WD40NMZW-11GX651 Odd behavior

[allen labarge]

Hi All,

Hopefully someone could help me figure out what might be the issue
with this drive.

It came in with no activity, no spin or head actuation. Could not find
a bad component on the board. Ordered a donor board, transferred the
Firmware, and now the drive spins up and then back down. Does not
sound like there is any damage on the drive, just does not read
correctly. If I power the drive without data, it will spin up just
fine. Sometimes it will continue to initialize after the data is
plugged in, but will lock up the computer until unplugged.

I ran wdROMv17 on the firmware file, and I see that 0047 is marked as
bad in one of the ROYL directory modules.

Attached are the output of wdROM and the firmware. I would be most
appreciative if someone would be willing to lend some guidance to me
on this drive.

[pbzcbf...@gmail.com]

There are two directories. One is active, the other is inactive. Your "bad" module is in the inactive directory, so it may not be initialised. In any case, it doesn't matter -- nothing is wrong with the ROM.

[pbzcbf...@gmail.com]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/WD_Blue_WD40NMZW-11GX6S1_-_controller-9723.jpg

A common problem with these PCBs is a dry solder joint at the zero-ohm resistor adjacent to the USB connector. Check whether you have +5V on each side.

On Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 8:00:17 AM UTC+11 NGI Allen wrote:

 

[t...@desertdatarecovery.com]

Was the drive originally USB or SATA. ISTR they make both in different parts of the world?
As you say you are connecting 'data' I assume it was/is now SATA?
Also are you connecting the drive direct to an OS or via and imager?

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[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Well,

      Very Common Issue In These Is BAD SMR Section Aka Module 190 Etc ,What Tools Are You Having

[allen labarge]

Sorry for the late reply, yesterday got away from me.

There are two directories. One is active, the other is inactive. Your "bad" module is in the inactive directory, so it may not be initialised. In any case, it doesn't matter -- nothing is wrong with the ROM.

That is good to know. Thank you for looking at it for me.

 A common problem with these PCBs is a dry solder joint at the zero-ohm resistor adjacent to the USB connector. Check whether you have +5V on each side.

I will check/reflow the solder joints next to the USB Connector and see if that helps any.

Was the drive originally USB or SATA. ISTR they make both in different parts of the world?
As you say you are connecting 'data' I assume it was/is now SATA?
Also are you connecting the drive direct to an OS or via and imager?

The drive is USB. I have a USB Hub that is externally powered, so it allows me to power the drive separately and then connect data.(to the computer.) I have tried both direct on Windows and Linux, and through our RapidSpar. Both give me similar results.

Very Common Issue In These Is BAD SMR Section Aka Module 190 Etc ,What Tools Are You Having

The only DR Tools I have are RapidSpar, R-Studio, and DMDE. I have the ability to read/write firmware images as well. 

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[allen labarge]

After checking the 0-ohm resistor on both boards, it seemed like the original might have a cold solder joint. I reflowed both sides of the component and sure enough, the drive popped up and I am transferring files now. It looks like that might be the issue on the donor board as well, but I will try that out after I get the data from the drive.

Thank you for your assistance, and now I will be looking more closely for cold solder joints on all drives, but these ones in particular.

[pbzcbf...@gmail.com]

When you are troubleshooting a power problem, the logical place to start is at the power input, ie the USB connector. Then follow the power path to the other components. The very first component in the path is the zero-ohm resistor. The next step is to measure the input and output terminals of this resistor. It really isn't that hard.