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**DesignoSLK** · 10-15-2006

I had a similar issue with my 2.5" laptop 80G HD. This was extremely weird, so bare with me.

All the HD would do was knock, a had the original 40G HD do the same thing so I knew the 80G was on it's way out. The 80G wouldn’t allow Windows to load completely leaving the laptop basically non-operational. I have an external USB case for a 2.5" HD so I removed it, installed it to the external case and tried to run it up on my wife's laptop. It seemed like it wasn’t getting enough power to operate, so I took it to work to plug into my desktop. Well, it worked briefly until the circuit card got hot. I figured cold solder joints on the card because it basically ran 24/7 for a year.

I'm a 25+ yr. electronic tech so I understood the whole cold solder joint thing...anyway...I figured since my building is kept ice cold, it probably was cold enough to operate until the pcb got too hot and opened the joint(s) again.

OK, here's the weird part. I'm not a genius, but I figured if it would operate for a little bit while in a cold environment, it would operate longer in a colder environment. Soooo, I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes. I pulled it out and it worked for about 5 minutes until it got too hot again.

Then I got some canned air from the IT guys. For those of you who don't know, canned air works great as freeze spray when sprayed upside down. “Shooting” the pcb with freeze spray, I got it to continue working long enough for me to pull about 10G off it until I ran out of canned air.

I still needed to pull about 20G off so I put it in the freezer again. Only this time I ran the USB cable from the HD in the freezer to a laptop working from the top of the mini frig in my office.

And PRESTO!! I was able to get all the info off the HD and then reformatted it. Luckily the HD had a 3 yr. warranty and I was able to get it replaced free of charge.

I no longer leave the computer running 24/7 anymore. That works OK for full size HDs, but not for 2.5" HDs running at 7200 rpm. Lesson learned.

10-15-2006	#7 (permalink)
DesignoSLK Professional TV Watcher Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Kaiserslautern, Germany Vehicle: 2000 Designo SLK230 Posts: 1,796 Country: Thanks: 162 Thanked 52 Times in 28 Posts	Similar Issue I had a similar issue with my 2.5" laptop 80G HD. This was extremely weird, so bare with me. All the HD would do was knock, a had the original 40G HD do the same thing so I knew the 80G was on it's way out. The 80G wouldn’t allow Windows to load completely leaving the laptop basically non-operational. I have an external USB case for a 2.5" HD so I removed it, installed it to the external case and tried to run it up on my wife's laptop. It seemed like it wasn’t getting enough power to operate, so I took it to work to plug into my desktop. Well, it worked briefly until the circuit card got hot. I figured cold solder joints on the card because it basically ran 24/7 for a year. I'm a 25+ yr. electronic tech so I understood the whole cold solder joint thing...anyway...I figured since my building is kept ice cold, it probably was cold enough to operate until the pcb got too hot and opened the joint(s) again. OK, here's the weird part. I'm not a genius, but I figured if it would operate for a little bit while in a cold environment, it would operate longer in a colder environment. Soooo, I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes. I pulled it out and it worked for about 5 minutes until it got too hot again. Then I got some canned air from the IT guys. For those of you who don't know, canned air works great as freeze spray when sprayed upside down. “Shooting” the pcb with freeze spray, I got it to continue working long enough for me to pull about 10G off it until I ran out of canned air. I still needed to pull about 20G off so I put it in the freezer again. Only this time I ran the USB cable from the HD in the freezer to a laptop working from the top of the mini frig in my office. And PRESTO!! I was able to get all the info off the HD and then reformatted it. Luckily the HD had a 3 yr. warranty and I was able to get it replaced free of charge. I no longer leave the computer running 24/7 anymore. That works OK for full size HDs, but not for 2.5" HDs running at 7200 rpm. Lesson learned. __________________ Kevin An American in Germany... To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. '00 SLK230 Designo copper, '06 Saturn Vue, Cessna 172 (pilot)