Hi all,

I am hoping to get confirmation of the options for a Western Digital hard drive a friend asked if I could have a look at.

Drive
- 1Tb WD Passport (Purchased in 2013)
- WD10JMVW-11AJGS1
- USB 3.0 connector
- PCB – 2060-771961-000 Rev P1

The drive powers on OK, disks appear to be spinning, no clicking from the drive. The drive is picked up by the OS, but doesn’t register as a drive. On Linux dmesg shows the drive connecting, resetting several times and then eventually timing out. I have a laptop that supports USB 3.0 bootable drives and it just hangs until the disk eventually times out as well.

The drive has managed to register twice in the operating system while I have had it, but on access / read it comes to a halt and then starts more drive resets.

I believe based on what I have read here and in other places that it’s the slow response issue that seems to have plagued these drives and just wanted to confirm the diagnosis / fix.

Possible fixes:

1: Order a SATA connector, and some wire.
Solder the SATA connector to points E71, E72, E73 and E75 while removing capacitors C13, C18, C31 and C37
Then apply the Slow-Fix
Copy the data off

2: Replace the current PCB with one of these - 771960, 771933, 771939, or 771959
Then transfer the two chips U12 and U14
Then apply the Slow-Fix
Copy the data off

3: Find a professional to do the job.

Out of curiosity, what is the benefit of option 2 over option 1? If you need to solder anyway, why not use the existing board and reduce the risk of damaging the chips U12 and U14. Seems like the cheaper option as well.

Thanks in advance

It's unlikely to be a PCB fault.

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I don't believe it is specifically the PCB, more that weird firmware issue that causes WD Passport drives to just slowdown and eventually stop responding. The PCB fix is just one I have seen referred to many times on this forum and many other places

Another reason why I think its the slow response problem. Something I played with this morning, if I power the drive up before plugging it in to the computer and then plug it in, I had greater success at seeing it register in the OS. I still can't use or access the drive, but I can actually see it in disk manager, device manager and register properly in dmesg

This is a rather complicated issue with WD Passport drives. The drive not being recognized even though it is detected by the OS can be due to a slow response time issue, as you mentioned.

Both options 1 and 2 can help solve the problem, but option 1 can be riskier as you have to remove and repair the existing circuit board. Option 2 is safer as replacing the entire PCB will help avoid unwanted problems during the repair.

However, as you said, if you only need to reconnect a few points, option 1 can be the more cost-effective way, as long as you are careful when doing it.

I can't solder on a good day so planning on giving the drive back to my friend with the 3 options.
Re Option 1 and 2, I think I would suggest option 1, if they do something wrong, then option 2 is still possible. Or just let them find a data recovery expert.

Thanks

Be advised that more often than not, this behavior is accompanied by a weak or dead head.
Hammering a drive with a weak/dead head can cause sadness and depression.

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