PVR hard drive Wester Digital WD1600AVBB fail

[Vilpo]

Hello.
I have a problem with the Hard drive of my Vision 4400pvr -set top box, hard drive in it is WD1600AVBB-63SYA0.
Problem appeared like this:
PVR froze as i was watching a program, would not respond to anything in like 30 minutes or so, so i had to pull the power on it.
After restart it would no longer let me browse the hard drive or give any info on it.

So, i desided to take it out of the pvr test it in my PC to see if it actually works still. On PC bios setup screen it gives strange info when it tries to identify the drive, sometimes the id seems correct: "WDC WD1600AVBB" and sometimes like "WD@ WD1604-AA", or something like that..
The HDD always seems to power on correctly, i can hear the drive spin up on power up and no strange sounds.
But even if the drive is ID:d correctly, computer wont start but it just stops when it should start windows.
I also tried connecting the drive in windows with a usb-converter but it doesn't seem to identify every time and when it does, it seems to give weird id with again the @:s -in the name.
At first i thought it could be data corruption but the weird ID:s leads me to think its a physical issue.
Now i could just replace the drive, but i have a couple of programs on there that i cannot get anywhere anymore so i need the data from the disk..
If it's a physical issue, could it be the pcb?
And if so, would a pcb swap get me access to the data?
The pcb on this drive is 2060-701494-002 rev b
I took the pcb out but i cannot see an obvious component failure though..

Thanks, if anyone can help!

[DataPlanet]

Hello.
I have a problem with the Hard drive of my Vision 4400pvr -set top box, hard drive in it is WD1600AVBB-63SYA0.
Problem appeared like this:
PVR froze as i was watching a program, would not respond to anything in like 30 minutes or so, so i had to pull the power on it.
After restart it would no longer let me browse the hard drive or give any info on it.

So, i desided to take it out of the pvr test it in my PC to see if it actually works still. On PC bios setup screen it gives strange info when it tries to identify the drive, sometimes the id seems correct: "WDC WD1600AVBB" and sometimes like "WD@ WD1604-AA", or something like that..
The HDD always seems to power on correctly, i can hear the drive spin up on power up and no strange sounds.
But even if the drive is ID:d correctly, computer wont start but it just stops when it should start windows.
I also tried connecting the drive in windows with a usb-converter but it doesn't seem to identify every time and when it does, it seems to give weird id with again the @:s -in the name.
At first i thought it could be data corruption but the weird ID:s leads me to think its a physical issue.
Now i could just replace the drive, but i have a couple of programs on there that i cannot get anywhere anymore so i need the data from the disk..
If it's a physical issue, could it be the pcb?
And if so, would a pcb swap get me access to the data?
The pcb on this drive is 2060-701494-002 rev b
I took the pcb out but i cannot see an obvious component failure though..

Thanks, if anyone can help!

it is mostly HDD software problem like Firmware or glist, plist there is no PCB problem at all... The solution is not easy for unprofessionals.

You need 2 steps to get your data back

1: Repair the hdd with advance tools.

2: connect to data recovery tool to extract data

Finally you need assistance of any data recovery company the maximum charges should be $250

Muhammad Ali
contact@ditplanet.com

[fzabkar]

I agree with Spildit. One or more of the IDE data bits appears to be stuck. This could be due to oxidisation or poor contact. I would reseat the IDE connector(s).

Comparing the good and bad model numbers produces inconclusive results, possibly because you have not accurately reported the model number information.

Code:

C:\>debug
-e 100 "WDC WD1600AVBB"
-e 110 "WD@ WD1604-AA"
-d 100 11f
1262:0100  57 44 43 20 57 44 31 36-30 30 41 56 42 42 09 00   WDC WD1600AVBB..
1262:0110  57 44 40 20 57 44 31 36-30 34 2D 41 41 00 51 12   WD@ WD1604-AA.Q.
-q

Could you run CrystalDiskInfo against the drive and upload a text report? The report will include the drive's Identify Device data. These data will tell us which IDE pins are at fault.

http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html

For more information see ...

Bad model number due to stuck bit in IDE interface:
http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=147&p=262

[Vilpo]

Hey guys, and thanks for the quick replys and good information.
Fzabkar: Yes, you are right, i didn't remember exactly what was the error with the model number info. Let me test again and i will report back.
I'll try to run crystalinfo.
Thanks again..

[Vilpo]

Ok, tested again.
It seems to have the weird drive info when i plug it in and start the computer, i get "W@C WD1604AVBF-63WYA0".
Once i shut down/start again, i get normal "WDC WD1600AVBB-63SYA0" info.
With the usb converter in windows it seems to identify as "WDC$WD16 04AVBF-63WYA0".
I cannot see it in Crystalinfo? Maybe because it is not recogniced in windows? Windows disk management can see it but wants to initialize the disk with either MBR or GUI. But i'm afraid to do this, since windows dont recognice the file system..

[fzabkar]

Bit #3 on the IDE interface is intermittent. It is sometimes high and sometimes low. I'd say that was an MCU problem rather than an interface problem.

