Hello everybody!

This is my first post in this forum but I already read some threads here to look for a solution to my problem. It helped a lot and I could find good information about how replacing a PCB and what you have to look for when analysing for the fried parts of it.

To my problem. My old external 300GB, 3.5" Western Digital WD3000JB-00KFA0 IDE apparently took some damage in its enclosure and the pcb fried. This was some years ago, drive MFR is MAY 2005, and at this time I had no idea of how to look at a HDD for finding a DIY repair solution. As I didn't have the money to get it repaired by a professional, I put the drive in a box for years and discovered it again some days ago.

So I took off the PCB, the overall look of it seems fine to me except for the SMOOTH-chip. It has a big burning hole in it's middle and some of the pins are of a slight brown colour. My first attempt was to look for the same drive to get a matching PCB, this didn't work for me because here in Germany even in 2007, when the PCB fried, there was no such drive on the internet. I searched some sites recently but there a all in Hong Kong, Malaysia or the US. No option for me and the PCB's are quite overpriced.

After this I went to a store which sells old hardware and told them what I was searching for. The didn't have a drive matching my PCB number (2060-701314-001 REV A) but a newer 40GB WD400JB-00JJC0 from FEB 2008 (PCB from 2006! No. 2060-701292-002 REV A) which has my Smooth-chip on it. I bought it for 10 euro and as I was aware of the fact that this pcb will not work in my drive only by chancing the PCB and the EEPROM from U12. My hope was to transplant the Smooth to my fried drive's pcb and get it running again.

What are the chances it's only the smooth chip that fried in my drive and it's going to function again after this operation?
Before I start to solder, is there a slight chance of getting the donor pcb working in my failed drive?

Here are the specs and some pictures of the patient and donor drive for you to look at.

Patient:
WD3000JB-00KFA0
DATE: 07 MAY 2005
DCM: DSBACAJCH
PCB Number 2060-701314-001 REV A
MCU 88i6540-LFH1 (9***G VH > can't read this because of the burned chip, but does not seem to matter)
SMOOTH L6283 1.3
SAMSUNG K4S641632H-UC60




Donor:
WD400JB-00JJC0
DATE: 13 FEB 2008
DCM: DBBANTJCHN
PCB Number 2060-701292-002 REV A
MCU 88i6888-LFH1
SMOOTH L6283 1.3 (990SE VH)
MT 48LC4M16A2



Thanks in advance and I'm looking forwar to a response. And sorry for my bad English.

Cheers,
Carcassonne

If he swap SMOOTH, why should he then swap the ROM chip for?!?
I would say that you will have a better chance to success if you find a similar Pcb and swap ROM, rather then swap SMOOTH.

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Sorry to say but even if you manage to find a good pcb and swap the rom you will most likely find the drive will show all the signs of a damaged preamp as well (spin up, click click click and then spin down). Success is likely to be only 50 50% or worse.

I think swapping the SMOOTH chip is a waste of time. (but you never know).
I'd go for this http://www.ebay.de/itm/WD3200JB-WD3000J ... 4ac1a6e4a5
for 45 euros you get a compatible PCB, swap the U12 IC over and get your data.
(assuming preamp is ok).

Good luck!

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First thank you everybody for your replies!

I haven't had the time to do the smooth transfer to my drive's pcb but I replaced some QFP chips on older harddrives without much trouble. As for changing the pcb to a new one: the data on my harddrive is old and not of a value that would justify a 45€ replacement pcb. So I will stick to my two possibilities: 1) changing the rom to donor pcb and try it (chances are low because of the MCU not matching and the head-contacts on pcb show less pins than on my patient harddrive), 2) swap the smooth chip and let it run.

Two questions remain. Can anybody check the pictures of my patient pcb to look for some other obvious damages than the one on the smooth chip?
I couldn't find others, I already checked the TVS on (on Q3 & Q6 I think?!) but not sure about the values it should have.
Are there other possibilities of measure some components on the pcb to get an idea of what could be damaged?

Thank you all for your help, much appreciated.

Carcassonne

if you use this donor pcb for your hdd, you will notice 2 things

1- donor pcb will get OVER HEATED - most probably will burn in less than a min.
2- this WILL NOT WORK

good luck

_________________
Kuwait Data Recovery - UNIX GTC
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. By: Albert Einstein

Thank you, einstein. I wasn't going to try the donor board with my harddrive because of the points I mentioned above. Since its an 40GB drive I assume there are fewer heads on this drive than on my 300GB (which works with 107GB Platters). That would explain the missing terminals to connect the pins to the heads of the donor pcb. Am I right?

