[Seagate 7200.12 stopped]

Simpler, connect the hard disk to a PC power supply (one with protection from short circuits).

Switch it on.

Does it automatically and immediately shuts down itself?

Yes=one (or both ) the TVS diodes are shorted

No= The TVS diodes are not shorted

No tested it again with a PS that just has fans hooked up to it and it starts fine.

I want to try swapping it with another seagate board i have that used to start it

up but it gave a 0 or 8 mb size.

Will let you know how that turns out.

Thanks for the help.

Tested the other pcb from a working drive, also a seagate different size drives but same family.

Thank goodness it spun up the drive so i am happy no mechanical parts seem to be broken.

How would i identify what is bad on the pcb? Just downloaded a copy of "Tutorial - Linear and Switchmode Regulators used in HDDs by fzabkar"

and will be reading that tonight for some direction.

[Seagate 7200.11 fail & fine dataset]

"If you are doing this "Commercially" or "Professionally", you might consider getting a PC-3000 and a subscription for it (or a similar tool/software/support)."

how much does something like this cost? I'm guessing it's not worth it to fix a couple of drives.

"Paradoxically , the refurbished 7200.11 might be (IF they belong to those that were simply bricked by the original firmware issue) more reliable then refurbished disks from other manufacturers as they have anyway never been opened. "

Very good point!!!

"Very rarely you can talk the Seagate support into allowing a free data recovery at their i365 subsidiary, and in any case it takes time and there is the big risk (not to be underestimated) of freight to and from them (lost items, stolen or damaged ones do happen), so even when "total" data recovery is possible and "free" it is risky."

How would one go about this<G>

"Otherwise a typical data recovery carried by a Pro goes into the several hundreds of dollars/euros, no matter if it happens to be a five minutes job. (though there are of course several very reliable and correct data recovery firms, there are also unfortunately a number of charlatans and let's say "less than 100% transparent approaches/procedures")."

"jaclaz"

That's the real part I don't get. If it's a 5 or even 15 minute job when you don't need to open the drive (no need for a clean room), why don't they charge less? I even wrote some companies telling them

it's just a fw fix and they still would only give a full data recovery price or wanted to check the drive first but in all cases the cheapest I found from one of the main companies was $600. There were other lower prices but one has to wonder about them. Besides I heard, can't remember where, that when they give you a quote they have already figured out how to recover the data or have recovered it already.

So I don't get why the main DR companies don't give customers a break when they don't have to use their clean room. I don't think i would have tried to DIY if the prices were more reasonable. Now i know i am gonna be flamed, by the DR people, for that reasonable and i agree with their argument about paying a ton for a good heart surgeon vs. a bad one. But I am not talking about heart surgery, a firmware fix that many DIY'ers have done sucessfully is more like a flu shot! They are so cheap that some years I get two just to make sure. I'm kidding I hate shots, I also hate trying to fix my drives fw but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna get/try it.

Good luck to everyone that tries this and let me just point out two things.

1) when your pcb is not connected to your hd completely that excess electricity will eventually go somewhere you don't want it. Try to fix your drive

on the first 1-3 shots. I think it was on my 8 th try that I messed up

2) On the 7200.12 at least there could be other problems in the firmware and/or drive that won't be fixed by the "BSY" or "LBA" fixes.

I am still working on mine, over a month now, and have over 15 pages of notes from forums and websites so don't give up just heed some of the warnings.

Wow that was long and I had just planned on commenting on jclaz's comment about seagate refurnished drives possibly being better than others which I

think is 100% on point hence the reason I just paraphrased it.

[Seagate 7200.12 stopped]

Simpler, connect the hard disk to a PC power supply (one with protection from short circuits).

Switch it on.

Does it automatically and immediately shuts down itself?

Yes=one (or both ) the TVS diodes are shorted

No= The TVS diodes are not shorted

No tested it again with a PS that just has fans hooked up to it and it starts fine.

I want to try swapping it with another seagate board i have that used to start it

up but it gave a 0 or 8 mb size.

Will let you know how that turns out.

Thanks for the help.

[Seagate 7200.12 stopped]

Thanks for the reply.

I think I have been chasing too many "wrong goose."

So by the numbers I posted can you tell if the TVS is shorted?

"A drive not spinning is more likely to be an issue with the spindle bearing itself (but you had it spinning before) with contacts to the motor (but I guess that by now you have thoriughfully cleaned and checked them) or - as you fear - another component in the "motor driving electronics" that has blown up (current return, overcurrent due to poor contacts, etc.)."

Yes it used to spin up and I did read and follow the posts on cleaning the contacts. Would it be worth removing the TVS before I send the board out for PCB and ROM swap. Notice I said send because I could remove the little ROM chip but I would never be able to get it back on<G>

Thanks again!

[Seagate 7200.12 stopped]

Hello and thanks for all the help you have already been. I have

been studying the posts and learned a ton but I have a few

questions before I go soldering my drives PCB.

I have a seagate 7200.12 model ST7350528as, I like this model

number, it fits seagate for totally screwing their customers and

not even getting it completely fixed in the next series.

The drive has the firmware bug. Yes, I did part of the procedure

for 7200.11 drives and then changed what other 7200.12 users

suggested.

I had to try a couple of times before it saved everything and

exited.

Problem is the drive won't spin up. I read another post where they

mentioned that since the board isn't fully connected to the drive

there is excess electricity flying around. I think with how many

times I tried to do this I shorted something or I pushed it to the

limit. I didn't drop any screws on the board or anything like

that.

Now, after finding tons of stuff on the net, I am trying to test

the tvs diodes.

I am uploading a picture of my board. It has two shock sensors.

Can you test those?

Here are my results from testing the tvs diodes, the ones with the

red arrow under them. I used two digital voltmeters and one analog

volt meter. I looked on the board but could not tell which side

was the anode or cathode. I will list the results as R(red) lead

to the left side and B(black) lead to the right side of the diode.

B R would be when I switch the leads.

Digital Meter (both digital meters had similar results)

TVS 1 (diode setting) TVS 2

R-B 448 R-B 709

B-R pops up to 1400 then B-R 1 (a few times

goes straight to 1. it would pop to

1800 then go to 1)

Annalog Meter (this is where I get confused bec it's backwards and

I don't know the scale. I did zero the meter.

I have pics drawn but can't duplicate them so I will just give the

numbers and describe the position. If I get this right 0 on this

meter is to the right and the numbers get bigger as it moves to the

left.

TVS 1 @ x10 TVS 2

R-B needle moved up a R-B nada, didn't move

little around 500

B-R moved to four B-R moved to 9

TVS 1 @ x1k TVS 2

R-B shoots up to 10 R-B goes to 10 then drops to

then goes to 20 100

B-R moves to 3 stays B-R goes to 6 and stays

Digial Meter @ 200ohms

TVS 1 TVS 2

R-B 462 pops up then 1 R-B 960 pops up then goes to 1

B-R Stays at 1 B-R moves to 6 and stays

Can someone tell me if either of these are bad? If not what else

can I check. Thanks in advance for your assistance.