The solution is to replace the board and transfer the chip at location U12 (if it exists) from patient to donor. Some PCB suppliers will do this for free.

Code:

C:\>debug
-e 100 "WDC WD1600AVBB-63SYA0"
-e 120 "WDC$WD1604AVBF-63WYA0"
-e 140 "W@C WD1604AVBF-63WYA0"
-d 100 15f
0100  57 44 43 20 57 44 31 36-30 30 41 56 42 42 2D 36   WDC WD1600AVBB-6
0110  33 53 59 41 30                                    3SYA0
0120  57 44 43 24 57 44 31 36-30 34 41 56 42 46 2D 36   WDC$WD1604AVBF-6
0130  33 57 59 41 30                                    3WYA0
0140  57 40 43 20 57 44 31 36-30 34 41 56 42 46 2D 36   W@C WD1604AVBF-6
0150  33 57 59 41 30                                    3WYA0
-q

Just to be certain, could you upload a detailed photo of both sides of the PCB, particularly the area around the IDE connector? Perhaps there is a dry solder joint.

[fzabkar]

Bit #3 on the IDE interface is intermittent.

Sorry, that should be bit #2.

[Vilpo]

Hey again, and thanks for the help with this one..
I don't think the drive/pcb has been damaged by me working on it. I handled it with care and the symptoms of the problem are the same as when i started with it.
I don't see any physical problem with pin #2 of the ide connector. I will upload 2 images of the pcb.




Since the pcb don't have U12 on it, should the ROM be located in the main ic, U5?
Since i have plenty of soldering experience with hot air/surface mounted components, it wouldn't be a problem for me to replace U12. However, replacing a component with small legs like the U5 seems a bit more challenging, i would rather not do that.. Is there a way to transfer the contents of the main ic to a replacement pcb, without soldering?

[michael chiklis]

Is there a way to transfer the contents of the main ic to a replacement pcb, without soldering?

Yes, if you have the right tools

I can do this job if you ship it to me.

[fzabkar]

I can't see any visible dry joints, but I would measure the voltages at each of the data pins. I would also check the resistances of each of the resistors connected to these pins.

http://pinouts.ru/HD/IdeInternal_pinout.shtml

Pin #13 (DD2, Data 2) appears to be the problematic one. AFAICT, R60 is its associated resistor.

[Vilpo]

I can't see any visible dry joints, but I would measure the voltages at each of the data pins. I would also check the resistances of each of the resistors connected to these pins.

http://pinouts.ru/HD/IdeInternal_pinout.shtml

Pin #13 (DD2, Data 2) appears to be the problematic one. AFAICT, R60 is its associated resistor.

Ok, thanks for the help.
I checked the resistance between pin #13 on the connector and the R60 resistor, which is infact where that pin connects to.
Resistance showed zero as expected, i also measure resistance of R60, that was 120 ohms which was similar to the other resistors near it..
The other side of R60 was leading to a pin of the main ic. So there doesn't seem to be any problem with that data line?
I also measured the voltage of the data pins, and pin #13 was 0,15 volts, similar to the other data pins..
One thing i noticed was that now i cannot get normal device id anymore in PC BIOS, even with shutting down/restart like i got it working before..
Now its "W@C WD1604AVBF-63WYA0" all the time.
So i think the problem is most propably with the pcb anyways? I think ill start searching for a replacement pcb.

[michael chiklis]

It can be pcb problem, SA problem, damaged heads or more then one of this together.
Correct diagnosis is needed before messing around with random attempts.

If you want i can check in remote if you have 'teamviewer' so we can understand better what is the problem, but to fix you need to ship the drive to someone which has the right tools.

[scratchy]

Some of these dvr based drives have PUIS have you checked this? Search here for the thread on puis with guru's scripted fix

[fzabkar]

Some of these dvr based drives have PUIS have you checked this?

The OP states that "the HDD always seems to power on correctly, i can hear the drive spin up on power up and no strange sounds".

In any case, even if PUIS were enabled, how would this produce the symptoms described by the OP?

[fzabkar]

It can be pcb problem, SA problem, damaged heads or more then one of this together.
Correct diagnosis is needed before messing around with random attempts.

It cannot be anything other than a simple PCB problem. There is a consistent bit difference in data bit #2.

Code:

C:\debug
-e 100 "W@C WD1604AVBF-63WYA0"
-e 120 "WDC WD1600AVBB-63SYA0"
-d 100 13f
0100  57 40 43 20 57 44 31 36-30 34 41 56 42 46 2D 36   W@C WD1604AVBF-6
0110  33 57 59 41 30                                    3WYA0
0120  57 44 43 20 57 44 31 36-30 30 41 56 42 42 2D 36   WDC WD1600AVBB-6
0130  33 53 59 41 30                                    3SYA0
-q

These symptoms point to a "parallel" problem rather than a "serial" problem. That is, there is a fault in a parallel data bus. The data on the platters is recorded serially and the interface between the SA and the PCB is a serial one. This means that an SA problem would show up in random bits, not in one particular bit. In any case the SA modules have their integrity checked by way of a 32-bit checksum, plus each sector has its own ECC bytes.

