Hey guys,

My brother let me borrow his multi-drive hookup from Roswill (allows you to hook up various hard drives without putting them in an external case) and upon firing up my drive I was greeted with some smoke coming out of the bottom of the drive. I immediately powered down the drive hoping it didn't do any damage, but the drive no longer powers up. Flipping it over I can see where the 1R5 chip was burnt on the pcb. I have been trying for DAYS to find a replacement PCB for my maxtor. Here is the info on it:

DiamondMax Plus 9 200GB ATA/133 HDD
CODE: YAR41BW0
SN: Y626N1PE
67200POA60901
Agere Ardent C8-C1 040111300
Smooth L7250E 1.2
5 Digit Code on white Sticker H7FYA
031599100 CALYPSO III

The PCB has something unique about it that I have never seen on any other PCB I've come across. Beside the 1R5 chip is a small green wire that goes to another chip right by the "MOTC" solder point. It also has a medium-sized square chip soldered between 2 points underneath the second white sticker (MABABZMW) Almost all the other PCB's I've come across do not have this. Here are some pics to show what I am seeing:





I have replaced the pcb with another one that is almost identical (has a "Y" 5 digit code that ends in an A) is a Calypso III board with the same 301599100 digit, same agere chip numbers BUT NO GREEN WIRE and the drive begins to power up but then starts to make a horrible "mechanical" buzzing type sound is almost how I would describe it. It is not a typical hard drive knock or click when they die. I assume the firmware is not compatable because of this missing wire.

Does anyone know of a PCB I can use that is compatable? I already tried one and it didn't work so I don't want to risk messing the drive up any worse. This drive has some very important data on it that means a lot to me and I really want to get it off without spending a fortune.

Thank you for the help.

1) Never seen such a thing (yet), but it seems to me that it was a refurbished drive or repaired (did you buy it used ? In box ?)
2) The "mechanical" sound means that either the head can't read the servo or the preamplifier INSIDE the drive is dead. Sometimes it can be a firmware incompatibility, but the fact that the combo chip, the mosfet and something else are killed, I bet for a dead HSA. In this case, the drive has to be serviced by a pro and analysed. If data is important you'll decide what "a fortune" means for you, but there's no homegrown solution for this kind of failures. Sorry.

That reminds me of "the olden' days," when manufacturers (like Seagate) typically use jumps like that on all their drives. It has been ages since anyone has done anything like that. I imagine the drive was repaired by someone other than the manufacturer.

Ditto. In any case a pcb swap could be worth a try, assuming that you can fry the new one TOO.

Thanks guys. I did do a PCB swap with the following drive/pcb and the drive powers up and when the heads start to spin it makes that mechanical buzzing type sound

DiamondMax Plus 9 ATA/133 120GB
CODE YAR41BW0
SN Y34SMGLE
Agere Ardent C8-C1 040111300
301599100 CALYPSO III
5 digit code on white label L8FYA
DOES NOT have the wire coming from the "MOTC" point or a chip on it like my other dead PCB. My PCB also has a WHITE IR5 chip on it where the replacement has a solid black and is much smaller.

Could the sound be due to an incompatible firmware or is there something else internally wrong with the drive?

In this case it is the third line on the main chip that must be matched, e.g. Ardent-C8C1-840UK. Does your donor PCB match?

I still bet for preamp. Do you have logic analyzer or 200 MHZ scope?

I will check on the Ardent number, I am hoping it is wrong and that is why it didn't work

Thanks again guys. MSurgeon can you post EXACTLY what PCB I should be looking for? Does it need to be everything I've already covered plus the Ardent #?

Dead PCB has:
Agere Ardent C8-C1 040111300 Ardent-C8C1-840UK 0346K 5713343

Donor PCB:
Agere Ardent C8-C1 040111300 Ardent C8C1-840UK 0411T 5094025

Do the last 2 digit sets matter?

Unfortunately, everything matches that needs to match and it's still not doing the trick. I'm doubtful it's the PCB at this point. The jumped wire just indicates a repair of some type; it wouldn't change the characteristics of the drive. Do you actually hear the drive spinning? Sometimes Maxtors make exotic sounds when the spindle motor seizes. Listen carefully to hear if it's actually spinning up. If it is spinning up properly then it would appear that the heads/pre-amp are at fault.

It's the typical "musical" sound of dead head/preamp. The entire section combo chip/mosfet and so on smoked, so the dc-dc conv. that supplied the preamp was killed too.. what do you expect, then ?
I know hope is the last to die, I asked if a scope or logic analyzer was available, it WASN'T because the OP is a end-user with no knowledge neither the tools required to dela with hi-tech but every pro here have stats in Maxtor repair...

@ jmalto

I agree with BlackST.

If the Q500 is burnt,like yours in the pic, it is a big chance your preamp is burnt too.

Only pro can recover the data.

Regards,
Janos

Thank you guys for taking the time to post, I guess I am going to let this one go and use it as a lesson to back my stuff up I do not have any tools available to me to do any type of diagnostics. If someone knows of a good place I could possibly send the drive for repair let me know.

Take care.

Where are you located?

Hi jmalto,
You need to match the Pcb-Sticker "H7FYA" and the main chip "Ardent C8-C1".
You have tryed with the wrong match "L8FYA".

Best Regards
Bosse

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

it should work as CPU is same and there is no ROM on both pcbs .

The problem is not in the pcb!!

Agree!

Too many components are burned already wich is responsible for preamp's power.
The first step should be the preamp check for shorts.

Regards,
Janos

I give up. Can't do remote repair. Going out for a beer...