The best way to remove the remove a burnt motor controller

[zed]

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=976AIzyTyv8

I would not try this for a customer's hard disk but it seems to work well. I suspect it may damage the PCB for a hard disk.

[jono-ats]

Very clever, but I would be hard-pressed to use it.

The best method for chip removal / replacement is a hot air station, IMHO.

Jon

[zed]

jono-ats, have you found that in the case of a WD board with a burnt motor controller chip - if you replace it with an exact matching one - is the rest of the board normally working ok? i.e is it enough to swap this chip over to get the drive repaired so the data can be copied off?

Thanks.

[dick]

Hi
From what I have read here when the motor controller chip is burnt out the head preamp usually goes pop at the same time. I would have thought most recovery techs would (at least with a WD) go for a replacement board and swap over the ic containing the adaptive info.
Then you will find out if the preamp is working or not.

Another thing....isn't there a chance the motor is seized? And thats what took out the motor control ic in the first place?

[jono-ats]

Zed:

Sometimes yes; sometimes no, because other components may fail in addition to the controller IC. In a typical failure, there is a hole burned in the I.C., and one of the PCB traces is ruined.

Dick:

In my experience, preamp failure and motor I.C. failure do not occur together often. But I would agree that replacing the PCB and swapping or reprogramming the ROM is the better way in case more than the SMOOTH IC is damaged.

Jono