? (in controlled environment it won't happen)

[ppumkin]

these SMD's can be fragile to heat. You need to extract the chip quick. and put it onto the donor- quickly too and aligned properly with all legs soldered. the slightest static discharge will fry the chip too! take it to somebody who can transfer this for you- somebody who does it everday. give them a few bucks and try that. if it does not work- i suggest you save up for professional recovery. and keep all parts safe and properly marked.
Good luck.

[pellepelleusa]

Thanks to all!
I found a website that sells pcb boards, there are quite a few Barracuda pcb s available but not with all specs.
My question is where can I make compromises?

I could get either

Model: ST3300622A
P/N: 9BD044-326
Firmware: 3.AAK
Site Code: WU
Capacity: 300GB
Main Chip #: 100404195

or

Model: ST3300622A
P/N: 9BD044-304
Firmware: 3.AAH
Site Code: WU
Capacity: 300GB
Main Chip #: 100367049

Does the firmware / Site code have to be identical, or is it not as important?

Thanks!

[ppumkin]

FW-exact; DATE-close as AND SERIAL NUMBER XXXXyyyy x-Identical y-close as not critical.
Stick to this guideline for all drives.

[rameez]

Just check the number of the pcb , in your case its 100373051 . Get any pcb with same number and then swap ROM .

[fzabkar]

If you purchase your board from http://www.onepcbsolution.com/, it will cost you around US$40. The same vendor offers to transfer your ROM for $10. He has received good reports, both in this forum and at Seagate's.

BTW, I'm not associated with any vendor.

[pellepelleusa]

Thanks everyone,
@ fzabkar: Good idea with PCB solutions. It is 50 bucks to rebuilt the firmware, a fair price I think.

Here is what they wrote back to my email:

"Yes we can build a clone of this PCB. Most of the time will be spent on
shipping the board, the actual firmware transfer will only take 1-2 business
days.
If you would like to proceed with the firmware transfer, please complete the
following form and ship the circuit board ONLY to us (address is located at
the top of the form):

http://site.onepcbsolution.com/firmxfer.html

Please declare the value of the package at $10, and try not to use UPS or
FedEx, as they charge a very high brokerage fee for border crossing.
Please be sure to include the above form with your board.
Once we receive your board, we will copy the firmware from it onto a new
board. If it is successful, I will let you know and send you an invoice. The
total will be $49.99 + Shipping (free for North America, $3 for everywhere
else). After the payment is complete, we will ship the new board back to
you.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and if you ship
the board to us.

Best Regards,
Kevin

PCB Solution - Hard Drive Circuit Board Specialists"

I will go ahead and use their service when I go back to the U.S. in November.
All the best to everyone that helped me by commenting on my post!