Advice needed on EEPROM swap/soldering for Maxtor Maxline II

[qubit]

I need to swap the M29F102BB EEPROM chip from my Maxtor 5A300J0 whose PCB was killed by an electric shock, to a donor Maxtor 5A300J0's PCB. (The Poker D.7 chip apparently also has ROM in it, but I'm hoping this has less variation in it and doesn't need to be swapped.)

My soldering skills are very limited. I'm skeptical of being able to pull off desoldering two tiny 40-pin chips and then resoldering one of them, without screwing up somewhere along the line. I would certainly need to practice first, desoldering and re-soldering a similarly dense chip on something that works and then testing the device to see if it still works afterwards. But I have a very limited number of devices with this kind of chip that I don't care about destroying, and am unsure how I could cheaply buy "cannon fodder" for solder practice.

Assuming I practiced finally got it right on my cannon fodder, I would then go on to do the EEPROM swap. But... say I seemingly pulled it off, and couldn't spot any bridges or misalignment... and then tried to access the hard drive, and it still failed. I would blame my soldering job, and would thus have no convincing information to lead me to believe that the EEPROM swap itself wasn't enough to make the hard drive work.

So, I'd really prefer to hire someone to do the EEPROM swap. However, I'm unsure how to go about finding someone. I'd like it to be someone in my city (Los Angeles), so I can drive over there with the drive and watch them do it; I'd at least be able to see how proper surface-mount soldering is done. What sort of search terms should I use, or what categories should I look under in the yellow pages? What should expect to have to pay? (Am I lucky enough that someone here on the forum lives in my area and can do it?)


Background:

I foolishly tried to hot-plug a totally different drive (a Maxtor 6L080J4), in an unrelated data-recovery attempt. The resulting electric shock killed the PCBs in two of my drives. One (a Maxtor 4G160J8), I was able to swap with a PCB from the same model (bought on eBay), and it worked fine. The other is my Maxtor Maxline II (5A300J0). With the dead PCB, it acts like it's not plugged in at all; no clicks, no spinning up, and no BIOS recognition. (Incidentally, the 6L080J4 itself was completely unharmed, and found a way to recover its data.)

Optimistic from my success with the 4G160J8, I bought a 5A300J0 on eBay. The PCB swap resulted in the drive clicking but not spinning up, and still no BIOS recognition. I bought a second 5A300J0 on eBay, and this resulted in a spin-up, some clicking, and the BIOS waiting while trying to recognize the drive but failing to do so.

The problem seems to be that the Maxline II is a very little-known drive. StorageReview's reliability review doesn't even have an entry for it. It doesn't show up on PC-3000's supported-drives list. SalvationData has no "5A" firmware posted (well, oddly there are actually two 5A250J0 firmwares wedged into the "4R" firmware archive). Googling for PCB-swap info about the drive comes up empty (except for my own posts on two forums; now it'll be three). I had to experiment to figure things out.

Chagrined by two failures, I tried to figure out what was going on. I looked for codes printed on the drive's stickers. Two of them are quite long (10 characters and 8 characters) and I figured it was so unlikely to get a match on those ones, that it couldn't be the thing I needed to match. I figured the 5-character code needed to be matched, and sure enough, on the two eBay drives it was "D4FAA" whereas on my defunct drive it was "D6FAA". That brought my hopes up a little.

On my third eBay attempt, I was more careful; I asked sellers, and waited until I found one that had a close Mfg.Date and a matching "D6FAA". I eventually found one, and bought it. I excitedly performed the PCB swap. Disappointingly, it spins up but still is not recognized by the BIOS.

[pepe]

On my third eBay attempt, I was more careful; I asked sellers, and waited until I found one that had a close Mfg.Date and a matching "D6FAA". I eventually found one, and bought it. I excitedly performed the PCB swap. Disappointingly, it spins up but still is not recognized by the BIOS.

Hello,

was it clicking this third time? Or U just hear the heads unpark after spinning up?

pepe

[qubit]

Hello pepe,

It makes a fairly healthy-sounding set of clicks after spinning up; perhaps that is the heads unparking. It makes another set clicks when the BIOS tries to detect it; this is somewhat unhealthy-sounding. When turned off, there is the faintest of clicks: the sound of it parking.

Comparing this to a working 5A300J0, the spinning-up sounds the same, the introductory healthy click sounds almost the same, and the parking sounds the same. However, the working drive makes a faint "rattle" after the introductory click, and the 3rd-PCB-swapped nonworking one doesn't. The working drive makes no sound when the BIOS detects it.

[pepe]

Hello,

it seems the preamp and the heads are OK inside the HDA, so there must be some FW incompatibility issue.
If U can find a serial Flash ROM on the PCBs (usually of type M25P05 or M25P10), U should desolder the one from the burnt PCB and solder it to the good PCB in the place of the same IC.
A high resolution picture of the PCBs could help here to help U identify the ROM chips...
regards,
pepe

[qubit]

Hello pepe,

I'm glad to hear that the preamp and heads are OK; thanks for that information. That means that the ROM swap can actually work. I already identified the M29F102BB as being the Flash ROM chip.

