HDD problems with A1200

[BarryB]

I've got a Seagate ST9300AG HDD in my A1200 and it's suddenly gone 'faulty'. It won't spin up unless you really bend/twist the IDE cable and when it does spin up it won't boot? I've ordered a new 44pin IDE cable from Amigakit just so I can eliminate the cable, but has anyone else had one of these go faulty?

I did get it to boot once, I had the cover off my A1200 and the keyboard just resting on the lower case so I could access the HDD, but accidently nudged the keyboard onto the drive bracket and it stopped spinning? Seems once it's spinning any small movement of the IDE cable stops it?

I even took the IDE cable apart, swapped the connectors around and clipped them back in place and crimped them down but it still doesn't spin up unless you do multiple twists/bends on the cable. I'm just wondering if the connector is just too loose on the pins and not really connecting, hopefully the new cable will work.

[Loedown]

The clue is that by bending and twisting the cable, you most likely have one of the individual filaments in the ribbon cable going open circuit and that's why it may spin up but not boot, it's losing power.

[BarryB]

Aye, that's why I've ordered another cable.

Took the board off the drive and looked at the solder joints where they attach to the board and couldn't see any breaks so with any luck a new cable will sort it.

[BarryB]

Got the cable today, didn't work So it's not the cable that's faulty!!

Took the controller board off the drive again and looked at the soldering a bit more closely under a magnifier and found some of the pins on the connector have lifted off the solder on the PCB This is why when I bend/twist the cable and the drive spins up it's the loose pins on the board contacting and making the drive spin that makes it look like it's the cable that's broke!!

This now means me getting out my soldering iron with a pointed bit and seeing if I can remelt the solder on any pins that have become loose and resolder them to the board!! Not looking forward to this but it's the only way to revive my drive and salvage the data on it

[BarryB]

Well, the patient is off the operating table and is back to work (bench) already

Applied a liberal application of FLUXITE on all 44 pins on the PCB then held the soldering iron on each pin just long enough for the solder to melt and (with the help of the FLUXITE) stick back to the PCB track.

I think there was about 7 - 8 pins that had come loose, I just pushed each of them to one side with a small flat bladed screwdriver and noted which pins actually moved. Can't say I've ever seen this problem before, usually soldered pins stay soldered, can't say my A1200 has any bad solder joints as it's still in working order. At least all 44 pins are now resoldered to the PCB and the drive is up and running, took a few minutes to actually get to workbench but I guess it must have been doing the Amiga version of 'chkdsk'.

So if anyone has a dead hard drive, just take off the controller board and see if any pins on the connector have physically become detached from the solder, you never know!!

[johnim]

great news mate did you take any pictures before/after

[BarryB]

No, never thought about pictures, DOH!

I've taken some 'after' pictures so you can see what I'm waffling on about:

Operating Table with Patient + Fluxite


Closeup of PCB and the Pins


The whole row of pins (hopefully now soldered down!)


So, there you go! I was sober this time which meant I got the job done right!! Actually, this calls for a celebration doesn't it

Cheers!!

[johnim]

yea great job mate thanks for piccys

[BarryB]

No prob, should have took some before I started, note to self!!

I also ran DiskSalv 2 in repair mode on both partitions DH0/DH1 and no errors were found. So I guess this drive is a resilient little bugger.

[prowler]

Well done, BarryB, for producing an interesting and informative thread.

I have often heard of pins breaking or working loose from the motherboard header, but not from the HDD PCB, so I would never have guessed that was where the problem would turn out to be!

[Paul_s]

I had a really old 3.5" Connor HDD in a 2000 and the 4-pin molex connector for the main power input completely broke off from the pcb - not a common fault but it does happen

[prowler]

Hmm... I had the Molex connector pins break away from an old 3½-inch Seagate SCSI HDD when I removed the PSU connector from it and the pins had got stuck in the socket.

I pinched one from an old HDD which had failed, but fitted it in the Seagate upside down. There was a loud bang when I restarted the PC, ...and the dreaded smell of burning silicon.

