PC3K doesn't show terminal output

[Scorpion]

Hello all PC3K users,

Suddenly PC3K doesn't show terminal output anymore.
Reinstalling the terminal driver (the new version from acelab site) didn't help.
Any suggestions?
I tried different Seagate drives but nothing. It seems like those drives don't give any single terminal output.
I tried with different 7200.11 drives and other seagate famlies.
The green led on the terminal board is on.
When I unpluged the terminal cable out of the pc than I got error message that the terminal is not connected to the pc:
Faild to COM port connect
But when I got it back than PC3K recognize in the COM ports:
Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM3)

What should I try/to do?

Best Regards,

[pcimage]

Probably the serial connector has broken inside, it's happened to me a couple of times. You have to mend it, make a new one or buy a new one.

[Scorpion]

Probably the serial connector has broken inside, it's happened to me a couple of times. You have to mend it, make a new one or buy a new one.

I tried with Samsung drives and Toshiba and nothing apear.
Where is the borken? Is it visible?
I tried to look for a broken but didn't find one.

[fzabkar]

Connect to the bridge via USB using a comms program such as HyperTerminal or PuTTY.

Loop the Tx and Rx pins together.

Now type on your keyboard and you should see your characters being echoed. Verify that there is no echo when the Tx and Rx pins are disconnected, otherwise you will need to disable local echo.

If you hold down the "U" key (0b01010101), you should see a nice square wave pattern on an oscilloscope. Alternatively, create a large file consisting of repeating U characters and transmit it to your COM port.

BTW, does your bridge use the CP2102 chip or the CP2104?

AFAICT, the former would be inappropriate for modern HDDs that have a 1.8V LVTTL interface.

[pcimage]

Probably the serial connector has broken inside, it's happened to me a couple of times. You have to mend it, make a new one or buy a new one.

I tried with Samsung drives and Toshiba and nothing apear.
Where is the borken? Is it visible?
I tried to look for a broken but didn't find one.

I assume you're using the specific/correct (I.e. Differently connected) hook connector for the Samsung and Toshiba drives testing?

Try an old 7200.7 IDE drive using the appropriate hook connector to check if your USB > serial adaptor is working.

Does the "Tx" led flash when you send characters to the drive?

[fzabkar]

If you don't have a scope, then you could probably use a multimeter with a frequency range to troubleshoot the data path. Choose a low baud rate, eg 1200bps. If there is a break in the circuit, this should find it.

[Scorpion]

Problem was solved.
After 3-4 times of restart the pc than I start having terminal output again.

Many Thanks for all you comments.

[pcimage]

Weird!

I would still suspect a dodgy connection on the serial SATA hook though.

What tends to happen is that with constant use, the connections break inside the hook (where they join the pin connections to the little PCB)

[labtech]

On my end, I have experienced issues with the USB ports as well (for those that use USB). For ex, older Dell towers.

[Scorpion]

PCIMAGE you were also right.
There is also a problem with the adaptor connections too.