Hard drive not powering up? Fried board?

ohgst

Honorable
Dec 17, 2013
2
0
10,510
I'm pretty sure it's fried. Here is a picture attached. This is from a Seagate 7200.12 ST31000528AS. Would it be better/safer to do a board swap(if possible with this model)?

What am I supposed to do to get this fixed? Do I just remove whatever is burnt up and then throw some solder on?(I don't know where exactly to solder, any advice on that is appreciated as well)

What are the chances of me screwing this up if I try to DIY rather than do a board swap? Thanks!
 
Your drive has suffered an overvoltage on the +12V input. The first thing you need to do is to replace the faulty PSU that was responsible for the damage.

Repairing the PCB is fairly straighforward and should cost you nothing ... if you can solder. Remove the shorted 12V TVS diode (large horizontal burnt component), clean up the charred area with a toothbrush and isopropyl alcohol (audio/video head cleaner), and solder a wire link between the +12V pins at the SATA power connector and the cathode of the diode (striped end, marked with "v" on PCB).

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/ST1000528AS_wire.jpg

If that doesn't fix your drive, and if your drive still doesn't spin up, then you will need to replace the PCB. However, a straight swap won't work -- you will need to transfer the serial flash memory chip at the top left corner of the PCB (Winbond) from patient to donor. This chip contains unique, drive specific information.

The following PCB suppliers include a free transfer service:

http://www.onepcbsolution.com/
http://www.hdd-parts.com/
 
Thank you for your help fzabkar. What is a wire link? Just a link using solder or do I need copper wire?

So I put a blob of solder on the 3 +12V pins, and then connect it to the cathode of the diode using solder or wire?
 
You would need to make the connection with an insulated copper wire. If the inductors hadn't been so badly burnt, you may have been able to flow a blob of solder over them. But that's not possible now.

If you would like to replace the diode, you could use an SMBJ12A.

See http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

Be careful not to damage the diode pads on the PCB when you remove the diode, otherwise you will be left with nothing to solder to.