I have a Western Digital 500GB Laptop drive: WD5000BEVT-00ZAT0 with a burnt out circuit board.

I ordered a drive with a matching PCB:
BAD: 2061-701572-400 AB XT 7T05 6LXW 2 0006280 9 286
GOOD: 2061-701572-400 AB XT 7T05 6FJ2 3 0006280 9 286

The Bad drive will not spin with the Good circuit board.
The Good drive works with the Good circuit board.

I checked the motor resistance and both drives are the same.

The bad drive makes no noise with the Good circuit board and draws .25 amps.

I even tried a hot swap. The bad drive will not spin, beep, buzz or make any noise at all with the good PCB

What do you think is wrong?

ROM?

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

You can't swap pcb's on this model without reprogramming the rom, but it shoud spin with the good pcb and not ID. Head stiction or preamp is my guess.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

The good circuit board will make the good drive spin and go to ready so the ROM must be good.

I can reprogram the ROM but the good PCB should spin the bad drive.

The only thing I could think of is maybe a head or preamp is burnt out on the bad drive and the firmware checks for good heads before turning the motor on.

Anybody know if this could be true?

I would think it would make some kind of noise if the head was stuck.

You should check this in kernel mode.

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Zero Alpha: zeroalpha.com.au
Find Cheap Donor Drives App: https://www.zeroalpha.com.au/donor-drive-app Updated February 2026

hi,
have you swap ROM chip first? install and check voltage after give power?

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data recovery service[/b]

If PCB is faulty it should still power on with donor PCB attached, even if it cannot show ID. If Stiction or motor is damaged then on attempting to power on there should be some faint sounds from the resistance caused by incorrectly parked heads and/or frozen motor. Are you absolutely sure with donor PCB on there are no sounds from within the HDD?

I brought it into a quiet room and put my ear right to it.
Not a sound.
When I power the PCB alone (not attached to the hard drive) it draws .3 amps.
When it is hooked to the bad hard drive it also draws .3 amps.
The connection seems ok between the PCB and the motor.
I am running it on a $500 regulated power supply set to exactly 5 volts.

You are going to need help with this .. You have more than a board problem. Could you photo the component side of the board ..

Where are you based?

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If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/

Hi,
If the preamplifier is damaged or fails to operate - This Hard Drive is not spinning up...

Mikippp

[The Bad drive will not spin with the Good circuit board.]


Like mikipp said maybe the shortcut damaged the preamp too i had check that on this series if damaged preamp the hdd not spin, that looks like some IBM 3.5 cases where doesnt spin´s caused by a shortcut on preamp

Regards

I have just done a WD2500BEVT and a WD3200BEVT maybe this helps.


1) If Rom is corrupted the drive will not spin.
2) Also I have had several BEVT in the past with bad Q1.
3) If heads or firmware are bad, drive will still spin with a donnor pcb.
4) not sure about preamp

i thing your problem is either preamp or stuck heads and or stuck spindle. But not ROM or Firmware.

There is nothing wrong with the ROM on the good PCB because the good drive goes ready with it on.
If the firmware on the drive does not match the firmware on the PCB it should still spin.
The servo chip on the bad PCB was burnt bad and it could have taken out the preamp.
I would say #1 Preamp #2 stuck head or bearing.
I have to see if the customer is willing to pay for a clean room recovery.
I told him it would be a simple PCB swap.
I will let you know what happens.
Thanks