What I'm asking about here is the soldering job itself; I don't want to do it myself. I want to have an expert do it for me. But I don't know how to locate someone to do it for me.

[jono-ats]

What I'm asking about here is the soldering job itself; I don't want to do it myself. I want to have an expert do it for me. But I don't know how to locate someone to do it for me.

The key is to find a shop with surface mount repair capabilities. You'd need a hot air station to do a clean job.

And DON'T ask if you can look over their shoulder!

While I don't mind doing a re-soldering job for clients who are cheap and innovative, if someone asks me if they can watch I figure they are going to be a pain in the ass (immediately, or down the road) and I send them elsewhere. Those people invariably talk and get in the way and that's when you'll make a mistake that you wouldn't otherwise . . .

Jon

[qubit]

Thank you for the advice, Jon.

What kind of shop would have this equipment and be willing to do a re-soldering job for me? Electronics repair, maybe — what else? Should I just start calling up electronics-repair places and ask each one?

It's good you gave me the "DON'T" advice, because otherwise I might've been asking questions like these:
With a hot air gun, how does one avoid melting the solder surrounding the IC in unrelated parts of the PCB? Is it such a precisely-aimed tool that it only melts the solder at the IC's connecting pins? Or, is it harmless to melt the surrounding solder as long as those parts are not touched or tilted? Why is the IC itself not damagd by the heat?

David

[mr_spokk]

Hi qubit,
The shops you need to visit is Tv-Repair shops or any other Electronic repair.
Don't hang over their shoulders, they charge you extra

Some uses a wide hot air nozzle, some use IC shaped one...if they know what they doing, either will work.

Best regards

Bosse

[qubit]

Well, I put this project off for a long time. Almost three years. Finally I picked it up again.

What is my better bet — to take my boards to a TV/video repair place for the soldering job, or to take them to a company that specializes in PCB assembly?


Here is a high-resolution photo of the PCB that failed. I can see no visual sign of damage whatsoever. When I plug this drive into power and IDE, it's as if it isn't even plugged in; the computer boots up as if the drive is not plugged in at all, and the drive itself makes no sound. This means it's not a TVS diode, right? If it were, my computer couldn't turn on with the thing plugged in, right?

In addition to my troubled Maxline II hard drive, I have two donors that I got from ebay that are very close matches, being D6FAA with an Agere Poker D.7 MCU. One of these is just a PCB with no drive (I saved money that way).

Drive #1, PCB #1: Maxline II 300GB with non-functional board
Drive #2, PCB #2: Maxline II 300GB from ebay with very closely matching board, manufactured only 2 months later than my original
PCB #3: Maxline II 320GB PCB from ebay — closely matching board, manufactured about 4 months later than my original

Simple PCB swaps of both PCB #2 and PCB #3 into Drive #1 get it to spin up, and #3 even gets it recognized by the BIOS, as Maxtor FALCON RAMF23VZ. Of course it goes no further than that, because there's adaptive information on the Flash ROM. I figure that #2 is a better match, even though #3 gets it recognized by the BIOS in a limited way, because #2 is closer in manufacture date and other attributes.

I want the person who does the soldering job for me to swap the Flash ROM chips in this way:
#3 -> pack it up
#2 -> #3
#1 -> #2

That way, if the ROM swap fails to make my original Drive #1 work, I can try Drive #2 and see if it works after the swap. If it does, then I know at least that a ROM swap can work for this model of drive. Basically it is my Control.


I called 22 different TV/video repair shops within 8 miles. Only two of them said they'd do this soldering job for me.

I went to the closer one, but it turns out that the guy I spoke to on the phone, who said "I can do! Bring it over." was only there for certain narrow hours on certain days of the week. He wasn't there when I arrived later in the day.

So then I drove on to the farther one. This is a TV/Video repair shop that has been in business for over 50 years; that is encouraging. So I spoke to the co-owner of the place. I showed him the PCBs and a paper I'd written a chart onto with step by step, in order, which chip to desolder from which board and which to solder to which board. He said that this would be very tedious work, but he could do it. This raised a red flag for me, since it's been said on this forum that a Flash ROM swap should take only 5 minutes, even if it's a TSOP40 with 40 pins in a 10x14mm chip. Another thing that raised a red flag for me was that he touched the board with his bare fingers while I was showing it to him. I thought you always had to follow static electricity precautions, making sure you're grounded before touching a board, and even then avoiding touching the contacts unless necessary. I've always handled boards by their edges.

Yet another thing that raised a red flag for me was that he said something to the effect that, "There are probably only two facilities in the country that have high-end PCB assembly hardware/tools." He said he'd charge $25 per chip, $75 total... and I foolishly did not try to haggle, and foolishly did not take my boards back and tell him I'd need to sleep on it. And I took the advice from jono-ats and mr_spokk "Do not look over the tech's shoulder or ask to do so" to an extreme, and did not even ask what techniques and tools he'd be using to do this soldering job, because maybe that would come out like an insult. So I don't even know if he has a hot-air device. In fact, I just left the boards with him and he said he'd do the job the next day.

