fzabkar wrote:
I can't say whether the replacement board will work. FWIW, here are my observations:
1/ The PCB on the right has a "blister" on the SMOOTH chip. Is that the faulty PCB? Did you try to spin up the drive with the replacement PCB, without transferring the ROM? I notice that the same PCB is used by Caviar Blacks and Greens, which spin at 7200 and 5400 RPM, respectively. I don't know what would happen if you spun up a Black with a Green PCB. Would the Black's heads fly much lower at 5400 RPM, and would this be dangerous?
2/ EM6AA160TSA-5G is a 2.5V,
16M x 16 bit DDR SDRAM whereas HY5DU121622DTP-D43 is a 2.5V,
32M x 16 bit DDR SDRAM. I don't know if this difference in RAM capacity will affect compatibility.
3/ The PCB on the right has a 3.3V pass transistor at Q1 whereas the board on the left does not. Therefore I suspect that the ROM chip on the right PCB runs off a 3.3V supply whereas the ROM on the left PCB is powered from 2.5V. This may affect compatibility. You would need to refer to the datasheets to be sure.
4/ SK3, SK4 are shock sensors for rotational vibration sensing. U22 is an op amp which amplifies the vibration signals.
Here is my collection of datasheets:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/Datasheets/DATAURLS.HTMThanks so much for your reply @fzabkar!
1) The one on the right is the replacement, the one on the left is the original, i think it's a stain than a blister? I didn't try to power up the HDD with the replacement PCB before swapping the ROM's, I'm worried that would make me lose data, would it?
2) noted, i'm even less sure of it
3) Ah, so that's what the additional voltage regulator is about, for additional 3.3V. I can't get the model number for the replacement PCB's ROM, but I've checked my original ROM, it's 2.5V nominal voltage, although can handle up to 3.6V, I wouldn't want to risk it though. losing ROM can be lethal I suppose? As in that's it for me, no more chance of recovering data after that.
4) should I attempt to remove them?
I've contacted the seller, he seems to suggest that PCB number is the only thing that matters, as long as it matches, anything else doesn't matter. Maybe I should attempt to buy another replacement PCB then? that has the exact same components? but how can I ensure my next purchase wouldn't end up being slightly different like what I currently have now?