Unsticking a Seagate ST-419 head

[Jason Howe]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2016, william degnan wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 4:25 PM, Jason Howe <jason at smbfc.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 20 Oct 2016, Mike Stein wrote:
>>
>> I've got several ST251-1s that spin up just fine, no funny noises, but
>>> then do a bunch of back-and-forth seeks and shut down again.
>>>
>>> It's the usual, "they worked fine the last time;" any ideas what the
>>> problem is and if there's anything that can be done? Presumably it's having
>>> trouble finding the sync track; weak signal? Any ideas?
>>>
>>> m
>>>
>> I'm actually trying to bring an ST251-1 back to life right now.  It
>> worked, then was intermitently not recongnized by the controller after
>> being powered on for a while, now not recognized at all.  When you apply
>> power it runs through whatever standard head-sweep routine (self-test?),
>> but there seems to be a communication breakdown between the Drive
>> electronics and controller board.
>>
>> Various sources on the interwebs suggest me that the small SMD tant caps
>> by the power connector are a known issue on these drives and can lead to
>> all sorts of flaky behavior.
>>
>> I've orderd a few from digikey, hopefully will have them by this weekend
>> to attempt a repair.
>>
>> See my forum post here, where my shoot-in-the dark analsys is disagreed
>> with: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?54516-Caps-for-an-ST251-1:
>>
>> --Jason
>>
>
>
> Can you swap the controller board of the drive with another drive's?
>

I would if I had a spare ST251-1 hanging around.  I've been tempted to 
order one from the flea-bay for just such an experiment.

--Jason