WD2500JD-75HBB0 Trouble understanding PCB swaps

[Cust1981]

Moderator: I just read western-digital-pcb-swap-rule-t8951-20.html. DCMs don't matter in a PCB Swap. That answers my question. I've removed the DCM question and left the pcb attached to the head disk assembly question.

Hello Gurus,
Thank you in advance for reading this and for your reply.

Wow, am I glad I stumbled upon this forum. Typically I don't like to create new posts if I can read other's information via search but i'm having trouble understanding PCB swaps. Perhaps by posting this message others will stumble upon this post and it will become more clear also. Forgive me if this is a long post, I'm trying to include more information here in hopes that someone else will understand in the future.

I am having trouble with my WD2500-75HBB0. I'm no technician but I can perform simple checks to narrow down it's failure. The following symptoms leads me to believe the PCB failed, correct me if I'm wrong.

- The hard drive doesn't spin at all when I start up my computer. It doesn't spin or click which means it's not a bad head or the motor.
- I can hear the platters rotate when I twist the hard drive around in my hand on a horizontal plane. The platters are moving freely and are not stuck which indicates that it's not static friction causing the head to be stuck to the platter.
- I didn't smell anything burnt or anything of the sort when it failed. I don't think there was a big short or it was fried.
- Bios doesn't recognize it.

Things I've tried:
- I replaced the hard drive with a new one using the same computer and the other drive works fine. This indicates that the rest of my system is operational.
- I placed the drive into an external USB case. The hard drive still doesn't spin indicating that it's not the power supply.
- I experience the same symptoms when I install the hard drive in another computer which indicates it's the drive itself.

After review, the symptoms lead me to believe it could be the PCB. This is where I'm stuck. I've read an article on WD2500-75HBB0 drives (www.datacent.com/datarecovery/hdd/weste ... 0JD-75HBB0). There is no date on the article so I'm not sure how relevant the information is. The author suggests that the firmware is on the "service area" and not on the PCB. Other articles/forums suggest that the DCM specifies the firmware. However, I'm not sure how the Drive Configuration Module would specify the firmware. He also suggests that the PCB may be adapted to the head disk assembly it was manufactured with depending on how old the model is.

What I don't understand is how do I know if the PCB is adapted to the head disk assembly? If it is attached to the head disk assembly how does that affect the PCB swap, meaning must it be done professionally with it attached?

Thank you kindly for your time and for helping me restore my hard drive.

[drc]

ROM contents from the old PCB need to be moved to the new PCB, one way or another.

[Cust1981]

thank you sir. I will have to hire a technician. Speaking of, data recovery centers seems to me like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. There must be another technical term i don't know of when I google for a guy to swap my ROM? Data recovery centers want to charge me $300 for a <30min soldering job.

[drc]

I suppose you could take it to a local small electronics repair type place and say "hey, can you move this chip from here to there"

[hddmania]

$300 is not too bad for the data center. Price seems reasonable...
Local Electronic shops should be able to do that for under $100 but no promiss of getting your data back. Also they have no way of testing to make sure that PCB will not kill your drive after the ROM Chip Swap. When you try to power on your hard drive, if the PCB was defective due to the sodlering or whatever the reasons, it may end up killing your internal parts and make the recovery a lot more expensive than $300.

[r3712]

$300 is not too bad for the data center. Price seems reasonable...
Local Electronic shops should be able to do that for under $100 but no promiss of getting your data back. Also they have no way of testing to make sure that PCB will not kill your drive after the ROM Chip Swap. When you try to power on your hard drive, if the PCB was defective due to the sodlering or whatever the reasons, it may end up killing your internal parts and make the recovery a lot more expensive than $300.

Make sense. If you need your data just do not try to save couple of cents. You can loose more. Let's professionals handle it.

[Cust1981]

Thanks for the advice. My data is not *THAT* important so I'm going to take a risk and ask my local computer repair company to move "this chip from this board to this board".

I'll update on how that goes

[Cust1981]

SUCCESS!!!!

I had some guy at the local computer repair shop perform the work. He said he had done it before and I took his word for it. After replacing the logic board my drive now works again.

thanks gurus!

[pcimage]

Great news!

Well done

[Mikeluz]

SUCCESS!!!!

I had some guy at the local computer repair shop perform the work. He said he had done it before and I took his word for it. After replacing the logic board my drive now works again.

thanks gurus!

Hello Cust1981

Can you explicit what were the steps you take on the recovering process? Where did you start? What "right things" have you done? What "wrong things" have you done (if any)? Share with me (and others) your success story.

TY for your attention.