I have a WD1600AVBS SATA drive that failed. I've traced the issue to the PCB (not the spindle, heads, etc...) and upon examination of the board noticed that the foam backing around chip "Q3" was melted. From reading around the web its pretty clear that replacing the PCB alone is not the answer for these drives. Even if I could match the PCB and PWB there doesn't seem to be a high success rate for recovery. Could I replace the Q3 chip instead? Does anyone have any experience to share with this particular PCB, and opinions on my idea?
Thanks,
Tim

post a good picture of the board

with this type of pcb`s, you will need proper tools in order to go through it my dear
without it will not work

good luck

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Kuwait Data Recovery - UNIX GTC
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. By: Albert Einstein

Exactly HOW have you "traced" it to the PCB?

What are the symptoms?

Is it completely dead ? (likely suspect PCB)

SPinning normally? (likely not PCB)

Clicking? (also likely not PCB)

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PC Image Data Recovery
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