I have a faulty samsung drive, and i think that the PCB failed... the drive is not spinning, not taking any power at all... tried to put it to an external USB adapter, the adapter's led stopped responding... tried to put only the power cable on a PC, the PCB had that lovely smell of a burning capacitor... so i guess it must be the PCB. So, i'm trying to find from ebay a new PCB, but i need to know if i need to swap the ROM chip as well... I don't have any experience with heat guns etc, so i pray it's just a simple PCB swap task...

My hard disk:
Samsung
Model: HD502HI (500GB/R54/16M)
HDD P/N: HD502HI - Rev.A
P/N: 49082-A421-A0Z4R
S/N: S1VZJ90SC28113

Numbers on the PCB:
PCB Version: BF41-00178B
PCB Family: R00 Trinity_1D_REV08
Firmware: 0
Rev A

You will also find a picture of the PCB attached, just in case it helps

Thanks in advance for your time.

The damage can be seen near the power connector.

Check the 2x TVS diodes and the fuse.

It may well be repairable to save you the hassle of getting a replacement PCB which probably won't work anyway, due to firmware incompatibility.

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Well, it's not only that, for sure. When PCB failed, the 2x TVS diodes and the fuse were OK... That visible damage happened after a few attempts... but anyway, i wanna try with a new PCB just to be sure.

According to this (http://www.donordrives.com/pcb-replacement-guide), a simple PCB swap might do the trick (numbers imprinted on the ROM chip do not start from 25).... However, if i need to change the ROM chip, swapping this too won't work?

I think you are assuming that the 8-pin chip on your board is a ROM - it isn't.

It's not? Then what's the ROM chip i need to swap? In case it needs to be swapped?

Your board's "ROM" is embedded within the Marvell MCU. I don't know whether you would need to transfer the ROM code, but if you are considering sending your drive away, then you might like to read these threads:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/29438 ... ment-again
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25524&p=173689
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26205&p=178603

BTW, the 12V TVS diode in your photo is probably shorted (as you are probably aware).

The 8-pin chip is not a flash memory. It is associated with the -5V supply for the preamp.

See http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/HD ... _Regs.html

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Did you see this earlier in the thread?

So the OP claims to have eliminated that possibility - if they did the correct tests, and interpreted the results correctly, of course...

Yes, I saw it. But then the OP went on to say ...

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I'm struggling to understand your point. Are you suggesting that even if the TVS was OK when the OP tested them, that after "a few attempts" (whatever that means exactly, and I couldn't take that into account as it is too ambiguous IMHO), the 12V TVS is now shorted even after the OP's earlier comment? Or do you mean something else?

Maybe I misunderstood the OP, but I'm thinking that the OP's drive failed with a symptom that suggested a dead PCB. He then checked the TVS diodes and fuses and found them to be OK. Then he made a few more attempts, both in an external enclosure and in his PC, and it was only then that the PCB became visibly damaged. My thinking is that maybe the enclosure's PSU introduced a new fault, and the OP may have chosen to give up there and then, without rechecking the diodes.

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@fzabkar,

Thanks for clarifying. I think the ambiguity about the exact sequence of testing by the OP, and what they did after testing the TVS and (apparenetly) finding it to be OK, means that any interpretation might be correct.

@kogos,

As you can see from the above discussion, your comment about the TVS being "OK" is critical regarding what your options are; different people are interpreting your comments in different ways, due to the lack of detail of your exact measurements and sequence of tests. Depending on when you tested the TVS during your other actions, what you did after that (e.g. those "attempts" which you mentioned - you need to give more details about whatever you mean by that), and the current status of the TVS (and fuse), then you have different options. More clear details needed

You mentioned that you tried attaching it to a USB adapter and the adapter's LED "stopped responding" (I guess you mean that the LED went off i.e. dark). That result might be important, depending on how you clarify the points above.

It would also be interesting whether this drive originally failed inside a PC, or was it an external drive when it failed?

That's the $1m question Hopefully the OP will respond with the clarifications I've asked for...

I agree Spildit view, ROM program on 88i8826D this chip, you need PC3000 UDMA and burn to write a program that matches

That's exactly what happened. The drive was an external drive when it failed. Symptoms: no power led on the enclosure, no spinning to the drive, no sound at all, like there is nothing powering up the drive. I opened the enclosure, tried to use it as an internal drive. PC would not even powerup. The tried to use another enclosure, again, no power with this drive was in use. When the enclosure was empty (no drive at all), the power led was on. When this hard disk was used, led went off.

I then inspected the PCB, there was no visible damage on it, no smell, no burnt areas, nothing. But all the symptoms suggested a dead PCB. I tried to check the drive again one more time, with an external enclosure, and that's when the damage shown in the pictures was done (most probably because of a faulty enclosure PSU, which i don't care). At that point, i thought that i don't really care fixing that damage, since the PCB should be replaced anyway, so i just gave up trying.

I am pretty sure that the physical drive is not damaged, so i thought that it must be a PCB related problem. Since the PCB is dead, replacing it seems the only option.

I just hope i won't need to swap rom chips as well... i hope that a simple PCB swap will fix it.


btw, thank you all for your time

a donor pcb will not work unless you get very very very lucky. You will need to alter firmware of drive in order to get donor pcb to work. It would be much cheaper for you to send it to a professional unless you want to spend $9000 on the tools required.

The ROM is embedded in the M chip.
99% of the times it won't work with simple pcb swap.

And in that case, there is only one easy way to do it.

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hm... i guess that for 400-500 photos, it won't worth it... I think that the easy way to do is just dump it and get a new one.

That usually means that the drive was shorting the PC's PSU. ISTM that their must be a short on the drive's 12V input.


So you never actually tested the TVS diodes and "fuse"? Well, that's explains a lot.

Could you please indulge us by testing the 12V TVS diode? Alternatively, since you don't care about your data, just remove this diode and try the drive again.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

... but in that case you have to send them at your own expenses the HDD from Greece to USA or China , paying also custom taxes on it as you are in EU when it will come back (don't worry, the courier will take care of all this but expect a 25%+ on total amount of invoice) and at your own risk. AND if there is other internal damage, and you cannot be certain , your drive will be thousands miles away , so either you'll have to accept an additional quote OR pay again for sending the drive back., and again the drive is sent at your own risk.

This is NEVER considered and too often forgotten.

Better find someone in your area who can handle the case safely : I absolutely suggest to contact user northwind from this forum.