On 4/25/2015 11:50 AM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:

Don't yuo just love that

I have had drives that had been idle for a long time not spin, but I was
able to start them (more than one drive, over time) by mechanical shock.

Method one: Shake the drive vigorously.

Method two: Tap the drive with the head of a screwdriver or some similar
object.

Method three: Bang the drive against a desktop, preferable with a
silicone potholder or something on the desktop as a shock minimizer.

These are methods of desperation, but you could tell that...

I don't think such drastic measures will do me any good if the real
reason is a fried IC board due to an incorrect pinout of that 4-pin
alternate power supply I boughth on ebay and I returned already.

I did some Voltage measurements on this NewerTechnology Universal
adapter and here is what I got on the 4-prong molex connector on both
the 5V and 12 V prongs:

Without connecting it to the HD (no power load):

5.12V and 12.38V

After connecting the power supply to the HD:

4.73V and 13.57V, respectively.

This doesn't make sense. The 12V pin's voltage should also drop under
load, not just the 5V pin's. Even the 5V pin voltage seems to drop too
much IMHO, especially since there is no USB load on it. I assume the 12V
is used to spin the HD platters.

BTW, I was able to measure the voltage under load because I used a
Y-cable extenion for that test.

Next, I think, I'll try to see if I could remove the IC board to see the
component side of it if there is some visible scorching on a component.
I would have done it already if I had the right size torx screw driver
the board is attached to the HD body. Then I might also visit some
eRecycling stores to find the exact same WD HD and cannibalize it for
its circuit board. Fortunately this seems to be a fairly ubiquitous HD
about 10-12 years ago. So maybe I get lucky.
Looks like a fun project, doesn't it? ;-)