[cosmicfrog]

opps

[BarryB]

I've only seen an old ATX motherboard connector weld iteself into the socket on an aMD board! This little episode goes to show, expect the unexpected!!

But, I now have another problem, seems the ribbon cable from my keyboard has developed a 'fault' as the QWERTY keys sometimes work and wiggling the ribbon cable cures it until it happens again Will the problems never stop? I don't suppose anyone has fixed a keyboard ribbon cable have they?

[prowler]

Originally Posted by BarryB

I don't suppose anyone has fixed a keyboard ribbon cable have they?

It's funny you should ask that.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=51596

[BarryB]

Neat! Cheers prowler

I'll give that a try tomorrow, only problem I can see is if the break is too far up the ribbon!

[prowler]

I don't think the problem is generally caused by a break in the cable, but by the conductive material that makes contact with the motherboard socket wearing away.

Another way of solving the problem is by adding a coat of conductive paint, such as Liquid Silver over the exposed ends of the cable's conductors.

So it might be wise to check the continuity of the cable with a multimeter (if you have one) before you attempt to cut it back.

[BarryB]

Jeez! You go to bed late like me

Right, I'll have a look at the end of the ribbon and see what condition it's in and I'll test it with a multimeter, I have two, digital and analog but I like the analog one cos I like to see the needle moving

Here's my trusty Multimeter, given me years of service!!

[FOL]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Jeez! You go to bed late like me

Right, I'll have a look at the end of the ribbon and see what condition it's in and I'll test it with a multimeter, I have two, digital and analog but I like the analog one cos I like to see the needle moving

Here's my trusty Multimeter, given me years of service!!

Analogue rules, . Its what I was taught on, lol.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by BarryB

I like the analog one cos I like to see the needle moving

That's what all real sparkies say!

[Loedown]

Originally Posted by FOL

Analogue rules, . Its what I was taught on, lol.

I'll trade your analog for a Fluke Autorange any day.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Loedown

I'll trade your analog for a Fluke Autorange any day.

Bah, buts its cool.

Fluke are good too. I bought one as an apprentice 10 Years ago, still have it to this day, .

[BarryB]

I think my repair was a Fluke too

Here's my Digital Meter:


Still got the box (although it's seen better days) but I prefer the Analogue (spelt it correctly this time) meter to the digital!! Now if we could just mod the LCD display with funky coloured LED's!!

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by prowler

It's funny you should ask that.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=51596

Right, looked at that thread and tried scratching off the plastic but it's too tough and I ended up scratching off part off the track too!! I did find that sliding a thin sharp knife (scalpel) under the edge of the plastic and lifting it up I could gently 'peel' back the tough plastic and the sticky plastic and expose the tracks without having to scratch any plastic off!

So now my keyboard actually works, well, all bar the Caps Lock light which hasn't worked for ages, any fix for that per chance?

[BarryB]

I think my HDD has finally died

Have managed to reformat it and install PDS\3 onto it, created DH0: (50mb) and DH1: (200mb) and got OS3.9 installed then when I turned it on again the drive made a loud scraping/whining noise which gradually subsided until it made it's usual noise but from then on I constantly get this error:



Now the drive just spins up and just displays the above error Think it's time to either get an IDE CF solution or another 2.5" HDD, but what do you gurus recommend?

[prowler]

I'd recommend a 4GB SanDisk CF card for best compatibility, but getting a compatible adapter can be a bit hit and miss.

Personally, I prefer using 2½-inch laptop hard drives between 1GB and 4GB in my A1200s. My local Computer Exchange (CeX) usually have them in stock at very reasonable prices second-hand. IBM drives in particular are very reliable.

[BarryB]

Right, I think we have some old 40GB IDE HDDs in some scrap laptops where I work, will they be useable if formatted to 4GB or less? Which is actually faster though CF or HDD

[BarryB]

Ordered a CF > 44Pin IDE adaptor off ebay, just need to get Sandisk CF card!!

