Revive a 5v HD that was fed 12v?

Grayscale · 09-10-2004, 04:15 PM

Don't ask. I have a little power connector thing i made that allows me to easily unplug my car computer and the 5v out from carputer that goes to the front of the car touched the 12v in which sent 12v to all of my devices that used 5v. I'm not sure what all damage was done but I know i burnt up the 2.5" HD. Anyway to fix it at all?

Anyways I'm very angry right now so if you guys have any suggestions I could use them...

rando · 09-10-2004, 05:34 PM

It depends. Follow the power rail into the circuit board and see where it goes....if you can. There may be a small fusable link on board or even a rectifier (diode) to provide some limited overvolt protection. Look for burned parts and try to replace them. Your other choice might be to fine another defective drive and swap circuit boards.

Grayscale · 09-10-2004, 08:10 PM

its SMD mount and i didn't see any fuses =\. Nor were there burned parts =\. Oh well just got jipped $50 from a local computer store. damn i hate how much local stores mark their stuff up

jcdillin · 09-10-2004, 08:18 PM

Sorry man I think you let the puff of magic smoke out of those componets.

rando · 09-10-2004, 10:03 PM

There are SMD fuses -- though there may not be any on your HD circuit board. Get out your meter or scope and trace the power rail. You'll either find a spot where the power on the supply rail stops (possibly a faulty component) or you'll trace it to the power leads on an IC somewhere. If it makes it all the way to an IC then there is a good chance that those ICs might have been damaged by the overvolt condition.

Another option is to get the drive repaired -- possibly under warranty. Many hard disks have warranties of a year or more.

CHUPACABRA · 09-10-2004, 10:38 PM

What type of hd is it (brand)? If its data loss your worried about you might be able to swap out the controller board.

binary.h4x · 09-10-2004, 10:39 PM

bring it to the meet.

Grayscale · 09-11-2004, 01:38 AM

rofl die binary

Anyhow Its dead, the board aparently was soldered to the pins where it pluggs in and the pins dont come out, so i ended up pulling it apart from them accidentally. also im not worried about data loss. i do however have a 20gb toshiba drive. this one was a 40gb toshiba drive. same thing, diff size, but im afraid to try to take the controller board off and since im not really worried about any of the data lost, i don't know. but if i could upgrade to 40 gigs that would be kinda nice....

anyone know if the firmware would have to be upgraded or anything?

rando: yeah i've seen SMD fuses, and there sure arent any on this thing. all this stuff is too tiny to trace, so guess i just won't worry about it.

binary.h4x · 09-11-2004, 02:16 AM

briiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg ittttttttt

rando · 09-11-2004, 07:01 AM

It's possible, though unlikely, that the controller board between the two drives could be compatible, even without a firmware upgrade. In the old days, I recall the manufacturers would sometimes store firmware type settings on a reserved area of the media. In other words, a new controller wakes up, read the reserved area and notices that it's dealing with 40G worth of storage and everything just works.

On the other hand, you may just end up with two dead drives.