Broken power connector pin, death of HD?

In attempting to hook up power to HD in close quarters, I broke off two pins on the HD power connector gizmo and presume this is fatal. I found one of the broken off pieces and am looking for the second one. Believe this is futile, but what I had in mind was inserting the broken pins in the power supply cable holes, then connecting the plug by guiding the connection by the two good pins hoping to secure some connection by luck. Want to see what is on this drive.

First, is a broken pin on a HD power connector always fatal (can it be repaired)? Second, if I try what is suggested in second sentence above, could this lead to a short and possible power blow out or other damage to the power supply?

Thanks

 

You could short something out depending on which pins are the missing pins in question and whether or not you are careful to avoid bridging two pins. If you are that curious, it may be more adviseable to remove the HDD controller which should give you access to the actual broken leads and then you could solder two new ones on and reconnect the controller card. You can make a couple of pins using male molex connectors.

Now the reality - I've never heard of anyone shearing power pins on a hard drive so you're not one I would encourage soldering anything to a HDD controller card. No offense but .............

On the other hand, your honesty is admirable. Most would blame this on their little brother.

 

PeteC

Touche, or something like that. However, do a search on this forum and others and you'll find a few others have done the same, most blaming themselves also, and most finding, as I am, that what's on that drive isn't so important after all. Several have done it while trying to disengage the power supply connector from the HD, using side to side force to work them loose. I'm just surprised that technology hasn't come up with a quick fix, but I guess that would curtail someone's income source.

BTW, these pins are the four pins over which the power connector fits. If, as I did, one attempts to connect the power supply at a slight angle, rather than going straight ahead (other stuff got in the way, not my little brother), the pins bend, and unlike the 40 very thin pins on the IDE connectors, for example, these pins would never bend except at the base, and if bent too far, would break off. I presume this is what you mean by "shearing ".

Humble man that I am, I don't mind admitting that I haven't a clue as to what a HDD controller card is. I presume that's on the HD itself, but will "look it up ".

Thanks for the input.

 

There may be many other reasons for requiring it, but another source informs me that replacing the controller board from spare parts of an exact same model HDD gone bad for a reason not affecting the controller board is a very do-able exercise, and this source, at least, has done it many times. The problem is finding a HDD that fits and has an undamaged controller board, which may be iffy. Unless you have reason to know that this is just not a viable possible solution for saving a HD with a damaged controller board, it seems to me to be worthwhile information, so I'll just pass it along in the spirit of sharing info and hope this does not abuse the posting guidelines.

 

On another forum, one fellow had lost a data connector pin from his floppy drive. Everyone said to just buy another drive. Knowing if he was like me, giving up would be the last item on the list. I suggested he get a replacement pin from an electronics store and superglue it in if he was not able to solder. He used part of a paperclip and said the drive had never worked better.

If the pins are hollow (from looking at mine some maybe, some not) you may be able to put a piece of stiff wire (part of a paperclip? ) in the tube then superglue/areldite or solder the base. You should be able to get soldering done at a television repairers.

Changing the controller board will only work if it is exactly the same model. You may have quite a wait until another one (broken) turns up.

Matt