Fried Phillips chip on my Quantum Fireball lct 08 26 Gb drive

[HawkMan98]

Hi,
My daughter's computer's boot drive has stopped working. It
is a Quantum Fireball lct 08 26 Gb drive, part number LA26A011 Rev
01-A. The Phillips chip on the PCB has a corner that is charred. The
drive, when cold, will spin up and will be recognized by the BIOS, but
while I am holding the drive and before boot up, I can feel the heads
park themselves, then the drive spins down and no longer is
recognized. The LED on the PCB flashes ten times then pauses then
flashes ten more times, ad infinitum. I want to swap the PCB for one
that works, but I have been unable to find an exact match anywhere.
Is it possible to swap the PCB for one from any Quantum Fireball lct
08 drive, not just the 26 Gb drive? I can find plenty of other size
drives, but I don't want to waste money if those are incompatible.
The PCB is easily removed, being electrically connected to the drive
by only four pins. Any help would be appreciated.

HawkMan98

 

[SpaceButler]

Hi,
My daughter's computer's boot drive has stopped working. It
is a Quantum Fireball lct 08 26 Gb drive, part number LA26A011 Rev
01-A. The Phillips chip on the PCB has a corner that is charred. The
drive, when cold, will spin up and will be recognized by the BIOS, but
while I am holding the drive and before boot up, I can feel the heads
park themselves, then the drive spins down and no longer is
recognized. The LED on the PCB flashes ten times then pauses then
flashes ten more times, ad infinitum. I want to swap the PCB for one
that works, but I have been unable to find an exact match anywhere.
Is it possible to swap the PCB for one from any Quantum Fireball lct
08 drive, not just the 26 Gb drive? I can find plenty of other size
drives, but I don't want to waste money if those are incompatible.
The PCB is easily removed, being electrically connected to the drive
by only four pins. Any help would be appreciated.

HawkMan98

The same Phillips chip burns out on other controllers. I've swapped
controllers on the 10ct series drives. But they only last 5 or 6 hours max
- just long enough to copy off the data. After that the controller tends
to burn out again.

Check the Quantum specs at Maxtor. Your controller needs to be another
lct08, size shouldn't matter. I've used controllers from 5GB drives on
20GB ones. If the data is valuable enough to spend $70 on a used drive
just for the controller, give it a try. But remember, you're taking a
chance on it working to start with and it won't last. You still need a new
drive.

 

[HawkMan98]

The same Phillips chip burns out on other controllers. I've swapped
controllers on the 10ct series drives. But they only last 5 or 6 hours max
- just long enough to copy off the data. After that the controller tends
to burn out again.

Check the Quantum specs at Maxtor. Your controller needs to be another
lct08, size shouldn't matter. I've used controllers from 5GB drives on
20GB ones. If the data is valuable enough to spend $70 on a used drive
just for the controller, give it a try. But remember, you're taking a
chance on it working to start with and it won't last. You still need a new
drive.

I'm attempting to get a drive from eBay that has the same electronics
(lct 08). I will post the results of my repair attempt. Thank you
for your reply.

HawkMan98

 

[HawkMan98]

Hi,
My daughter's computer's boot drive has stopped working. It
is a Quantum Fireball lct 08 26 Gb drive, part number LA26A011 Rev
01-A. The Phillips chip on the PCB has a corner that is charred. The
drive, when cold, will spin up and will be recognized by the BIOS, but
while I am holding the drive and before boot up, I can feel the heads
park themselves, then the drive spins down and no longer is
recognized. The LED on the PCB flashes ten times then pauses then
flashes ten more times, ad infinitum. I want to swap the PCB for one
that works, but I have been unable to find an exact match anywhere.
Is it possible to swap the PCB for one from any Quantum Fireball lct
08 drive, not just the 26 Gb drive? I can find plenty of other size
drives, but I don't want to waste money if those are incompatible.
The PCB is easily removed, being electrically connected to the drive
by only four pins. Any help would be appreciated.

HawkMan98

I solved my hard drive problem. I bought a 4.3 Gb hard drive that has
the exact same circuit board (lct 08) from eBay, put that circuit
board on the dead drive, and was able to copy ALL data to a new drive.
That new drive is now running in my daughter's PC, and all is well.
I'm running the repaired drive in my PC, but only as a scratch drive.
Nothing that I would regret losing will be stored on that drive, since
whatever caused that drive's electronics to be fried may fry the
replacement electronics. Unfortunately, the drive's warranty has
expired, or I'd be sending it in for replacement. I would like to
thank Folkert Rienstra and SpaceButler for their replies. I hope that
this helps other people in a similar fix.

HawkMan98