On 2018-04-28 05:40, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[snip]
The drive still spins and shows-up in Windows, so it's not a
power-delivery problem. I can swap the ROM chip, provided I am very
very patient with this (I don't have an air gun, so I'd be stuck with
a soldering iron.) If there was no possibility of a failed head then
I'd swap the boards right away...
I'd say it's probably worth - if you're considering this route - getting
the hot-air gun. My last 6 months' employment (with a company which
repaired car electronics; I was mostly on dashboards [the bit behind the
dials - it's a lot of the computing in modern cars]) involved a lot of
replacement of surface-mount devices; the devices (packages) themselves
are surprisingly robust, it's the tracks - and especially pads - on the
board that tend to lift. Especially where it's a pad connected to a
track that only goes under the device.
Yeah, Vanguard says the same thing lol. Guess I'll go get one if I
decide to try to swap PCBs. Still gotta examine the drive's PCB to see
if there is something that's obviously burnt. But I want to call some
places first, see how cheap a quote I can get, see if I can get them to
play nice - i.e. I provide both drives, you swap the heads and the PCB
and ship it back, so how cheap can you make it?
Since the OP is asking about using a recovery lab on his failed drive, I
doubt he has the skills and gear to swap the ROM chip assuming he finds
a donor drive with EXACTLY the same PCB (same minicontroller, same
firmware) and even knows how to identify which is the ROM chip to move.
I have another drive of the same make and model, bought at the same
time. Identifying the chip might be a problem if there's a bunch of
similar chips on the board - the days where I could just look-up a
chip number in TTL books to see what it does are long gone.
Yes, even reading the part number may require optical aid - and it's
highly likely to be a proprietary one anyway, though if you ask (e. g.
here) there's likely to be someone who recognises part of the number.
[]
Yup, I'll need a magnifying glass (besides, nowadays I need one anyway
lol). Hopefully it's readable...
Well, I won't get nowhere if the problem is a failed head; then I'd
I wonder if a failed head could fail in such a way that it damages the
electronics to which it connects. I suspect open-circuit is more likely
than a short, but I don't actually know what the head technology _is_
these days (my mind still visualises some sort of coil - while the
technology still involves magnetism, it can't be _too_ far from that).
Yeah, well, if the failed head has started magnetizing everywhere it
goes, then it's too late now ;-) If it's burnt something on the PCB,
then it will burn it right away again on the replacement PCB. I should
really replace both the head stack and the PCB (then I would not need to
mock around with the calibration chip.) But I've never done that before;
chances are high I can screw something up...
have to swap the head assembly and put the ROM chip back. It's all
kinda risky, those heads are very fragile, which is why I'm looking
for a cheap recovery place. But there's no way I'm paying $2000 just
to get old game ISOs and old documents - that drive has been in my old
Is that what's there? For game ISOs, presumably you could find copies of
the game CDs on ebay? The documents obviously not.
If you hadn't accessed it for 5 years, do you actually need it anyway? I
can see myself still wanting to access it for completeness (and
crossness with myself for not having backed it up), but ...
Yup, haven't touched the stuff in years. I can live without it, but it
has all my saved games (from games I'll never play again lol) and I
don't know what documents (coz I haven't used it in so long.) It's
mostly for completeness that I want it back.
Best Regards,
--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Member
avid-Suzuki-Fdn/EFF/Red+Cross/SPCA/Planetary-Society
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