AISI, there is a fault in data bit #2 of the IDE interface internal to the MCU. It is unlikely to be an SDRAM issue, since the ROM code and SA overlays are loaded into SDRAM and executed from there. Corrupt code would cause the drive to hang.

[Vilpo]

It can be pcb problem, SA problem, damaged heads or more then one of this together.
Correct diagnosis is needed before messing around with random attempts.

It cannot be anything other than a simple PCB problem. There is a consistent bit difference in data bit #2.

Code:

C:\debug
-e 100 "W@C WD1604AVBF-63WYA0"
-e 120 "WDC WD1600AVBB-63SYA0"
-d 100 13f
0100  57 40 43 20 57 44 31 36-30 34 41 56 42 46 2D 36   W@C WD1604AVBF-6
0110  33 57 59 41 30                                    3WYA0
0120  57 44 43 20 57 44 31 36-30 30 41 56 42 42 2D 36   WDC WD1600AVBB-6
0130  33 53 59 41 30                                    3SYA0
-q

These symptoms point to a "parallel" problem rather than a "serial" problem. That is, there is a fault in a parallel data bus. The data on the platters is recorded serially and the interface between the SA and the PCB is a serial one. This means that an SA problem would show up in random bits, not in one particular bit. In any case the SA modules have their integrity checked by way of a 32-bit checksum, plus each sector has its own ECC bytes.

AISI, there is a fault in data bit #2 of the IDE interface internal to the MCU. It is unlikely to be an SDRAM issue, since the ROM code and SA overlays are loaded into SDRAM and executed from there. Corrupt code would cause the drive to hang.

Thanks fzabkar for clarifying that.
I tried again a couple of times and sometimes its recogniced correctly in windows also and sometimes not.
I ran a software "Photorec" when i had it correctly identified and i was actually able to recover 6 mp3:s i had on the drive, they were all without errors.
But, i wasn't able to recover other files, since the recovery crashed in the middle of the process.
So i think i will get the replacement pcb and send it+the hard drive to michael so he can swap the pcb and the firmware.
Hopefully after that i would be able to recover the rest of the files..

[michael chiklis]

Vilpo, i received your drive today!
The original pcb is dameged as we thought.
I swapped the pcb with donor and rebuild adaptives from SA, now the drive is physically working fine (it gets ready and firmware is good).
At the moment i'm checking surface with mhdd, smart is good.

I let you know in few hours if surface is ok, then i will show you in PM the main root screen.

[michael chiklis]

Hello,
there are not any damaged sectors but smart status shows "CRC error count", this means that there were a lot of errors in datas communication between the pcb and your pvr recorder (probably your recorder has some issue, check all cables before installing again any hdd).
This can explain why your pcb got damaged!

On my XP O.S. your partition is not shown but the drive is detected in "drive management" and in R-Studio.

Sectors are accessible, i can see those in R-Studio:

Sectors from LBA 0 to 15 are identical.

Only at LBA 288 i can see few file index as MP3 and JPEG:

The file system installed on your PVR drive cannot be loaded in windows and either in linux so i'm not able to show you the main root, but maybe is possible to find some drivers to install on my computer that are able to load the file system.

Have you never attached this drive to your computer to see or copy files?
If yes, what drivers do you use to load this PVR partition on your computer?

[fzabkar]

Offsets 0x08 - 0x0B appear to represent the capacity of the drive in sectors.

0x12A19EB0 = 312 581 808 sectors
0x12A19EB0 x 512 = 160 041 885 696 bytes

The number of sectors is consistent with a WD 160GB drive:
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/447660.pdf

My cursory examination of sector 0 suggests to me that there are several 32-bit words that look like the beginnings and sizes of several file system sections.

For example, offset 0x54 contains 0x120 (= 288). This appears to correlate with your "index" sector.

Other sectors of interest appear to be ...

0x026320
0x826320
0x846320
0x846520
0x911620
0x12A11620

[fzabkar]

Have you never attached this drive to your computer to see or copy files?
If yes, what drivers do you use to load this PVR partition on your computer?

FWIW I found this:

Fusion Filesystem Reader:
http://www.hope.co.nz/projects/fusion/

The default 40GB drive is split into two partitions, the first of 4GB (Standard File System) holds the configuration information, EPG stuff, preview images of recorded shows (+the database of recorded shows) + a few other config files. The software upgrade image is stored here. The cluster size for this partition seems to be 128KiB.

The second partition (AV PES/TS File System) holds the video data in a modified PES (Packetised Elementary Stream) format - the format is non-standard, and looks like it has been created in such a way to feed directly into a video processing chip onboard the PVR. Its pretty similar to an MPEG PES, close enough that the tool can recreate a valid PES from the recordings. The cluster size on this partition is 64MiB.