Harddrive repair

last night
i replaced the main drive on a friend's machine
and preformed a clean install of XP.

to be on the safe side i disconnected the auxiliary drives
and hooked them back up after the installtion was complete...
unfortunately the machine did not detect one of the auxiliary drives!

i removed it from the machine and inspected the electronics carefully with a
magnifying glass and discovered that one end of a smt capacitor was no
longer
soldered to the board...it was raised slightly!

after very carfully resoldering it with my "pencil" soldering iron...
to my amazement the thing worked...(though i don't know how well i soldered
it)

although i plan to replace the drive with a new one...
i'm wondering if i might have bumped the drive...even though nothing
was mounted near it...
what are the chances that it could have been a poor solder joint from the
factory?

i always take a lot of care when i work on machines...
i can't see how i could have bumped it ...but it sure looks like i must
have.

what i'd like to do is find some type of soldering iron specifically
designed
for soldering smt's so i can use the drive as a spare...

has any one else ever managed to 'repair' a harddrive?

"philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:7qmdna_uUJalYq_fRVn-3w@athenet.net...
> last night
> i replaced the main drive on a friend's machine
> and preformed a clean install of XP.
>
> to be on the safe side i disconnected the auxiliary drives
> and hooked them back up after the installtion was complete...
> unfortunately the machine did not detect one of the auxiliary drives!
>
> i removed it from the machine and inspected the electronics carefully with
> a
> magnifying glass and discovered that one end of a smt capacitor was no
> longer
> soldered to the board...it was raised slightly!
>
> after very carfully resoldering it with my "pencil" soldering iron...
> to my amazement the thing worked...(though i don't know how well i
> soldered it)
>
> although i plan to replace the drive with a new one...
> i'm wondering if i might have bumped the drive...even though nothing
> was mounted near it...
> what are the chances that it could have been a poor solder joint from the
> factory?
>
> i always take a lot of care when i work on machines...
> i can't see how i could have bumped it ...but it sure looks like i must
> have.
>
> what i'd like to do is find some type of soldering iron specifically
> designed
> for soldering smt's so i can use the drive as a spare...
>
> has any one else ever managed to 'repair' a harddrive?
>

Yes we have repaired many, we use Weller WS81 temperature controlled pencil
irons and (LMP) Low Melting Point solder so nothing else is disturbed by
the heat.














--
Chris
Technical director CKCCOMPUSCRIPT
Apple Computers, Intel, Roland audio, ATI, Microsoft, Sun Solaris, Cisco and
Silicone Graphics.
Wholesale distributor and specialist audio visual computers and servers
FREE SUPPORT @,
http://www.ckccomp.plus.com/site/page.HTM
ckccomp25@hotmail.com

"Chris" <chris@ckccomp.plus.com> wrote in message
news:42331064$0$43001$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...
>
> "philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:7qmdna_uUJalYq_fRVn-3w@athenet.net...
>> last night
>> i replaced the main drive on a friend's machine
>> and preformed a clean install of XP.
>>
>> to be on the safe side i disconnected the auxiliary drives
>> and hooked them back up after the installtion was complete...
>> unfortunately the machine did not detect one of the auxiliary drives!
>>
>> i removed it from the machine and inspected the electronics carefully
>> with a
>> magnifying glass and discovered that one end of a smt capacitor was no
>> longer
>> soldered to the board...it was raised slightly!
>>
>> after very carfully resoldering it with my "pencil" soldering iron...
>> to my amazement the thing worked...(though i don't know how well i
>> soldered it)
>>
>> although i plan to replace the drive with a new one...
>> i'm wondering if i might have bumped the drive...even though nothing
>> was mounted near it...
>> what are the chances that it could have been a poor solder joint from the
>> factory?
>>
>> i always take a lot of care when i work on machines...
>> i can't see how i could have bumped it ...but it sure looks like i must
>> have.
>>
>> what i'd like to do is find some type of soldering iron specifically
>> designed
>> for soldering smt's so i can use the drive as a spare...
>>
>> has any one else ever managed to 'repair' a harddrive?
>>
>
> Yes we have repaired many, we use Weller WS81 temperature controlled
> pencil irons and (LMP) Low Melting Point solder so nothing else is
> disturbed by the heat.
>

thanks for the info...
i used repair circuit boards...but that was 20 years ago...
so even though i have worked on a few smt's...they were either
a big bigger back then or mybe just my eyes were better!
anyway...i was sure nervous working on that thing...
but figure that if i can get a good solder joint...
then (at least for my own use) i can keep using that drive around the shop