Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 13th, 2013, 12:15

I've got a Samsung HS031GA which spins up and that's about it, everything reports no device found. However, I've noticed there are five contact plates around the zif ribbon (see the pic), does anyone know if they are for diag/serial console?
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Re: Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 13th, 2013, 12:30

I've tried all that- nothing that normally gets dead drives working get this one going- can't get to service area: presence of the drive is not recognised by anything, hence the need for a diag. port. The drive spins and the heads "sound" ok, but I suspect the motor is independent of electronics on these models...

Re: Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 13th, 2013, 13:11

Spildit wrote:Do you have some sort of tools to work with those drives, like PC3K, SRT or Vtools ?


yup, and if there was an obvious diag port, things would be so easy! :-)

Spildit wrote:i would "guess" that the 2 connectors on the left on your picture could be terminal tx/rx ....


that was my instinct as well, the two outer ones on the other side look like ground no idea what the middle one is... i was hoping someone would've come across this drive before i started poking at it with logic analyser/oscilloscope...

Re: Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 13th, 2013, 16:29

Wouldn't a diagnostic port require Tx and Rx pins? Are there any pads on the other side of the board?

The two pads on the left appear to be joined. If so, then I don't believe they would be signal pins.

Re: Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 13th, 2013, 17:37

Pads as you can see are for UART and also separate power for drive......

Re: Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 13th, 2013, 18:20

Locate the +3.3V and Ground pins at the host end of the ZIF cable, then test for continuity with each of the pads. That should identify the power pins. The remaining pins would be signal pins.

Re: Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 15th, 2013, 17:48

So the pads don't appear to be diag port at all: stuck a scope at each and, l->r, I get 3.3v, 3.3v, COM, 3.3v, COM; all at steady levels...

Re: Samsung HS031GA diag port?

April 15th, 2013, 19:54

How can you be certain that the Tx/Rx pins aren't quiet?

I would measure the resistances between each of the COM and 3.3V pads.
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