Quantum Prodrive possible repair

[techknight]

Just keep in mind all the foam is doing is preventing the head to return all the way back into the home position, where its getting "stuck" on the deteriorated rubber stopper. The actuator stiction is the reason why the drive never operates and spins back down. the voice coil servo cant overcome the force against the stuck actuator.

 

[CC_333]

This is a very promising "quick fix" though.

If I had any of these left, I'd give it a try (I got what I could off of them, formatted them, and recycled them).

If I come across any more (which I'm bound to do), I'll give this a try.

c

 

[NickNick]

Yes...this repair is rather quick, can be done in 5 mins or less. Its super easy too.

Right, it is just preventing it from returning to home position, though it seems to be working out so far.

However, on my drives the bumper was on the other side of where I was putting the foam at. Yes, on one drive; after I removed the top plate I saw a black streem of goo on the bottom magnets. But with the removal of the top plate, the rubber bumper and whole stalk or whatever its around comes with it. You can easily clean it off with a towel or such. I used the same towel to wipe the remaining goo off the stalk. Then replaced it with one of the foam rings but, I had to shave its sides down a tad.

This was also easy as the ring just slipped over the lip and fit into place. I'd love to hear if anyone else gives this a go and hear their out come, also gladly will help.

 

[techknight]

yea, once that rubber is gone these drives should be fixed for good.

If you have to remove the actuator head stack assembly, you have to rig up a piece of paper, or straw/toothpick and slide it in between the head supports while moving them off the platter, because if the heads slap together when coming off the platter, they are ruined for good.

 

[finkmac]

I'd try this, but the last time I attempted to open mine, I may have screwed the screws for good...

 

[techknight]

Well when I said fixed for good, I didnt mean it in THAT sense... LOL

 

[techknight]

I pulled my Prodrive LPS 40meg apart that went into the classic.

the rubber bumpers sit on the magnet posts that the screws go through. I had to remove the head actuator assembly to get at it, as its in a really tight spot. lol, I cleaned out the old rubber little by little and still couldnt get it all. Maybe some acetone I could.

after that, I stuck some plastic foam in there and presto. works like a brand new drive.

 

[techknight]

I took a 80MB Prodrive ELS apart, and its rubber crash stopper is on the bottom under the platter.

So, I removed the head actuator assembly, Since it was a single platter drive it made things much easier. Removed the platter, etc.. carefully.

Took some goo gone and got rid of all that rubber. Used various layers of heatsrink to replace it. Its a bit harder, but its better than nothing at all. Re-assembled and to my surprise, the drive worked perfectly.

now THAT was nuts. I never rebuilt a drive down to that degree before. I will have to do a video on my next drive. i have 1 more ELS 80mb left which should be the same as well.

 

[uniserver]

how about foam first then heat shrink over that?

 

[techknight]

yea i could do that. But i didnt want to use foam because it doesnt hold together that well. You have to think of the air berring currents inside the unit as well as the actuator bouncing off of it. Ill figure something out.

it was just a milestone to be able to remove the actuator, the magnets, AND the platter, and reassemble it and keep it working again. LOL

the problem was, I used a tissue to wrap the platter in so it dont get dirty/messed up while I worked on the drive. that was a bad idea because alot of little fibers got onto the platter. yuck. It still worked, but i dunno for how long. lol.

 

[uniserver]

probably work fine for a long time

 

[techknight]

Maybe. What i will do though this weekend when I get some extra time, is fire it up on the mac and do a LLF in drive setup. make sure it comes clean with 0 bad sectors.

What i might do is use clear silicone? I might dab that on there and when it dries, use a razor to shape it. Other option is buy new rubber idlers for cassette deck restoration, or printer pick-up rollers and just cut that down to size.

 

[NickNick]

Techknight, thanx for the tip on the head thing with the paper/ toothpick. I did not know that and its great information. And Awesome about your drive... I never looked inside one of the LPS drives but would assume they would be similar; as what you described with the bumper and post is how the other looked inside. But I did not have to remove the head.

I have not attempted to remove a platter yet. Is it hard to do?

Great idea about the silicone...would last long too.

 

[onlyonemac]

I would try this if I had the tools and I hadn't wrecked it with my last repair attempt.

I'd also be curious to see how well this works with the higher capacity drives like my 160 MB one.

 

[NickNick]

ya! I would be interested as well. I bet they have at least two platters though.

Those ELS drives seem to be the most popular of the bunch as that is what I see mostly inside the 80 meg option machines.

 

[techknight]

Single platter drives are easy as pie. Multiplatter dtives you need a proper removal tool. Or... a modified piston ring compressor

 

[techknight]

link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-Desktop-Hard-Drive-Platter-Swap-Replacement-Tool-/271210722457?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f256b3499

Kind of pricey, but he offers both the 2.5 and 3.5 version. With these tools, and technique, uniserver can start refurbishing HDDs.

 

[uniserver]

lol.

 

[techknight]

yea, well.. it was a thought. lol

 

[Brett B.]

I found this thread last weekend when I was attempting to fix an 80MB ProDrive ELS that would spin up, click and spin down.  I threw away a pile of these years ago but am slowly running out of good 50 pin drives so I figured... why not try to fix it. 

The issue on mine was not the rubber bumper, I think.  I'm not sure why but the head parks itself too close to the spindle and the white flat plastic piece keeps it stuck there when the drive powers on again.  I was able to stuff a small piece of foam insulation on the opposite side so that the head isn't able to park itself too far? and get stuck.

I don't understand why the white piece is there and I don't get why the head arm can get latched on it.  What gives?  So far my repair is working perfectly, the data on the drive was intact and I was able to reformat the drive and it seems to be working great.  Is that white thing even necessary?