Hello all! I have a WD Hard drive that will not do anything. When I plug it up nothing happens. The motor is not spinning. I was wondering if maybe the PCB on the back is bad. There appears to be a few corrosive spots. How hard is it to replace the PCB? Here is the drive info:

MDL: 800JD-75MSA3
Date: 15 DEC 2006
DCM: HSBHNTJCH
Capacity: 80.0 GB
Firmware A3
Drive Paramaters: LBA 156250000


Barcode on top of the PCB: 2061 - 701335 - E00 AK
XW 3C22 JZRB 1 0004240

Barcode on rear of drive: WM AM9 HL5 8978

Any help is really appreciated. The drive is used by a small business (restaurant), so there is not a lot of money for expensive repairs.


Thanks.

Could well be a PCB problem.

But you WILL have to move the ROM over from your bad board to a good one, even then it might not work as its possible the preamp inside the drive might be shot too.

If you have someone who is very good at soldering then it might be worth a shot.

But if the data it worth anything to you then best to seek pro assistance, it shouldn't be too expensive "pre-tampering"!!

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How difficult is it to replace the PCB? Is it as simple as removing the screws and putting the new PCB in? I build computers, but have not felt comfortable with HD repair, but this client is desperate- I am working for free...

The actual PCB exchange is easy-peasy, but it 99% will not work without moving the ROM over.

That's where the soldering comes in!

If your client is not willing to spend a few $$$ on pro assistance (shouldn't be too much) to get his data back then make sure whoever undertakes the soldering job is up to it, or they could make the job 10x more expensive

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Did you check for blown TVS? Not sure there are present on your board though.
Replacing PCB is very easy. More dificult part is moving ROM chip to the new board, but any electronic shop can do it for you. It is 8-pin chip (U12 if not mistaken).

Blown TVS is very very rare on this PCB.

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It turns out that with the old PCB the drive would turn on. It clicks. It sounds like the head is seeking on the platter. Both PCB's make the same sound. I guess it isn't the PCB.. Or could the new PCB just cause the head to seek without the old ROM?

Any other ideas?

This is a direct contradiction to your initial comment, that "When I plug it up nothing happens. The motor is not spinning." I think you are now saying that the drive is spinning-up. If so, this eliminates a TVS issue (if fitted on that PCB), all assuming that I'm interpreting your new information correctly.


With this new information, it's very unlikely to be [only] a PCB issue.


So you've got another PCB of the same part number from somewhere? I didn't see that mentioned anywhere, but I'll assume that's what you've done.


Yes. As pcimage said before, swapping the PCB, but not the ROM, will not work in 99% of cases - and that seems to be what you're asking. Doing that PCB (but not ROM) swap would almost always cause "clicking" even on an otherwise perfectly working drive. So if this is what you've done, that's not a helpful test - hence why soldering was mentioned by pcimage, if you decide to swap the PCB.

However, with the new information where I think you're saying that the drive spins-up, it is very unlikely to be a PCB problem with a DIY solution, IMHO.

There are several experienced members in the USA who could tackle this issue, if the original customer decides that their data is worth recovering, and doesn't want to take the risk of picking a less-than-capable DR company from the phone directory. Unfortunately what I see is that many small business customers don't have a good backup regime, not only this restaurant.

Just to help get the situation straight, can you explain the change from the original comment that the drive didn't spin-up, to the later comment that it does spin-up (even with the old PCB)?

Not PCB problem.

Heads and/preamp

Not DIY

(like Vulcan has put more eloquently than I have)

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OP didn't say that drive spins up. So it looks like an early hurraaahhhh!
I would continue with ROM transfer (with compatible board of course). We don't know whether a new board is compatible, but it behaves typical for the board with no ROM transplant.

I politely disagree....



That sounds like it spins to me, or am I missing something?

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No. It says, is is attempting to spin and engage actuator. It doesn't say that motor is spinning up at normal speed. Not at all. Too early hourraahhh!

Here we go again...

If the drive clicks it means that the heads is trying to lock on servo and the rpm is up at desired speed.
Could be Pcb though (@ 1%), rest of the 99% goes to bad head(s).

Cheers
Bosse

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From my observation actuator is engaged before reaching desired speed. If doubt, look at Seagate error messages when plastic card is placed over motor contacts.
Also answer yourself the following question: How MPU do meassure spindle rotational speed? Did you find any speed sensor inside? The only possible answer is gathering servo frequency by reading heads. In other words you need to move heads to keep it on servo.

Even it is little chance (which I doubt), there was a question quite recently "what would you do? " - opening drive without checking PCB? Answer was clear - "do easy part first".
But you continue advice people otherwise.

Bollox

"clicks" and "heads seeking" with BOTH PCB's = NOT PCB FAULT

End of story

P.s. I will say what eveyrone else is thinking.... your attitude stinks.

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I didn't tell anyone to open their drive ...just informed that it's likely 1% chance of pcb fault and the other 99% goes for headproblem.

@Sean +1

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@Sean +2
Your not the only one to say this
I said that about 3 weeks back but it looks like the thread has been deleted.
Anyway I've decided not to bite at sajunky taunts & just ignore them completely.

Loki

@pcimage: +1 (or are we up to +3 now )

It's a shame that the OP has not returned, to clarify the discrepancies between their early and later comments, but perhaps they now have the information that they wanted, and so they might never return to the thread...


Yes, I know the answer to that question.


Wrong. If you research how the spindle motor controller functionality (separate or integrated) works on modern disk drives, then you'll find your mistake and see that the heads are not used in they way that you say is the "only possible answer". Since you'll just argue with whatever I explain, I'll leave you to discover the truth for yourself, so then you don't "shoot the messenger" (me) - again.

Why be so aggressive criticising others, when you have an incorrect understanding of how this functionality works?

Not a shame to OP, definitely not. Read my reply to the last quoting text.
If you say MPU do not meassure jitter from servo, you are wrong. I can be wrong to above too, all I can say that actuator is engaged before required speed is reached.
OK, let me explain: OP received honest advice from pcimage. Then you came to an action saying OP is contradicting itself. If I get such reply I would go elsewere.
Problem is, there is not always easy to find out whether noise comes from spinning motor. I just have a drive before me which appeared to me it was spinning up together with Seagate Click of Death sound, but after swapping PCB I was surprised that spinning sound is slightly different. It turned out to be faulty PCB, drive is working now. Not WD drive, but I had similiar story before with WD.

Naughty! You're changing the question What would your psychology teaching (you mentioned in previous thread) say about strawman arguments? The previous question you asked was about spindle speed. And, as I said before, that does not require the heads to measure that, and such a technique is not used in spindle motor controllers. This is publically available information - think about which components are in the read channel, and which are not...

However, as I also said before:


... so your reply is just what I expected - no surprise there.