This is my personal drive, I'm trying to see if it has pictures on it from my past (at one time I wrote 'pics ?' on it). I understand the risk of diy and I'm up for it. I have a computer/electronics repair shop along with a technician who can diagnose down to the component level and solder about anything.

What the drive does when attached to a sata power cable is it spins up and spins back down, 7 second pause then repeats. When hooked up direct to my mobo as a slave, it hangs during post still spinning up and down.

I'd like some thoughts of where to start on diagnosing this.

Thanks,
Dave

Heads are dead

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Assuming that Doomer's diagnosis is correct, this is a "DIY" only if you have the proper gear, knowledge and experience.

It's a Sabre family drive, so the usual caveats apply, plus a few challenges:

• 6 heads
• Varying head maps w/ same model
• Donor drives are usually expensive
• Lid / head alignment issues

It's not easy for a lot of experienced WD folks.

Good luck!

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welcome all

in new wd royl alot of same symptoms same as heads craches but its caused by fw problem

like translator or smart or ata overlay

you can test first by recalibrate your heads test if knocking stop or not
if stop may be its bad fw and you can solve it
if non stop may be heads problems and you can depop heads one by one to know which one has problem

The only thing i can add to jon's points above, is that these drives can be affected by mimics, but it's a long shot.

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i did a sabre unicorn not that long ago. Was annoying a bit. Ordered 3 different donors before finally got it. Yes. Sabres sometime mimic the head issue when in fact PCB is at fault.

@Dave48838, what is the part number of the Marvell MCU on the PCB? Is it either 88i6745 or 88i6545? Is there an 8-pin IC at location U12?

AIUI, the above MCUs are often affected by a fault that mimics a head or media problem. If you are lucky and yours is one of these, then there may be an inexpensive DIY fix.

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as far as the rest of the info on the label, it's a Caviar se16, model 00pfb0, date 28 oct 2006, model hhchca2chn, part number wd3200ks-00pfb0, drive parameters lba 625142448. the marvell chip has 88i6545-tfj1 gp87141a.1 0636 b2s and yes there is an 8 pin chip @ u12 location.

Hoping it's a firmware problem, but not holding my breath.

Alexii has given you some hope, so best of luck.

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