See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=976AIzyTyv8

I would not try this for a customer's hard disk but it seems to work well. I suspect it may damage the PCB for a hard disk.

Very clever, but I would be hard-pressed to use it.

The best method for chip removal / replacement is a hot air station, IMHO.

Jon

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jono-ats, have you found that in the case of a WD board with a burnt motor controller chip - if you replace it with an exact matching one - is the rest of the board normally working ok? i.e is it enough to swap this chip over to get the drive repaired so the data can be copied off?

Thanks.

Hi
From what I have read here when the motor controller chip is burnt out the head preamp usually goes pop at the same time. I would have thought most recovery techs would (at least with a WD) go for a replacement board and swap over the ic containing the adaptive info.
Then you will find out if the preamp is working or not.

Another thing....isn't there a chance the motor is seized? And thats what took out the motor control ic in the first place?

Zed:

Sometimes yes; sometimes no, because other components may fail in addition to the controller IC. In a typical failure, there is a hole burned in the I.C., and one of the PCB traces is ruined.

Dick:

In my experience, preamp failure and motor I.C. failure do not occur together often. But I would agree that replacing the PCB and swapping or reprogramming the ROM is the better way in case more than the SMOOTH IC is damaged.

Jono

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