Quick help (honestly)

Ok I’ve read all I can read (short of getting a degree) Looked everywhere I could think (I think) and all i REALLY need is a small amount of help/advice about how to fix (replace?) the circuit board on my 1tb Caviar Black. 

The drive       http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/russchitt/download1.jpg

The board     http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/russchitt/download2.jpg

The Issue     http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m559/russchitt/download3.jpg

I some how fried my VCM controller, or motor controller, or what ever that is on U1. I doubt highly that it can be fixed, so it needs to be replaced.

Here is were the awesome people here come to my rescue (as i have a wedding coming up and guess where all my pictures were backed up to? )

  1. From what I’ve read I need to swap my 8-pin ROM (U12) to the new board… except I have nothing at U12… can i just get a new board?

  2. Where can I get a new board? or is that even feasible? $2100 to recover this drive is defiantly out as an option

Thank you so much for any help…and PLEASE feel free to point out if I overlooked something or if I just plain ignored advice elsewhere any help is help!

  1. First thing you’ll need to do is get a second identical hard disk (same mode: WD1001FALS-xxJ7B0, xx not being that important, since it’s usually used for identifying drives manufactured for different oem vendors or end users)

  2. Another important detail is the manufacture date of both drives should be nearby (the closer, the better).

  3. Third, the DCM should also be the same (although I managed to do successful board swappings on two different drives without these serial numbers being identical)

Looking at the picture of that board, the only chip that could be an eeprom chip is located at U22. If you can read the markings on it you can google the model to see if it is indeed a memory chip. If yes, then that’s probably the firmware chip you’ll need to swap between boards (although being so small you’ll definitely need professional tools and/or help).

Good luck in your search for the good HD, and let us know how it goes :wink:

sacredcheese, yours is one of those boards where the serial EEPROM contents are internal to the Marvell MCU. An “identical” board will most likely not work unless the ROM contents are transferred to the donor’s MCU. This makes it very difficult for a DIY-er. In fact, professional recovery is probably your only option. :frowning:

BTW, I suspect that the chip at U22 is an op amp which amplifies the signal from the shock sensor at SK4.

Just out of curiosity, have you measured the resistances of the protection diodes and resistors (D4, D3, R64, R67) near the SATA power connector?