What did I just fry?

[Chazin]

Hello all, new to the boards here... registered because I apparently killed my 2 WD Velociraptor 300GB drives while installing a new PSU. The way I killed them is by plugging the wrong SATA power cable, one from my previous PSU, into the new one; apparently despite the fact that they look 95% similar, they have different heads on the cable's end. My PC wouldn't power up with the wrong cable installed (attached to the two drives), then when I finally realized the problem and changed in the right SATA cable, these two drives are no longer being recognized by the bios. I tried it in my father's PC, and also, no bios recognition. Even though these drives are usually extremely quiet, I don't believe that they are powering up when I turn the PC on.

I've carefully dismantled the PCB from the drive and taken pictures, question is, what did I fry? could the oxidation on the head contacts be the source of the damage? I don't want to damage my drives further at this point, and am now seeking the wise advice from the lot of you. Thank you very much for your time.

Apologies for the large image size

[Chazin]

I reread the topic and found that the title to be misleading; I know I fried the square chip which is the VCM, the unit that controls the motors, which is why the motors won't spin. Now would a PCB swap + transfer of U12 rom chip be sufficient in rendering these drives alive again? or, could more things be broken?

Thanks

[BlackST]

Is data important?

[Chazin]

It's somewhat important, stuff that I wouldn't want to lose, but wouldn't lose my life (or all my money) over it, etc. Thing is, how could a PCB swap further damage the drive? if a PCBb swap fails then it just fails, and back to square 0.

[BlackST]

Things ARE that you can have also preamp damage and YES, a "PCB swap" CAN further damage the drive. And it's a Velociraptor.
I can't give any different advice than the one nobody want to hear.
If you have a pro near you who knows Velociraptor series and can SAFELY check everything, give it a go.

[619beave]

BlackST has good points.

Also there are some burned marks on the PCB to HSA contacts as well. This suggests there might be Preamp and/or HSA damage as well.

I'd take it to a pro as well.

[Chazin]

Guys thanks for your help.

I got an identical velociraptor with the same everything, and verified that it works. I swapped the PCB over to a broken drive and the result is now it turns on, but bios still doesn't recognize it. I don't think the heads even tried to seek, there was no clicking sounds. Basically no weird sounds at all, just drive spinning. Does this mean I have to swap the U12 rom or does it sound like the damage is beyond the PCB?

My other drive is worse, no matter what PCB is connected it just wouldn't turn on, drive won't spin, makes no noise, what gives? This is what I don't understand because doesn't the drive at least try to make some sounds or show signs of life, even if it won't read the data? How could it be broken in a way that it just won't turn on (even with good PCB)?

And how do you determine who is a 'pro' and who is just a hole-in-the-wall part time repair technician? Know any good recovery services based in Denver?

[BlackST]

Basically the more you spend the more you get. Beware of 'no data no fee' and 'free' , in my opinion. There are many valuable pros here maybe not exactly in Colorado but you can always send the drive safely.

[coffeebean]

Hi Chazin,

This is very common situation all over the world - Experts solve it quite easily.

So, what do experts do to solve the problem?

Firstly experts use electronic tester to pins coming out of drive (which connect to pcb)
Expert knows how to test some readings across specific pins to find out if there is possible problem
with inside drive electronics (like pre-amp)

The pcb contacts are not burnt at all - this coloring is from some chemical result of a reaction between different types of metal.

Once expert has determined that internal electronics are OK, expert will do as you say with"U12".
So, if you learn exactly what expert knows you can do as expert does.

[coffeebean]

Hi BlackST,

No data no fee - Ha, ha - I agree with you 2000%.

No Data - no Fee -------->> means no work ------->> Mostly No expert either.

[Alexii]

A lot of good companies operate on no data no fee basis. And offer free diagnostics.