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zed

Hi All,

I have been researching the best way to swap a pcb on a Western digital hard drive. I have attempted this a few times in the past and about 50% of the time i spend money buying a spare part/hard drive and it does not seem to be compatible.

I usually try to buy a western digital hard drive with a matching full model number and matching the 1st 13 numbers on the white sticker on the pcb. Then i remove the U12/Firmware chip and solder it on to the new/spare part. This usually works but not always.

I have heard rumours that maybe i need to match particular letters in the DCM code too, in the past i have ignored this and even with different DCMs it's worked 1/2 the time.

In the times it has not worked i have wasted money on spare parts i'll probably not need again and is more dissapointing and annoying than anything. When it did not work the drive would click a few times then power down. I assumed the PCB was not compatible.

Does anybody know what the minimum matching criteria should be when selecting a donor/spare part to use for a WD PCB swap?

So many people have different views on this.

Thanks in advance.
Zed

wwwtux-techca · Deadharddrive regular +1 Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 30

Zed,

As far as I know The only unique code on WD PCB is on the U12.

Are you sure the time It hasn't work it really was a PCB Problem and not something else ?

Regards
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Francis Parent-Valiquette
Tux-Tech Inc.
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zed · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:50 am Post subject:

I have done this a few times and the disk would start knocking a few times then power off, i.e spin down and the motor would turn off. So you don't think it's a PCB compatibility issue?

In these cases the 1st 13 numbers on the PCB matched, the model # matcged AND the u12 chip was swapped properly too.

harddrivespecialist · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

Your drive has failed heads. PCB won't fix this problem.
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zed · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 4:29 am Post subject:

Are you sure? When i received the disk it would not power up at all and had a burnt motor controller chip. So i assumed it was a power surge or power spike that caused it.

Are you saying that in 100% of all cases of ALL different western digital hard drives if i have a matching model # and 1st 13 numbers of the white sticker on the PCB (i.e board number) - that if i have swapped the u12 chip and the drive clicks i can assume the heads are damaged too?

Usually a damaged head making a clicking sound is different to this sound. This is more of a 4-5 clicks then spin down.

harddrivespecialist · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject:

If you did everything you have described, it must be a head problem.

In a lot of cases power surge gets to preamp, which causes reading/writing problem.
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zed · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject:

Usually a damaged head making a clicking sound is different to this sound. This is more of a 4-5 clicks then spin down. Does this sound like a head/pre-amp problem?

e.g it makes a 4-5 fast clicks then the motor powers down and the platters stop spinning. If you try to send a signal to the disk (e.g in Windows Device Manager select 'scan for new hardware' and it looks for a new disk - it powers up, clicks 4-5 times quickly again and then powers off again.

The PC-3000 UDMA i have can read the contents of the u12 chip, all firmware modules look ok, no header, cs or read errors.