Why will swapping the Smooth chip not work, einstein?

It would please me to see fzabkar (or someone else) responding to my question about measuring the patient pcb with an DMM since he answered some questions about WD pcb's earlier on this forum. I'd like to eliminate most of the risks of getting a fried pcb after I replace the SMOOTH chip.

Thank you all very much and sorry for my bad english.

Carcassonne

Carcassonne

Since you are from Germany (where i just came from few days back) and i really have a huge respect for the German Muscle (cars)
whatever is the case, back to the main subject which is yours here

this damn pcb 701314, is one of the Stupid pcb`s they manufactured
in fact, i have many cases before with the same pcb, and in order to get the data from it, i used 2 or 3 pcb`s

they Die Quick, coz the PCB gets over-heated quick no matter what cooling fan you use
and somewhere on the middle while copying your data from it, it will either DIE (pcb i mean) or Spinning resets (sounds like power off/on again)

so, i suggest really that you seek Pro. help specially on this model
otherwise, you will end up paying 5x the price for other problems which might happen.

and Good Luck again my friend

_________________
Kuwait Data Recovery - UNIX GTC
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. By: Albert Einstein

But he just said his data is not worth €45.

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And he has already wasted €10 on buying in the wrong part. So it dosn't leave much to play with if the data is worthless?

northwind, correct! I'm not going to pay 50€ for the replacement pcb and no, dick, I've been aware of the fact that this pcb is only providing me the smooth chip I need. You could have read it in my first post, though.
If it's not working after replacing it then I will leave this repair where it has been for now five years (in a box for old hardware which has been laying around in my basement). If the data was so important I would not have waited so long to repair it, so please stop making jokes or trying to convince my in buying a 45€ pcb. This is the price I paid for this 300gb drive in late 2005!

So, has someone an idea which components I could check on the pcb to minimize the risk it's frying when connecting it again?

Thank you,
Carcassonne

I understand what you want to do but it does seem if you are trying to 'hit the hammer with the nail'. I don't think a pro would attempt this if data is at stake!

If you attempt to swap over the Smooth ic and you are successfull that would be great but what if on power up the unknown damage to other components on the pcb cause preamp damage when previously it was in working condition. Remember to replace the preamp would mean opening the drive and replacing the head stack.

I think your first step would be to find out if the preamp is damaged or not. And the only way you can test that is with a known good pcb. For a pcb replacement on this model you don't have to match the drive model number, just the pcb number.

Noone is trying to convince you to buy anything. We are telling you what needs to be done to get your data recovered.
Get a better attitude.

Bye.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

northwind, don't get me wrong please. Neither I'm not willing to spend money on important things, neither I pretend your advices are not helpful. I've been looking for a cheap alternative because the data on the disk is not very precious. I don't need it, there's no work on it and the private stuff was on a backup drive). For me, this is kind of a freetime job - I want to know whats possible to rescue the drive and the "bonus" would be to get the files on this one.

There are two drives in Germany, WD3200SB, which have the same pcb as mine is. Their price is around 25€, it's a private auction on the german ebay "flewmarket". Risks are high that those drives are dead as well, since it's the same pcb and as einstein said earlier those drives die often because of overheating. Thats probably what happened to my pcb as well, since it was in an external enclosure which allways got more than handwarm when used.

I'm glad you all tell me which is the best, I really helps a lot. It's better to buy one replacement for 40€, which will work first time (assuming it's a pcb fault and when the PCB numbers are a match), instead of spending money on five different drives which in the end might not work as you expected and cost you double the price of a replacement. If I can get it working with simple AND cheap methods I'll be happy - if not, it's not big loss.

Thank you Spildit. The idea is good to wait instead of risking a preamp damage. Anyway, I searched again for a replacement pcb and came across some WD3200SB-01KMA0 drives, which are actually from the Cavair RE series, not SE like my hdd. Plus they both seen to have the 2060-701314-002/003 REV A pcb's (have to ask the reseller).
Mine is 2060-701314-001 REV A. The MCU and Smooth seem to be the same on all three revisions of this pcb. I'm good to go for one of these?

Regards,
Carcassonne