Noise related to PCB in WD HDDs (Final Edition)

[Ahmed_Samy]

i'm sory Skylon i was busy so i didn't check my topic for a long time ..... but Rameez answered you and did the job perfectly as ususal ... Thanks Rameez

[kovacsp]

Dear Ahmed,

I've just tweaked and re-saved you original image to fit in an attachement. I hope you don't mind!
Just don't like Rapidshare

Wish you all the best,
Peter

[nostar]

Hello. I have a WD2000JD-00GBB0 drive that is doing the clicking, described identically by rkagerer with his WD1200 drive. I found these PCB boards on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=017

I grabbed one of them right away, in case these are hot items. My question is regarding the difference in the model suffix 98HBB0. Will it still work doing the rom change with mine? Also, I'm curious about the rom change if the model numbers were identical. If they were identical, why is it still necessary to change roms? I ask because I must have gotten lucky some time ago. A friends drive died some years ago, and I had him by an exact replacement and I swapped pcb's and it recovered the drive. Just curious why that worked. I can't remember what kind of drive it was exactly, possibly a seagate IDE.

Doug

[rameez]

If pcb no 2061.... is same rom change should do the job .

[nostar]

I got a better donor. A complete functional WD2000JD-00GBB0 drive. The DCM code is all the same except for the last character. I've been practicing head swapping on a dead 40GB WD drive, and I feel pretty confident about swapping heads, should the pcb not fix the problem. The only thing I don't have is a clean room/chamber. I need to start researching around town for that. Any suggestions there? I live in Detroit, where there are quite a few universities to choose from ardound the city and state. I wonder if I can buddy up to some student that has clean room access and get an hour or so in there. Well, we'll see, hopefully the PCB fixes the problem.

[hdamateur]

Thank you very much for the article!! I, however, have a slightly different board (similar to the picture posted by Mr_Spokk). The symptoms are: (with drive slaved onto another computer), drive powers up ok and works for 1-2 minutes. Then 4 clicks, pause, 4 clicks, pause, etc (at this time, the drive is no longer responding). Investigating reveals the area of the board around the L6278 1.2 motor ic chip to be rather warm.

My choices, as I see it, are:
A) replace Motor IC chip (and any other related chips)
B) replace entire board (I have over 100 hd's in stock - most died due to bad sectors), and then swap ROM U12 (ref Mr_Spokk picture)

The drive is a WD400BB-53cAA0, DCM HSEANV2AB. What info should I look for in a donor PCB to ensure compatibility? Will all WD400BB boards of the same shape be compatible as long as one swaps the ROM U12 chip?

Thank you very much for your time and advice, it is greatly appreciated!!!
hdamateur

[hddguy]

After the clicking of the disk, does it power down and restart, or is knocking continuous?

[hdamateur]

It clicks 4 times, then pauses, then clicks 4 times, then pauses, and continues apparently, endlessly. Although, after 10-15 seconds or so I unplug it to prevent damage. If I reconnect it 30 minutes later, it will do the 4-click, pause, 4-click, pause, etc right away, but if left to sit overnight, it might work for 1-2 minutes before it starts the 4-click, pause, 4-click, pause cycle.

[pepe]

Hi,

95% heads.

pepe

[hdamateur]

Oooooooo that's not good. Is that a typical sign of heads (to work briefly after a long rest)? I don't doubt your diagnosis, just a humble amateur trying to further my knowledge.

Thank you,
hdamateur

[pepe]

Hi,

with these drives clicking is caused by damaged/weak heads in 95%. However there is a slight chance the PCB is defective.
Look at the number on the PCB, something like 2060-001092-007. Try to find a pcb with the same number and swap the ROM. Other models may have the same number, but if the processor is of different type, it won't work even with ROM swapping, otherwise it might.

Sorry for the bad news.

[hddguy]

It clicks 4 times, then pauses, then clicks 4 times, then pauses, and continues apparently, endlessly. Although, after 10-15 seconds or so I unplug it to prevent damage. If I reconnect it 30 minutes later, it will do the 4-click, pause, 4-click, pause, etc right away, but if left to sit overnight, it might work for 1-2 minutes before it starts the 4-click, pause, 4-click, pause cycle.

From these symptoms, and no powering off and recycling, I would suggest PCB.

Though heads cannot be ruled out sorry

[hdamateur]

Thanks for the PCB swap info, PEPE!!!! I'm gonna search through my hd's and see if i have a matching board, if so, I'll try the ROM swap since it's such an easy option. I'll keep ya posted with how that turns out. Thank you both so much!

[hdamateur]

I found a donor board from a drive with several bad sectors (40-50ish), that had the some number (0000-001092-200 A), swapped the ROM chip. The symptoms are very similar, but there is a short whining sound (I'm guessing the high pitched humm a voice-coil makes as the heads are moved against a stop), followed by a louder clunk, and then 4 clicks, a pause, 4 clicks, a pause, another short whining sound, louder clunk, 4 -6 clicks, a pause... later another short whining sound, louder clunk, etc.

At this point, is it safe to assume the heads must be the prob? And, unless I'm in the mood and prepare a clean area (I have achieved a greater than class 10 environment with a laminar flow hood and a hepa in a past job) to disassemble it and swap heads, I won't get it working again?

Thank you, your time is very much appreciated.
hdamateur

[PartisiPRO]

This is very helpfull solution...Thank's for the artikel.
Hope this artikel help me forward...

[Ahmed_Samy]

Long time without being here ..... Thank you all for such positive interaction with my topic ... and special thanks to kovacsp for re-uploading my high resolution pic of PCB on a permanent web host.

[visz]

the thread posted is very useful..thank you bro

[Ahmed_Samy]

You are welcome visz , Thank you for your feedback

[eng.mas]

thank you for posting

[ecoman]

Thank you for a very useful post. Even though it started many years ago, the drives that are failing now are relevant to the time of your original posting.

Excellent work.