Hitachi Travelstar HTS541010G9AT00 PCB Failure

[BlackST]

Try another good usb box. If no joy, the drive is damaged. At that point - listen carefully - if drive contains IMPORTANT data and you can spend 300 to 1000 $/€ (this is my estimated range for your case) then ask a pro near you. If it can help, I am in Italy. If data is not vital or you can't afford, or you don't have the knowledge or experience for a level 1 diagnose, live without it or wait better times.

[pat55]

thank you for the msg, I was assuming if I can flash the rom in the drive may be it can work. I have changed the USB case but it failed....

[BlackST]

Rom? It's not a DVD or cell phone, unfortunately. If you need help PM me.

[pepe]

U probably reversed the polarity and killed the pcb at least...
If you want quick help, it is time to ask a pro. If U have time and are prepared to lose your data U can always experience, get a new PCB and try and so on.

pepe

[granuc]

This drive is hard to fix for this newbie. Does anybody know a good place to buy PC Boards? I'm in San Francisco, California.

My first step is to replace the board. If that doesn't work I will have to find somebody who can desolder and solder the NVRAM chip since I don't know how to. If anyone has a photo of the board and can point out this little chip I would greatly appreciate it! Any help out there?

[netwalker]

Photo Time!!! Remove the PCB and take a good photo and post it here!!!

[granuc]

Okay, finally got around to taking a photo. So here's what I've done so far. I swapped the PC board from the good drive to the bad drive. The initial test failed. HDD did not mount. The disk did spin up but it kept repeating a sound that sounded like it was searching over and over again.

Next step post photo of PC board and find out what the NVRAM chip is and swap it out. Anyone who can point out the chip please please do.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21186062@N02/?saved=1

[viktdev]

U6 is a 4kbit serial eeprom

[granuc]

U6 is a 4kbit serial eeprom

Hi viktdev, can you translate that in lay terms please?

[viktdev]

That 8 pins chip called U6 on the PCB is a nvram.

[drc]

Is that some burning on the large IC nearest the IDE connector?

[granuc]

That 8 pins chip called U6 on the PCB is a nvram.

Thank you!

[granuc]

Is that some burning on the large IC nearest the IDE connector?

I believe so. The black liner that goes in between the PCB and HDD was stuck b/c it appears it melted a little onto the chip. Should I look into replacing that chip instead of NVRAM? I'd like to keep both drives working.

[viktdev]

Desoldering and resoldering an 8 pins tssop chip is one thing, replacing a bga chip is another and require expensive tools, not even talking about finding and buying the chip

[BlackST]

... and maybe programming the chip itself

[granuc]

Is there anybody in the San Francisco Bay Area that has skills in soldering? If so PLEASE send me a message.

[sinus]

I too have a Hitachi Travelstar 100 GB HTS541010G9AT00 that appears to have a PCB issue. The drive doesn't spin but some clicking can be felt when the disk is powered up. The clicking stops after about 10 seconds.

The drive failed during normal use and was not due to physical shock. It is just a secondary drive and only contains data.

I have done my research and I intend finding another similar hard drive and transplanting the original ROM (U6) and replacing the original PCB.

My question is this: on the board, U3 is a chip 25fv055t and according to what I have been able to discover, is a 512-Kbit (64 × CMOS serial flash memory.

To my understanding, flash memories are only guaranteed by the manufacturers 100,000 writes so, this memory could not have been used on a regular basis. So, what do you think it contains? Should I transplant this one too?

Second question: are there any driver chips/transistors that I may try replacing to see if I can get the drive working?

Third question: What is the possibility that the motor has broken?

Picture is available if anyone wants to see it.

Thanks

[pcimage]

What sort of clicking?

Is it more like a faint "buzz buzz buzz" sound?

If so, then it's unlikely to be PCB failure. More like stiction, which requires cleanroom attention.

[pepe]

agreed
pepe

[sinus]

It is difficult to describe a sound. The noise is more like:
purr, purr, purr, purr. Nothing abnormal about the sound level. I have to put the drive next to my ear to feel it.
There is definitely a physical movement inside the drive.

Now about stiction, this drive was manufactures MAY05. As I understand, stiction is a thing of the past.