Hi Guys, this is my first post on the forum. I wonder if any har drive guru's are willing to help me....

I have 5 years experience in data recovery, have performed many many head tranplants, pcb swaps and spindle motor repairs so I feel a little stupid asking this question.

I have a WD64AA - 00AAA4 when powered it shorts out the entire PC. I have a fully working WD64AA - 00AAA4. I have changed the PCB but it appears to be running a different rom. My questions are..in order to repair the PCB which chip is likely to be causing the shorting out of the PC? or .. If I am to make the donor pcb compatible, which chip should I move from the BAD PCB to the donor. Im actually torn between two, the large chip with the ST label (i've noticed the ST is on the modern western digital and seagate hard drive, this what I look for to idenitfy the ROM chip) or is it the cirrus logic chip or am I completely wrong?

Thanks for your help.

If anyone requires information regarding a data recovery project, feel free to ask.

First find out which rail is shorted, 5V or 12V. If 12V, only the power circuitry (motor and vcm driver) are left. Does the 64AA already have supressor diodes? These would be the first to check as they usually short out when they have to absorb too much energy, probably from a defective power supply running one of the rails too high.

Unless someone has seen a failure pattern with this or similar models, I don't see how we can really pinpoint the failed IC for you remotely!

Sometimes you can run the board at reduced voltages and see what heats up excessively. Or you can use a Huntron Tracker (TM) to do a signature analysis comparison.

The ROMs are usually 8 pin DIPs. Read the numbers from the ICs and Google them. When you see one that is a serial or parallel EEPROM, then bingo!

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Hi,

Googling is a great idea, probably should have done it previously!
Old WDs use paralel ROM surely.

pepe

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Adatmentés - Data recovery

ROM chip

Thanks for all your replies.

I suspected it was the WDC chip, I'll change the chip, hopefully I wont incur further issues with it.

Thanks again folks

Hi,
Hopefully you get your data back.
You said "I have 5 years experience in data recovery" and you have 2 posts here so far, so hopefully it won't take another 5 year until next visit

Regards/ Bosse

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Rescue IT Datarecovery service Sweden
Rescue IT Dataräddning Göteborg AB
http://www.rescue-it.se

Maybe I got lucky, but last time I had a 64AA with bad PCB, I just slapped on a PCB from a 102AA and it worked perfectly with no adjustment!

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

I must admit, i've been visting this forum for a while but all my questions have already been asked and my answers have already been given. Unlike a lot of forum users I do use the search facility. I'll try not to leave it so long next time.