possible to change HD PCB ?

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:14 am

Hi,
I accidentaly plugged one of my HD's the worng way. As a result, something on the PCB burnt (big black burnt mark). I have an exact same HD that works perfectly well (same brand, same model, all the same).
My question is : Can I change the PCB on the dead HD with the one from the HD that works ?

Thanks for your help.

mentawl · Post by **mentawl** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:53 am

If the boards are identical, down to firmware number, manufacturing location etc, then yes you can change them - make sure all the values on the labels of the drives are the same ,as well as the numbers on the major chips on the PCB.

lm · Post by lm » Sun Sep 27, 2009 11:28 am

All my power connectors are such that "plugging the wrong way" is not really possible.

How did you end up in this situation? It's potentially very dangerous and in a way you were probably lucky to only blow that circuit and not more.

If your PSU connectors are like that, the manufacturer should maybe even recall a product line.

barophobia · Post by **barophobia** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:43 pm

Yes you can if they are the same exact model as you stated

But then again there might be some short on the drive that will burn your working PCB.

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:03 am

Hi all,
Thanks for your input !
I haven't had time to check all the references on the board. I'm just going to look at the working PCB and see what burnt. If it's just one of those 0 Ohm resistors, I'm going to solder a piece of wire and see if it works. If it's something else, I'll try switching the boards if the references match.
I've tried looking for the boards layout schemes but no luck...

As to how I ended up with that problem : the HDs are 2.5 inches IDE drives so I have to use an adaptor to plug the regular IDE cable (50 pins ?) to the HDs (44 pins ?). The adaptor doesn't have the normal anti-screw-up thing on it so when I plugged the drive back in (yearly case cleanup), I screwed up...

I'll post the results when I've done my testing.

lm · Post by lm » Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:28 am

Oh, so it was the data cable instead of the power cable... I wonder if you fried anything on the mobo?

Otter · Post by **Otter** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:17 pm

frenchie wrote: As to how I ended up with that problem : the HDs are 2.5 inches IDE drives so I have to use an adaptor to plug the regular IDE cable (50 pins ?) to the HDs (44 pins ?). The adaptor doesn't have the normal anti-screw-up thing on it so when I plugged the drive back in (yearly case cleanup), I screwed up...

Ugh. Whether you can get your data off that drive, ditch that @#&!ing adapter . If you keep it, it will be a disaster waiting to happen (again). If you can't find a sane replacement, you could epoxy on some bits of plastic to form your own anti-screw-up thing.

Good luck with the board swap!

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:54 pm

Yeah, I already filled up the gap with a small piece of plastic superglued in the hole. It ain't happening again.

Doing a bit more testing before work. Will keep you posted.

@lm : the PATA connector on the board still works. I connected a CD player and booted from a linux CD. Worked like a charm.