Coffeecup

Hello again everyone. Thanks for your replies on the previous page. I tried a loopback test last week, no successes, I think the cable is a doa. too bad. Anyway, I had plans to post this last week already but then my geforce 9800gtx died and I had to replace my gpu (bad things really do all come at once don't they ) Im now using my pc again with a cheap gpu, and what I am going to do is get that nokia cable, and try things again, ill let you know how it goes. coffeecup

Wait... am I not just supposed to have the 3 wires (the gnd,tx and rx) and put the gnd wire in the gnd pin, the tx wire in the rx pin and the rx wire in the tx pin? (they have female crimp pins on them) These are the steps I took: 1. I removed the black "box" from the cable exposing the 6 wires. 2. I checked the manual and it said gnd was the black one and tx and rx where the orange and yellow wires. 3. I blocked the prb connector with a piece of thick paper. 4. I put the prb board back on (not too sturdy) 5. I connect the 3 female crimp pins to the 3 pins on the hard disk. 6. I connect my psu's sata cable. 7. I switch on my pc (only the psu is plugged in) and no hard drives are connected (except for the sata to the bricked one) 8. I wait for the hdd to spin down. 9. I plug in the other end of the r232 cable into my laptops usb port. 10. Its detected. 11. I fire up hypertherminal private edition. 12. I set connection to the same com port as displayed under device manager. 13. I make sure the number 38400 is set, and the other numbers are right aswell. 14. I establish the connection and try pressing ctrl+z. And then nothing happens, sometimes hypertherminal private edition even hangs. This is as far as I get. What am I doing wrong/what did I miss? Coffeecup

Hi there BlouBul Windows recognises the cable as an USB cable and then assigns it to COM3 (later on it started assigning it to COM4) The first time I plugged it in it recognised it as a TTL RS232 cable, but now if I remove the driver and then connect the cable again it sais its a USB cable. When I setup hypertherminal I make sure it is connecting to the same COM port as in device manager. I tried a loopback test, but I can get nothing to appear in hypertherminal, nothing at all. Not even when I switch RX/TX. (so no echo.) I check the the guide by mapleleaf, problem is I dont use a breadboard or anything so I can't really use that one.

Hello again everyone, Around sep 21st I posted in this thread about my barracuda that had died. I posted how I had little to no knowledge on this and how I was a self proclaimed doorknob. I took to heed the tips I got from people and I bought a convertor; A TTL-232R USB-Serial Converter 3,3V ( http://www.watterott.com/de/TTL-232R-USB-Serial-Converter-33V ) And I found via the pdf on that site the GND TX and RX wires. So I got around to setting this up, but when I get to the point where I have to do ctrl+z in hypertherminal, nothing happens. It is as if hypertherminal doesnt even know I have a keyboard, I mean, it doesnt even register anything that I type on it. I do not have an external power source so I am using the PSU from my pc (via a sata cable in the bricked HD, I tried this without a sata cable to test if it powered itsself via the usb, but nothing) and I run Hypertherminal private edition via my win7 laptop. I can hear the hdd spin down fine, but I do hear a ticking sound for a while all of a sudden, I can't remember if I had that before. I have already tried switching the rx and tx wires but nothing. I have also firmly held down the GND wire, but nothing. I know the setup from left to right whilest the PCB board is facing upwoards is NOTHING-GND-TX-RX. It is really annoying. I also have an issue with the jumper wires on the ttl cable, are they supposed to be so loose around the hdd's pins? (I almost have to hold them against the hdd or they start sliding off already). Hope you guys can help. Thanks, Coffeecup

Hey all. Thanks for the replies. I'll try this as soon as I found all the materials I need. I'll keep you informed.

Hello everyone. After 2.5 years of working fine my Barracuda Seagate 7200.11 HDD died on me. It had some really vital data on it (such as pictures and school stuff) that I would hate to loose. So I got around to checking the internet in the hopes of my finding out what went wrong. First I bought a new hdd (dont worry, I got a samsung this time, I am done with Seagate), and a new external casing for the old hdd. The external casing didnt help sadly. So I started looking again, turns out I suffered the BSY State Bug (drive is not recognised on startup or in the bios anymore). Had I known about this timebomb in my pc then I would have updated the firmware ages ago, sadly, this was not the case. I found the tutorial by Carter-In-Canada but since I am as technical as a doorknop and I dont have any of the materials nor would I know where to get any of thos materials (especially the breadboard) I am kind of at a dead end here. I dont have an extra psu etc. I dont suppose any of you might have an idea that isnt hard to do, nor requires materials that are hard to find? Thanks Coffeecup