Rolin wrote:
Yes, it came from a PC. Since the smooth chip is testing good, and another board spins the motor, does it still seem to be a board problem? The fact the other board spins the motor confirms its a board problem, correct?
The SMOOTH chip performs several functions including power control, spin motor control and voice coil motor control. We have verified only one of them. It does appear to be a board fault, although we can't say which chip is the culprit.
Rolin wrote:
I assume WDMarvell is a professional tool?
Yes, but the demo version can read the ROM and SA firmware via ATA. I don't know if it can read the ROM via terminal, though.
Rolin wrote:
The conflicting responses from HDD-parts.com are concerning to me. It just doesn't make sense so I'm losing my confidence in that company.
Ask them which pro tools they use. They can either retrieve the ROM code from a working MCU, or they can use a PCB which is a reasonable match and then retrieve the "adaptive" sections from the platters. But they would need your drive for that.
Rolin wrote:
I found donordrives.com appears to have this board and offer firmware transfers. I've read good and bad about this company. They want me to send the entire drive to them for evaluation, but I would probably just send the logic board for a replacement and firmware transfer.
See
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25524I would hang on to your drive.
BTW, the reason that I like hdd-parts.com (and onepcbsolution.com -- same company) is that they were the first to come clean and tell their clients that a straight board swap wouldn't work. Other suppliers were selling their wares to purchasers who were not aware of this requirement, with the result that they wasted their money and then became vulnerable to be hooked into a "professional data recovery".