Western Digital Hard Drive Board Repair U12 Part 3/3

[treefortrichard]

The U12 chip is the rom chip on the board for the HD that tells it all the variable specifics of the hard drive...each drive is a little different and stores data with some variability...The u12 chip contains the seek and find nuances for your drive...you have to swap it out when you get a new controller board..like I need :(

[przemkovich]

Overall the videos are helpful, but it would be helpful if you told us what the U12 chip was for or if it was a custom chip or what the part number was etc. I assume since you need a donor board it must be a custom chip, but what does it do or what is it for?

[Knaeckebrotsaege]

@przemkovich i just took a look at a 250GB MDT (= recertified WD) SATAII harddrive. The U12 chip on that one is a ST Microelectronics 25P10VP which is a 1Megabit (128 Kilobyte) Serial Flash EEPROM. So in theory (if you have the equipment), you could read out that EEPROM and clone it onto another one. that may even work with the chips still in circuit, so you don't even have to solder.. interesting..

[SuperFlyFlippingA]

@Knaeckebrotsaege You are absolutely correct, however since you can fix this problem with a $10 soldering gun rather than a more expensive and complicated ROM reader and copier (which I do have and use when necessary) you can solve the problem much quicker and cheaper resoldering rather than copying. I was trying to give the most common way to fix this problem with as little cost to fix as possible. But thank you, you are correct.

[yoopti]

great information scott.

thank you.