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by BarryB

So now my keyboard actually works, well, all bar the Caps Lock light which hasn't worked for ages, any fix for that per chance?

yes there is, just pop out to a electrical shop and buy a 3mm led.

then use a type 0 posidrive, to remove the metal plate and pop out the led (it just sits in a slot)bend the legs on the led in the same place and pop it back in put all the screws back in the keyboard, and voila


EDIT: at this point you can get any colour you like the window on the caps lock is clear (if you so wish)

[BarryB]

Great tip Roy I might even have some of them in my stash of old components I've had for 30 years or more!! Due the Teacher strike tomorrow I'll have time to root through the old junk or pop out and get one.

[roy bates]

no probs.

[BarryB]

BTW, pulled on old Hitach 30GB HDD from a scrap laptop at work, it's now formatted with PDS\3 and 2 x 512mb partitions, don't really need anything bigger yet. Next task is installing OS3.9

[BarryB]

errr.. Roy, I took my keyboard apart like you said but I don't have an LED in my keyboard at all??? There is the rectangular space where the conductive rubber (i think) goes that makes the LED light up and the hole for the LED is EMPTY!!! I know I had a green LED in there not long ago, so where the feck has it gone?

I've also now got OS3.9 installed, after setting MaxTransfer to 0x1fe00 because LoadWB kept throwing up Software Failure messages forcing a re-install!! The HDD is also silent, apart from the occasional fluttering noise it makes, and access is not bad! Got EasyNet installed but the damn thing keeps throwing up a "Socket access from XXX denied! Access Denied!" message when trying to connect to my shared folder on my PC, even though nothing has changed on the PC side Rebooted the router but same issue

Looking at my aging CM8833-II, I need a better screen and probably a graphics card to play at higher resolutions, and a flicker fixer/scan doubler, and a Tower to put it all in and probably a bank loan

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by BarryB

errr.. Roy, I took my keyboard apart like you said but I don't have an LED in my keyboard at all??? There is the rectangular space where the conductive rubber (i think) goes that makes the LED light up and the hole for the LED is EMPTY!!! I know I had a green LED in there not long ago, so where the feck has it gone?

wow,how does an led go missing?!?,anyway,its not really a problem here"s what you do,take out the conductive rubber.

get the led and line it up with the window,then with a pair of pliers bend the pins through 90 degrees(there should be two slots in the black plastic for guides)slip the conductive rubber back on,and snip the legs on the led to size,and re-assemble(make sure you have the anode and cathode in the right place,and the right way round, or it wont light up)
and thats it done.

[BarryB]

Roy, probably wasn't clear in my description but the LED and RUBBER are both missing!! The LED can be replaced but not sure where to get the rubber bit? Totally confused how this has happened as I've never had the keyboard apart except for last night and it's always been in my room??

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Roy, probably wasn't clear in my description but the LED and RUBBER are both missing!! The LED can be replaced but not sure where to get the rubber bit? Totally confused how this has happened as I've never had the keyboard apart except for last night and it's always been in my room??

ahh,i see.you wont need the rubber at all, just put some foam pad behind it so it pushes it against the contacts.

[BarryB]

Roy never thought about that. Still need an LED though, looked through all my bits and bobs and no small LED What voltage are these LED's as browsing Rapid Online I can see 5v and 12v?

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Roy never thought about that. Still need an LED though, looked through all my bits and bobs and no small LED What voltage are these LED's as browsing Rapid Online I can see 5v and 12v?

these are standard 3mm round led's i think, there 2.5-3volt parts,you can get them from maplins.there very cheap.


EDIT:if you cant find any,ive two you can have just send me a pm,with your address and there your's

[BarryB]

Shoot, just ordered a green one from Rapid, thought they migt have been the lower voltage so jumped the gun. Thanks for the offer though Roy

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Shoot, just ordered a green one from Rapid, thought they migt have been the lower voltage so jumped the gun. Thanks for the offer though Roy

no probs,