Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
October 27th, 2008, 9:49
Hello there!
Recently hdd of my notebook (Sony VAIO VGN-270P) refused to boot up. I have opened the notebook and found some water condensation on the PCB of the hdd, which even melted down the protective colored layer on the PCB. When I power up the notebook, hdd does not spin up. Recently I got the replacement PCB, but unfortunately with different FW version (KA200K, the old was KA200A). With this pcb my hdd spins up and I can hear the clicking sounds from heads, but data still is not accessible and hdd is not recognized by bios. Is it correct to assume that it is not a mechanical, but pcb problem? If yes, can I flash in the KA200A fw? Or I will need to get the ROM from old PCB and solder it on the new one? Will it help? I also heard about the fuse on pcb but I don't know where to search for it. Can anybody tell me where I can find it? Thanks in advance.
October 27th, 2008, 9:53
Fuses are located at F1 and F2 positions on PCB. If fuses are good then flash ROM transfer is required from bad board to new.
October 27th, 2008, 9:56
Post pictures of the old board and a replacement that you got.
October 27th, 2008, 10:02
Thanks very much for answers! I will post the pictures as soon as I will get at home. Regarding the fuses, sorry for lame question but what to do if fuses are bad? Replace them or temporary shorten them?
October 27th, 2008, 10:16
Just bridge them with a bit of solder.
October 27th, 2008, 13:13
My guess it has nothing to do with the board(can't imagine how it could melt PCB) and the problem is with the bearings.
Upon power up take the drive close to your ear and listen if there's a slight ticking/scratching sound like it's trying to spin up. If you can hear something then the board is fine. If not - it's bad board indeed.
October 27th, 2008, 17:55
I doubt it is a bearing problem, because there was a water on the pcb on the moment I have turned the power on. And it didn't melt the pcb itself, but a little spot of the green protective layer on top of it (i don't really know why it happened). A lot of contacts were wet during the power on. That's why I think pcb is burnt. And with this pcb drive is not spinning and simply is not making any sounds at all. But if pcb replaced, it spins up normally (at least as I hear) and heads are moving (clicking), but because of the f/w version mismatch, drive can not read system information (as I understand) and does not initialise. As soon as I will be able to do that, I will try to test the fuse and probably to move the ROM from the old pcb.
October 27th, 2008, 19:01
If it's spinning with new board then it was indeed the problem.
You can't just "flash" new firmware on it. It's much more complicated, on Toshiba especially since each board is unique to the drive it was manufactured with.
You can try to fix the original board. If you are not good at electronics you will need a pro.
October 27th, 2008, 21:46
move old bios ic to new pcb!
www.njzhaobo.com
October 28th, 2008, 16:57
Thank you very much for your help people! I just moved the ROM ic from the old board to the new and hdd is alive again! Data is fully accessible.
Thank you very much again!
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