Western Digital WD400 head swap ?

[C P]

HI all,  I've got a stumper here and I'm hoping maybe you all can give me a clue.

Ive got the following drive in for recovery, customer said it started acting strangely, but would still boot, then eventually stopped booting.

WD400BB-53AUA1
DATE 22 SEP 2000
DCM HSCHEGYBO

Drive now clicks indefinitely, won't come ready.

I've been through 3 donors and I've been unable to get this drive to come back to life.
I've swapped donors PCBs, and checked PCB numbers, and determined that all the PCBs I have tried are compatible with the customer drive, AND the customer PCB is OK (it works on the donor drives)
I've swapped all 3 heads into the customer drive with no success, but then swapped the heads back into the donors and the donors work fine (all the heads are good)

The closest DCM donor match I bought has DCM "HSCHEGYB"  (note, WITHOUT the O at the end as the customer drive has)

Is there something special about this customer drive (the "O" at the end of the DCM?) that makes these donor heads incompatible ?  With all the circumstances here, I don't have reason to believe the customer platters are bad.

Any insights ?

Thanks!

Chris

[sup...@rambuscomputers.co.uk]

Head alignment issue on BB drives?

Microjog?

Not compatible heads?

Refurbished drive?

Loki

Sent from my iPhone 4S

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[C P]

Loki,

Refurbished - no
Microjog - possible ?
Head alignment - possible, but the fact that I was able to reinstall the donor heads back into the donor drives with no apparent alignment issues makes me wonder.  I
Not compatible - this seems to be the most likely problem, despite the fact that I matched 8/9 characters on the DCM !  Something special about this drive perhaps

I'll try swapping heads between 2 of the donors to see what happens.

Chris

[sup...@rambuscomputers.co.uk]

Alignment is mentioned on bb drives here http://forum.hddguru.com/western-digital-head-alignment-issue-and-tools-t15142.html?hilit=Alignment%20Bb#p99255

Do the heads secure through the top cover?

Could also try changing the top magnet with a donors  

Sent from my iPhone 4S

[C P]

The head stack secures via a screw up through the bottom, and then also by a screw through the top cover.  Also, the magnet assembly doesn't appear to easily come apart, but is easily removed in entirety along with the head stack via 3 screws.  I have been swapping out the entire magnet assembly along with the heads with each swap.

[IT LAND]

Hi Chris,

It is possible that the problem was the firmware and not the heads and than Head Swap 

would not solve the issue.

Did you check the FW before?

It is always recommended to do a hot swap with a donor and check if you can read modules before replacing the heads.

Cheers,

Oded 

[C P]

Oded,  thanks for the assist...  I did a hot swap with the donor as soon as I got it, and got instant clicking as soon as I swapped in the customer drive and tried to access.  I even used the customer PCB on the donor, and can successfully access the donor(s), so wouldn't that rule out firmware or anything PCB related ?  My understanding of diagnosis and repair of firmware is not comprehensive so I certainly could be missing something :-)

--

[IT LAND]

Hi Chris,

I assume during hot swap you did the standard procedure of turn motor of and after the swap motor on.

Also before the swap read FW modules from the healthy drive.

Than do the swap turn the motor on and tried to read the module with FW tools like PC3000, DFL etc.

If you still had clicks than its probably the heads.

If you can read the modules, than check which ones are faulty and replace them from a donor unless they are unique like translator etc.

Cheers,

Oded 

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[C P]

Oded,

I did the motor off - swap - motor on, but I don't have the tools to read FW modules.  Am I incorrect to think that if the customer PCB functions perfectly on several donors, then the customer FW modules are OK ?

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[IT LAND]

Hi Chris,

Unfortunately that is a wrong assumption mate.

The data on the PCB ROM is just few modules of the FW which are part of the initialization process.

The rest of the firmware is located on the platters and you need firmware tools in order to try and read them and check if they are corrupted or not.

It is still possible that it is heads issues with yours but also high possibility that this is FW issue.

It is possible that the translator module is bad etc.

Cheers,

Oded 

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[C P]

Got it, understand.  But wouldn't a hot swap using a donor drive with the customer controller board and a head swap, get around this problem ?

I really need to get a PC-3000 AND a better understanding :-(

Thanks again for the great help and insight :-)

Chris

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[IT LAND]

Hi Chris,

It won't as it reads the unique drive translator of the platters.

But without FW tools its not possible, either PC3000 or SD Doctor or DFL, Atola etc..

Cheers,

Oded