Western Digital HD no power

[skinninmckinnon]

Hey everyone,

recently my Western Digital external hard drive (in a Buffalo enclosure) stopped powering up. When I plug it in, there's no lights & no drive spinning. So I took the HD out of the enclosure & tried powering it up without the enclosure, with still no drive spinning (the drive itself has no lights obviously). The PCB on the HD got very hot very quickly & gave off small amounts of smoke.

So my thoughts are that the PCB is buggered, but how do I get another one? From my Google searching it seems I need one from within a few weeks of manufacture as my current HD.

Here's my HD details:

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB Sata, 32MB Cache
Model: WD10EADS-00M2B0
Date: 28 Sep 2009

And if I find a compatable PCB, can I just swap them over, or is there some software stuff that needs to happen?

Thanks in advance,

Nick

 

[Emerald]

will this work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCB-ONLY-2061-701640-202-WD10EADS-00M2B0-1Tb-SATA-/350485453083?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519a8f991b

 

[WyomingKnott]

Nick

If you do try the PCB swap, please post back and let us know whether or not it worked. I am curious.

 

[fzabkar]

A PCB swap rarely works. This is because each board stores unique "adaptive" data. These data need to be transferred to the replacement PCB.

That said, a common problem with external drives is a shorted TVS diode. This diode sacrifices itself to protect the HDD in the event of an overvoltage.

Search for "TVS diode" or read the following FAQ:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracuda-XT-Barracuda-Barracuda/HDD-TVS-diode-FAQ/m-p/118908#M25521

Check your board for damage to diodes D4 and D3, and zero-ohm resistors R64 and R67. If you have overvolted your drive, then I expect that D4 will be shorted. If so, then the fix is to simply cut it out with flush cutters. However, be absolutely certain your power supply is good, as you will have removed the overvoltage protection from the +12V rail.

 

[skinninmckinnon]

Thanks for the responses.

The ebay link may have worked, but the description didn't say date of manufactrfure, & from what I've read, that's very important when trying to successfully swap a PCB (keep in mind that I've been aware that PCBs exist for at most 2 days now...).

The TVS diode is a great tip, if only I hadn't thrown out my PCB... It was very hot when I took it out, so I guess I assumed wrongly that it was never coming back to life.

At least I'll know for next time!

Thanks heaps guys,

Nick

 

[skinninmckinnon]

Best answer selected by skinninmckinnon.

 

[Emerald]

the disk label said Nov-4/09

 

[fzabkar]

A shorted diode normally causes the PSU to shut down, unless the associated zero-ohm resistor has gone open.

Another common problem is damage to the SMOOTH motor controller which may also result in damage to the onboard switchmode DC-DC converters. Since these DC-DC converters provide the Vcore and Vio supplies for the MCU, and also the negative supply for the preamp, then there is potential for even greater damage.

 

[jefftnh]

A PCB swap rarely works. This is because each board stores unique "adaptive" data. These data need to be transferred to the replacement PCB.

That said, a common problem with external drives is a shorted TVS diode. This diode sacrifices itself to protect the HDD in the event of an overvoltage.

Search for "TVS diode" or read the following FAQ:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Barracuda-XT-Barracuda-Barracuda/HDD-TVS-diode-FAQ/m-p/118908#M25521

Check your board for damage to diodes D4 and D3, and zero-ohm resistors R64 and R67. If you have overvolted your drive, then I expect that D4 will be shorted. If so, then the fix is to simply cut it out with flush cutters. However, be absolutely certain your power supply is good, as you will have removed the overvoltage protection from the +12V rail.

THANKS! Wanted to let you know that your solution just worked for me! I have a WD Caviar Green 640GB that was in a "my book" enclosure. I had a no power up situation and the drive would get hot on the PCB in the area of the power connector. I unscrewed the board, clipped off D4 and the drive powered up! One thing that I may add is that before the fix I would plug in the power and the power adapter LED would dim out so after I removed the PCB I carefully plugged in the power and observed the light. The light still went out so at that point I was pretty confident that the PCB was indeed the problem. I then unplugged the power, located D4, and clipped it off. Before screwing the board back on the drive I plugged in the power and the light on the adapter stayed on further confirming that the diode was indeed the problem. I want to reiterate for the sake of others that I did use a known good power adapter and after the fix the drive is without overvoltage protection.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey