Maxtor Fireball 3 PCB needed.

[Hman]

Hi, I've got a Maxtor Fireball 3 40GB HDD off of which I need to retrieve some data, but the hard drive's controller circuitry seems to be dead. Does anyone have one of these old drives with a pcb I can use?

[Prime]

i've got a fireball on my desk somewhere, but I think it predates the maxtor take over

[Hman]

Well the takeover would be nice if it helped.

[THE_STIG]

I have a Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 8(also 40Gb) and a 20gb Fireball.

post some pics of the PCB so I can see if the Diamond Max uses the same PCB as the Fireball 3. BTW I have found that the Diode on the 12v input is what causes most problems......

[Hman]

For the best chance that a swap works the PCB must come from a 40GB Fireball3, and more or less the same batch.

But thanks for that tip on the diode, I'll check it out.

[THE_STIG]

For the best chance that a swap works the PCB must come from a 40GB Fireball3, and more or less the same batch.

But thanks for that tip on the diode, I'll check it out.

So far I have rescued 4 HDD's by replacing that diode. I have done some more searching through the pile of PC's I have and found a Fireball 3 40gb. When was your fireball 3 made, and what are the serial numbers?

[Hman]

S/N 2F040J0310613

DOM 08 Jan 2003

[THE_STIG]

My drive has a DOM date of 2 Dec 2003

and the S/N 2F04L0710613 so not sure if this PCB will work as they were produced 11months apart

edit: 2E04L0710613. thought that was an F as there is a small scratch on that part of the drive making it hard to read the first 2 letters

[Hman]

It might be worth a try, how much would I owe you to get the pcb?

[THE_STIG]

Have you tried the diode yet?

I have been doing some searching and found that the following parts must be the same: 2F040J0310613

The second part of that is fine but then mine has 2E and yours has 2F at the beginning, but i will do some more searching to see if this PCB will work .

BTW what does the drive do when you connect it up, does it spin at all or does it just trip the PSU?

[Hman]

Not yet, still have to take it home so I can use my equipment.

Spins up, no strange noises. Was working perfectly the day before, with no SMART alerts. Now the bios doesn't detect the drive, as if it's not even plugged in. HDD light comes on as would happen with drives not connected properly.

Symptoms are the same when plugged into another pc, and a replacement drive works in the pc where the Maxtor came from.

[THE_STIG]

If somehow the IDE connector on the drive got damaged then that would happen but I dont see how that would suddenly fall apart, still try checking if all the pins are connected to the PCB properly. Also look for any strange black marks on the chips(particularly that small square one near the power connector) and if any of them get abnormally hot

Unfortunately it does look like something a little more serious than that diode has blown .

//Edit: This is where I found that info about the serial numbers