ST2000DM001 FW:CC43 - BSY, No terminal access

[drmilos]

Another Seagate with the problem similar as described in numerous posts. Spins up OK, sounds OK and stays busy. No terminal access. This one is different to others as there are no terminal messages at all, only

Boot 0x40M
Spin Up
Trans.

Spin Up
SpinOK
(P) SATA Reset

and it stays busy.

I can see quite a few posts regarding similar problems with this Seagate series but not a single solution. Anybody successful with this?

[AJ2008]

Terminal looks normal to me. did you leave it for some time to check if it shows ready eventually?

[drmilos]

Two hours later, still BSY, still spinning, terminal output not changed. Faulty PCB perhaps?

[drmilos]

Working on this one again, replaced PCB, same symptoms so I gather PCB is OK. I have tried to isolate spindle contacts, this is terminal output:

Boot 0x40M
Spin Up
FAIL Servo Op=0100 Resp=0003
0100 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
ResponseFrame 1A80 006F 06CB 4500 0008 0000 0000 0000 0D1A 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 FFF5 F4D6 5AC2 A4F8 FEFC 7322 7997 4367 32FB BF9B 0000 0029 0000 0000 001A 0002 0010
FAIL Servo Op=0100 Resp=0003
0100 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
ResponseFrame 1AC0 006F 06CB 4580 0008 0000 0000 0000 0D01 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 FFF5 F4D6 5AC2 A4F8 FEFC 7322 7997 4367 32FB BF9B 0000 0029 0000 0000 001A 0002 0000

After this, drive shows DRD/DSC but still no terminal access. Drive ID reads correct Model, S/N, F/W and capacity 3.86GB. It does not spin when I remove insulator from spindle contacts. Could it be a bad head?

[NOOOOR]

did you try to short the tow pins
u can upload photo

[drmilos]

I have not tried to short the pins, not sure which pins so better not to fry the board or preamp, here are the photos, if someone can identify which pins to short it would be much appreciated.

[dmarques]

Have you checked Seagate F3 manual?
Based on that logic you can find the short points for that drive.

[drmilos]

I have identified these three points, the outer two lead to the connector and CPU and there is 14.6 kOhm resistance betweem them, possibly read channel for shorting. Not sure about the one in the middle, the only reason I tried that one is the proximity to the other two.

I have tried every combination of the three, no joy. When I short the one closer to the CPU with the one in the middle the spindle stops, I get DRD/DSC but still no terminal access.

There are other posts where people ask for solution for STXXXXDMYYY series, I couldn't see anyone sharing a solution.

[dmarques]

Can you please post a high res picture here?

[drmilos]

Here is the detail of PCB with CPU and connector, red point is connected with red pad and blue with blue.

[Nick_TS]

Hello,

There is a method you should follow for getting to terminal with shorting.
The contacts must be identified properly.
On the most drives reading channel line is crossed with an element,
so it is easy to find two lines that go from pads to CPU on your drive board.
You should short the contacts with a pincers when holding a paperclip with it.
Also, the moment to short is before 2nd recalibration.
When shorted properly, drive will start to click and then it will stop.
At the same time press ctrl-z within terminal window and check if T> is there.

[drmilos]

OK, there are four pads on the connector which are connected to the CPU. The red and blue one will not get the drive knocking, those must be the write channel. The two green ones are the read channel, I believe.

When I short these two green after the first Spin Up message in the terminal window, drive knocks twice, motor stops, terminal output is exactly the same as with insulated spindle contacts (see my post of Aug 25) and the result is the same: DRD/DSC and no terminal access.

When I short these two a bit later, after 2nd Spin Up message on the terminal, I get numerous messages about preamp failure and the motor does not stop.

PCB is OK as I'm doing all this with a new PCB.

And for the record, PCB is 100687658 REV C

As always, I'm not keen on head replacement but could it be a bad head?

[Jar]

You need to use original PCB. Use a scope to make sure you are shorting the right points. I would try the two pads below the pad with the blue circle. I am not saying that these are correct ones for sure, but they are suspect. If you follow these traces, it runs below the controller and to the NANYA chip, but has a resistor in-between the traces. As Dimitry stated; this is typical for the read pads.

[drmilos]

Problem solved! I would like to share the method with other forum members but quite frankly I'm not sure what I've done to make it work.

I have tried the other two pads as Jar suggested - they are not connected to resistor near NANYA chip - so that didn't work. I could not find which pads are connected to that resistor so I almost gave up.

Then I loosened the three screws (removed the center one) at the top edge, near the motor connector and tried to disconnect the motor while the drive is initializing. The idea was if I need to break the read channel during spin up, I may as well try to break it on that side i.e. stop the motor. That approach in quite a few tries resulted in pretty much the same terminal output as with insulated motor contacts.

In one particular try, though, I did get the terminal message like 'Updated capacity saved' or similar - sorry that I did not save terminal output to file. After the next reset nothing new happened.

I almost gave up again and I updated utility software (completely unrelated, I believe).

I started the drive again, it calibrated OK and I did get terminal prompt.

Cleared SMART and P-List, restarted and cloned the drive without a glitch.

I believe it happened when I got that 'Updated capacity saved' message, I did get there while playing with motor contacts during calibration but I don't think I'd be able to do it again (at least not the same way).

The only lesson I can share is 'Never give up, never surrender', as always.

Thank you to all guys that replied to this post, you kept me trying and finally succeeding.

[Arthur]

I did get there while playing with motor contacts during calibration

That's a dangerous thing to do. You could burn the motor controller.

The only lesson I can share is 'Never give up, never surrender', as always.

I agree on that one!