Hello dear friends,
I am checking a hard drive with the simtomatic of no spindle start. After this, of course I have assumed that the PCB has a failure. It probably had some. Now with a new PCB and original ROM is still not starting the spindle.
FW 81.00B81 / 04.1AH
Model: WD40EFZX-68AWUNO

I am working with SeDiv in combination with WD Marvel ( only in demo mode since a while, no access to the server - Is someone encountering the same issue?)

For me it looks like ROM failure and can be that Module 47 is the issue.
Other complet PCB or the donor PCB with this ROM is starting the spindle and tries to calibrare / initialise but of course is failing finaly because of no originals adaptive.

Can someone check the ROM if there is a checksum problem or PUIS issue ( anyway the drive is not capable to get to the SA and to read out the serial)
As far as I coud go is to load Ovl 11 and DIR.

franc has as quick utility for checking the integrity of wd roms http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/temp/ I think the latest is v12.

_________________
Data Recovery Services in the UK.
https://www.usbrecovery.co.uk/

I think U need unlock PCB or unlock ROM then headmap edit may start spin but surely head damage

I already seen this in two or more cases in 810011

Thanks for reminding me this. Have checked myself the output of the tool. No obvious issues with the ROM file indeed.

I would like to ask you guys what is exactly the trick with „unlocked“ PCB.

V17:

http://users.on.net/~fzabkar/FreeBasic_W32/WD/

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

I would ask, is the patient PCB failing to spin up because it cannot detect the preamp? If the drive spins up with a donor PCB and donor ROM, then the answer would be no.

The PCB (2060-810011) is firmware locked. If one transfers the ROM from a working drive to a donor PCB, will the donor drive still spin up?

How was the patient ROM dumped? Was it dumped via direct access (IC clip), or was it dumped via terminal? If the latter, then the MCU must be working.

If the MCU is not alive, then the PCB must be faulty. I would then check the obvious components, ie TVS diodes and fuses.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hi,
WD RED Plus (WD40EFZX-68AWUN0) is a CMR drive, although the PCB in it is 810011, the processor is not SED locked.
CMR drives have only one serial flash chip soldered in, SMR drives have three serial flash chips soldered.

Mikippp

Hello everyone and thank you for your contribution.

I have made some tests yesterday and interesting is for me at least,what I have discovered:

1. the hard drive starts with foreign donor PCB with the similar or same fw
40EFZX-68AWUNO FW 04.18H starts directly and seeks for SA modules
40EFZX-68AWUNO FW 04.1AH doing the same Head Map 01234

2. With a donor PCB and original Flash chip, it is normally getting ready instantly, but nothing else. When I edit the Heads map from 1,2,3,4,5 to only 2, or 2 and 3, or 2,3,4 .. it is behaving like the previous PCBs from the point nr. 1 so, it rotates and seeks for 3 times for data on the platters. No ideea if the heads are good or not. If any other head is active with 2,3,4 togehter then the disc will not rotate and refuse also do start with a command from SeDiv for example. To mention theat "original" Head Map is 12345

3. I do not want to open the hard drive if it is not absolutely needed.

Can be exactly that the Heads 2,3,4 are ok and the rest are damaged. Is this true?

Hello, and thanks.
Strange that it spins with donor PCB and ROM until probably the heads are detected as defect ( or preamp?)
I have already used donor PCBs with the patient ROM and it is now in tests on the Hard disk assembly
The ROM was dumped through SeDiv and SATA transfer.
I remember since I started to work on this drive, many weeks ago and I have marked that some electronic defective components (capacitors and/or voltage regulator). Can be that a better technique will be to fix the original PCB and go ahead with diagnostics?!

Many thanks

If the ROM was dumped via SATA, then that would suggest that the MCU is OK. I have tried to detect the PUIS flag in the latest version of my tool, but I'm not sure if I have identified the correct byte in module 0x0D. In any case, if it is a PUIS issue, then HDAT2 should be able to disable PUIS.

You could test whether the firmware needs to detect the preamp by using a working donor PCB and blocking the HDA with a business card.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

The firmware is indeed looking for the preamp, I have already realised this. If iPCB s not connected to the HSA, the spindle is not spinning.

Hello.

Your website where you had the rom analysis tools is no longer online. Do you have any alternative hosting where you have them?

It's archived on the wayback machine https://web.archive.org/web/20230815000 ... /~fzabkar/

_________________
Data Recovery Services in the UK.
https://www.usbrecovery.co.uk/

Attached.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

thank you



thank you