After arriving home, I started to have major worries, and questioned my decision to have somebody do this soldering job for me in whom I don't have complete confidence. I ignored three red flags which should have made me take the boards back and sleep on it.

So this morning I called the place and told them to please put the job on hold, because "I need to do more research."


The thing is, after I got back home from that TV/video repair place, I did some more research and found a full-out Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) company just 5.5 miles away from my home, even closer than the TV repair place. This company apparently has 30+ years of experience of PCB assembly. They normally do bulk assembly jobs, but I called and asked if they could do a chip swap job, and the man I spoke to said yes. It's a virtual certainty that he would use the best tools and techniques for the job, right? So is it a no-brainer for me to take back my boards from the TV repair place and take it to the EMS company?

Even though I would like very much to avoid paying several hundred dollars for professional data recovery, the data on my drive is very important to me.

I will be very grateful for any advice or info.

[qubit]

Hmm, "Edit Post" already timed out.

I just wanted to add that it may have been the right decision for me not to haggle, because all else being equal he'd probably be more likely to do the best job he could if he made some good money from it. Despite the fact that I could buy a really nice soldering station for $75, or a 1 TB hard drive, or many other things.

But it's the fact that he called it a "tedious" job that worries me, because taking a long time to solder a surface-mount TSOP40 chip is probably the wrong thing to do... it'd probably put more stress on the chip. The solder job might look perfect, but if it didn't work, I'd never know if it was because it never would have worked anyway — if perhaps the Flash ROM was already damaged at the same time the PCB was — or, if the Flash ROM was damaged by heat stress.

Given the research I've done so far, is this the best way to do this type of soldering job? Use a hot air nozzle and suction to remove the IC, and a quick, light-touch drag soldering technique to solder it back on (with a generous amount of flux). It's unlikely that anyone who has experience doing this would call it "tedious", right?

[HWHacker]

For someone with the right equipment and experience it is a 10 min. job and you would have a hard time to see the difference from new. Warming the board back side first, then the area around the IC to get a thermal advantage. Use the correct tip on the hot air nozzle and the IC is off, easy. Use solder wick and iron set to correct temperature to remove extra solder from board and IC. Tack one pin of IC then check alignment and tack opposite side. I am not a favorite of lite-touch drag depending on lead pitch but rather individual tack with fine gauge 63/37 flux core (eutectic) solder. Yes lots of flux is ok but correct solder does not need it. Then a quick re-flow with the correct nozzle and your done. 128 pin package .5mm pitch is not a challenge it just takes more time. Practice, practice, practice and every thing just right and your an expert.

[BlackST]

I do it in 30 seconds + 30 seconds with zero chances to ruin the chip, but I use 3000+ EUR worth of tools.
Everything else falls in the "attempts" category. Assume EVERY risk. Who dares wins. No guts no glory. If you are usually lucky maybe you will succeed, who knows.... (NO I'm not encouraging).

Just don't get why labs have refused to work with a simple TSOP 40 package... maybe they have something more rewarding jobs to do. Maybe.

[HWHacker]

Hello BlackST,

Just right. I have Weller WR 3M. and others.

[HWHacker]

You could use solder paste and stencil as well but I find it not necessary.

[BlackST]

I have Philips for TH and SMD, and others for IR, various for soldering.... since year 2000. BGA , CSP and reballing from some years.

BTW : do you do reballing on BGA or are you now just removing and soldering new chip ? (of course if soldering is the only problem).

[HWHacker]

Most of what I do has nothing to do with HDD. Some rework mostly MPU, flash and driver IC's. No reballing, mostly new IC's. Some limited quantity prototype assembly 10 to 50 pcs. for evaluation. Parts count 600 to 1K max.

[BlackST]

About reballing here is the same. Some time ago when it was problematic to get new chips I was doing reballing (what a mess....) , now only if there is shortage of new chips.... Also I had problems getting microballs (and when, incoming quality was another problem) and with RoHS had neverending problems due to different materials.... everyday industry thinks and does something to complicate our already complicated lives :S

[HWHacker]

Very very true. Makes you want to just go drive a tractor. Oh wait they MPU, Memory, Driver IC, Power Drivers and Sensors also. Oh well, may just as well keep going as I am.

[qubit]

Thanks for your replies, HWHacker and BlackST. So I take it I'm definitely right not to use this TV repair place, if the owner (the tech who was going to do the job for me) calls a TSOP40 resolder job "tedious".

Hopefully I will have good luck with the EMS company. What would be a good price for this job?

I've seen videos on YouTube of desoldering with a hot air nozzle, and in some of them it looks like the nozzle is being controlled by a robot arm. It moves around in a perfectly rectangular path. Do either of you use a machine like this?

[HWHacker]

qubit,

You need to find the right place. I use nozzle shaped for TSOP40. TV repair is swap boar and solder wires or maybe a TH (through hole) resistor or IC. Do they even have a solder sucker and HAP? There is a robot in the facility where I work but you just don't need it for rework. Keep looking for the right shop.