Connor Mac Portable 3045 40MB Drives

[aplmak]

Ok so I have 3 working drives.. I de-gooed them and sealed them with some good silicone adhesive. They are in perfect shape. The problem is the boards... I've got a pile of connor hdd boards that are bad... I assume it was during when people tried to fire them up while capacitors were leaking everywhere and it did something to a chip on the hdd boards. If I swap boards from a good unit it they power up and run just perfectly fine. If I only knew what to fix on this pile of bad connor CP-3045 hard drive controller boards........

 

[aplmak]

It seems to be mostly revision "E's" in this stack.. maybe a D and an F but all E's

 

[LaPorta]

How does one go about repairing the drives in general? With the goo?

 

[PB145B]

I think those fail for the same reasons the PC on the IDE versions of these drives do. One of the machines I am very fond of is the Compaq SLT/286, which uses the IDE version of this drive.

The reason the PCB fails in the IDE versions is the foam insulation between the PCB and the drive frame degrades, causing the PCB to short-out to the metal drive body, rendering the completely non-functional. To this day I have still never fixed one after that has happened. I replaced the foam on my working drives with a piece of thick, rigid paper, and they have continued to work so far.

This is likely the reason these 3045s are failing too, so I’d remove the PCB from your working ones, dig that old foam off, and replace it with a piece of thick paper (or you could use foam again if you could find the right thickness).

 

[aplmak]

Hmmmm I have several drives with absolutely no foam. And are working normal. Aren’t the metal standoff’s long enough to clear the bottom of the drive?? I’ll have to check that out.. 

The other question about fixing the goo is a lot of patience and to be very careful. As long as the goo hasn’t hit the heads or the platters yet. I use a qtip and go around and around the edging.. and then use qtips with 90% alcohol to thoroughly clean. There are two tricky spots where you get close to the platter. Also if you have a drive with black head bumpers that has to be removed and thrown out. You can only use the ones with the clear bumpers. I’ve also seen where the goo or chemical reaction lifts the coating off the magnets for the heads and flakes.. it will stop the head from moving.. and you certainly don’t want flakes flying around inside. Not all can be saved but some can!! I keep bad ones for parts like the bumpers or boards. Everyone can say replace it with SSD... but some collectors like original parts. 

Of course dont forget to clean the cover edges.. and remove the little filter if it’s got goo in it.. and finally silicone it carefully back together after you have tested it.

 

[aplmak]

I think those fail for the same reasons the PC on the IDE versions of these drives do. One of the machines I am very fond of is the Compaq SLT/286, which uses the IDE version of this drive.

The reason the PCB fails in the IDE versions is the foam insulation between the PCB and the drive frame degrades, causing the PCB to short-out to the metal drive body, rendering the completely non-functional. To this day I have still never fixed one after that has happened. I replaced the foam on my working drives with a piece of thick, rigid paper, and they have continued to work so far.

This is likely the reason these 3045s are failing too, so I’d remove the PCB from your working ones, dig that old foam off, and replace it with a piece of thick paper (or you could use foam again if you could find the right thickness).

I’ve used a paint brush and the foam just comes right off easily.. 

 

[PB145B]

Aren’t the metal standoff’s long enough to clear the bottom of the drive?? I’ll have to check that out.. 

Not entirely. There are several areas where the circuit board can make contact with with drive body. That foam is there for a reason. 
 

I remember on the first replacement I got for a CP-3041 IDE drive, I installed it (with no insulation), sparked and fried instantly. Second one, used some thick paper, been working ever since.

It’s likely the raised area where the spindle mounts that’s contacting the circuit board. 
 

They even started putting a piece of paper along with the foam on the newer revisions of these Conners, so they must have felt the foam itself wasn’t quite sufficient.

 

[aplmak]

Ok so here’s some photos.. the three drives work I just need working boards.. 

And also the silicone seal I use when they are all cleaned.. also is a picture of a bad head magnet! The black bumpers always turn gooey and sticky.. you can also see the magnets flaking..

 

[aplmak]

Not entirely. There are several areas where the circuit board can make contact with with drive body. That foam is there for a reason. 
 

I remember on the first replacement I got for a CP-3041 IDE drive, I installed it (with no insulation), sparked and fried instantly. Second one, used some thick paper, been working ever since.

