WDC WD5000AVVS with burnt Smooth Controller Chip

[PCGuru]

A burnt Smooth chip seems to be a common problem with WD drives judging by these forums. A client brought me the above drive, together with a $1000 quote from a local DR service. They had verified my initial diagnosis, that, as far as they could tell, there was no internal damage from power surge, it just needs a new PCB, and the adaptive data "reconstructed".

The problem is that on these WD drives there is no EEPROM to move. From the other wonderful posts here I have learnt that the adaptive data is stored inside the Marvell chip.

So what would you experts suggest next?

Has anyone tried replacing just the Smooth chip? If so what other components are likely tobe damaged?
I imagine moving the Marvell chip would be near impossible, but can the data be read from the chip on the damaged PCB?
Or maybe with a new PCB even without adaptive data, it is possible to read firmware areas off the drive? What kind of equipment would this need?

Or maybe $1000 is a fair price to pay for rebuilding the adaptive data? I have a feeling that someone could do this a lot cheaper.

The drive details
Model WD5000AVVS-63H0B1
Date 05 May 2010 (Recertified)
DCM HHNNHTJMH
DCX 9011H1B00
R/N 701590

PCB 2060-701590-000 rev A
Barcode on PCB 2061-701590-A00 AE XT 7C21 0F6D 9 0002030 0

Paul
Austin, Texas

[northwind]

A $1000 for PCB damage is very steep. I'd even say it's outrageous, considering that the company which quoted that price, has confirmed that there is no other internal damage. We charge ~250, so go figure.

As per your question, there are 3 options. The first one involves transferring the Marvell chip which is a very very very difficult task, and I suggest you stay away from it, if you value your data.

The other option is to find someone with the appropriate equipment and know-how and do this for you.

The third option is to consult a pro. The price will be A LOT less than what you mentioned (again, assuming no other damage to drive).
I suggest members jono-ats who is in Atlanta and thatdellguy who is in CA.

Get in touch with them and they will do this for you.

[dmarques]

I think we cannot make a direct price comparison because of course the prices are dependent of a huge amount of factors, including location, costs, size of the company, etc etc. It's impossible to compare a price for example in China vs US.

I'm not saying 1000$ is a reasonable price or not, will not argue that, but just saying that I don't think it's fair to compare prices directly.

[BlackST]

I think we cannot make a direct price comparison because of course the prices are dependent of a huge amount of factors, including location, costs, size of the company, etc etc. It's impossible to compare a price for example in China vs US.

I'm not saying 1000$ is a reasonable price or not, will not argue that, but just saying that I don't think it's fair to compare prices directly.

+1

Maybe some "advertisement" will appear in 1 nanosecond, though

P.S. 1000$ maybe was the overall price for diagnose, fixing and recovering data.
If you ask me to ONLY pry out data from the chip OR make a PCB (supplied by you, found by you and delivered in my hands at your expenses) from external data, the price is "X" , if you want to rebuild internal data from the drive (assuming it is still OK and I don't need to swap heads or do ANY internal work) without PCB the price is "Y".

-----

Horse, Zebra and Donkey are all equine, but not exactly the same thing...

[CK]

Agree with dmarques and no offence but USA and Greece are totally different economies right now so it would be unfair to compare them. $1000 is steep but it does of course depend on their overheads, expertise and service levels they offer. Not everybody can offer 250 recoveries...

[BGman]

In my country I am paid $20 to $30 for this kind of job.

$1000 seems to be the price for being "born in USA".

[northwind]

I wasn't comparing.
I said $1000 is too much for a pcb replacement.
If you guys disagree with that, then I need you to tell me the secrets..

[dmarques]

Of course it's impossible to compare different economies.

In one country an office rent might cost 3000€ per month while in other might cost 200€ for the same space and type, so of course the end price will be different, and that cannot be based only on the type of problem of the drive.

That's why I don't think it's fair to say on a forum that certain price is expensive and compare it with other.

[northwind]

You've got a point there, but the funny thing is, that life in Greece is much more expensive than life in USA. And wages are 1/10. But let's not get into that.

[dmarques]

Yep, that would go into much deeper topics than HDD's.

[fzabkar]

The problem is that on these WD drives there is no EEPROM to move. From the other wonderful posts here I have learnt that the adaptive data is stored inside the Marvell chip.

You need a "PCB adaptation service".

The following PCB supplier includes such a service for free:
http://www.donordrives.com/services

For a detailed explanation of his services, see this post:
all-those-folks-with-burned-pcbs-look-here-t24519.html

Best of luck.