It’s likely the raised area where the spindle mounts that’s contacting the circuit board. 
 

They even started putting a piece of paper along with the foam on the newer revisions of these Conners, so they must have felt the foam itself wasn’t quite sufficient.

I’m just surprised.. because even when that foam was new I can’t see a solder lead not piercing through it.. now if it was plastic that would make sense.

 

[PB145B]

I’m just surprised.. because even when that foam was new I can’t see a solder lead not piercing through it.. now if it was plastic that would make sense.

It’s what a lot of hard drive manufacturers used for PCB insulation, so I guess it’s fairly effective (when it’s not rotten).

 

[Papichulo]

How did you get the  goo off it? I have one that i put black tape on the rubber bumpers and all it does is spin. Wont even work! 

 

[techknight]

After reading this thread, I cant seem to find anywhere that tells me "how" they are bad. 

Basically, what are they doing/not doing? 

 

[aplmak]

Techknight it’s the boards that aren’t working.. if I take a board from a working drive they are fine. I have no idea what’s gone on all these boards.. 

I’ve stuck a regular envelope between the boards and the drive each one.. each do strange things.. but don’t boot. Again a board from a working drive just fine... 

 

[techknight]

But you didnt describe "not working" 

What do you mean by not working? Smoke? spin? click? What? 

 

[aplmak]

The boards do different things.. sometimes you can hear the heads scan initially then no boot. No smoke, no fire, no burnt parts on the boards at all. They appear to be in good shape on the outside.  

 

[techknight]

Hmmm.... Maybe SCSI interface IC issues? 

Hard to say without having a description of what each one does. likelihood of a chip being bad is fairly high since these machines are known for voltage regulation to go hog wild when things arnt kosher. 

 

[gkmaia]

That is such a valuable post. I am trying to restore my Portable and my hard drive stoped working, maybe you guys can give me some light. 

All started when I tried to format the drive to install a clean system. While running the HD SC Setup I did clean the partitions, create new ones and when I initialised it failed to format. I toke the drive off, build a 34 pin to 50pin adapter and got it running on my LCII. Got Lido running. Lido could find it in the bus. I could then work the partitions out and then when going to initialise (format) it failed formatting. Tried this process several times always with the same outcome.  Can create partitions but cannot format it.

The drive does not make any weird sound. Seems pretty healthy. When formatting I can hear the normal sound a head does when formatting. 

What sort of diagnostic would give? Bad logic, bad head, bad disk?

Also, have you guys ever come across a service manual for these drives?

 

[gkmaia]

I think I got the answer for my question. But I guess will be valuable to share. 

I have two connor 40mb drives. One 34 pin from my portable. One 50 pin from my LC.

I swapped the logic board between the portable 34 pin case and the LC 50pin case. Turns out that my 34pin logic board + my adapator + 50pin case works perfectly on my LC. 

Would you recommend opening the faulty case? is there anything that can be fixed in there? Or that is pretty much a lost cause?

 

[aplmak]

You mean open up the actual drive? I'd check for signs of goo around the top and bottom cover... If there is a good gasket inbetween you should see a black rubber gasket by pressing your fingernail. If not it's probably turned to goo. I carefully replace top and bottom (don't forget to remove round warranty stickers first). then separate the drives. Take a peek inside. If the head assembly has rubber bumpers on it just forget it.. or if you can get a replacement with clear bumpers you should be ok. Next is to clean all around the edges with a q-tip careful not to get any goo on the platters. If you see any goo on the platters anywhere just forget it. Don't forget to remove the little white filter if it is full with goo. You need to thoroughly clean the goo all around the indentation of the top and bottom halves. I do it over and over again with qtips and denatured alcohol. And up until you see no more goo anywhere. Like I said I have 3 good drives but without controller boards as I have no extra and there are issues with the ones I have a pile of.. Only Techknight could probably figure out what "chip" is bad on them. I am suspecting it is a result of starting a portable with failed capacitors and it sending back bad voltage or something which destroys a chip of somekind... 

Oh and if you successfully do this you should silicone the top and bottom halves so no dust and air can get in. It also helps with the heads moving properly across the platters.. the force of the air contained keeps them from touching the platters in some cases I believe. So letting no air in is really good practice..