How to set Serial Number back for RMA

[Hippo]

I bought 2 WH16NS40 on Black Friday 2024 and gleefully flashed them as soon as they came without making a backup of the original. I had to use one version out of date on Linux but that’s besides the point.

One has completely died. And the other is dying. The spindle won’t spin no matter what combination of firmware and hopes and dreams I try. I’ve disassembled it and see nothing wrong. I am an amateur soldered and was hoping to find something internal wrong but the best I’ve got is all the pins going on the ribbon cable going to the spindle electro magnet coils are continuous. (Tested with a multimeter) I’m guessing something melted and there’s an internal short or something. Once it made a horrible grinding noise and then over time it got less and less reliable after that it seems. The other never made any grinding noises but is no longer reliable either. Still kicking but will need to be RMAed.

Anyway, I have drives that need to be RMAed. I have an email that they’ll honor the warranty which is great but it says it needs to be stock firmware and no tampering. I got stock firmware back on it by flashing an official firmware I found and then using the official lg update tool which was really easy (once I got access to a windows PC… I’ve done everything in Linux so far). So now MakeMKV shows everything right except the serial number does not match the label. Any ideas?

I’ll need this for two drives. Also, I have not even heavily used these. Certainly less than 100 disks in each probably less 50 in each. Is this normal? Was the Black Friday sale a bad batch or something? What should I get to replace these assuming I’m on a budget and want something UHD friendly but I don’t particularly care about speed of rip. Also I have a server lack stack in the basement so I don’t care about noise.

I ran both of these in a powered UGreen USB to SATA adapter. Is this what broke them? It seems to be the spindle in both but I’ve run hard drives on that adapter just fine for copying files. I just can’t understand how both drives are dying already.

Thanks for all the responses in advance. I think the most important question at hand is how to get the serial number to match the sticker

[Billycar11]

lg/asus 5.25 rebrands drives are sadly just that unreliable it why i stopped selling them back in 2019
the sn was never changed the sn does not change with fw and it never matched the sticker on the drive so you are good
i recommend the owc mercury pro case
i would not have even told lg you had flashed fw setting yourself up for failure

[Hippo]

I didn’t tell LG I flashed it so I should be good there now that I’m on the official firmware.

Good to know firmware doesn’t change the S/N and it never matched. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention but I thought it was changing between flashes

If the RMA replacement drives fail what drive do you recommend on a budget? Preferably something USB instead of SATA but I guess either is fine.

I just can’t believe the drives are that unreliable and there are none being sold for parts I can find and no spare parts. I’m 99% sure if I could just buy the drive spindle assembly this drive would be revived and work fine for however long it would last after that.

I’m incredibly disappointed to say the least that these are that unreliable

[MartyMcNuts]

I didn’t tell LG I flashed it so I should be good there now that I’m on the official firmware.

Good to know firmware doesn’t change the S/N and it never matched. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention but I thought it was changing between flashes

If the RMA replacement drives fail what drive do you recommend on a budget? Preferably something USB instead of SATA but I guess either is fine.

I just can’t believe the drives are that unreliable and there are none being sold for parts I can find and no spare parts. I’m 99% sure if I could just buy the drive spindle assembly this drive would be revived and work fine for however long it would last after that.

I’m incredibly disappointed to say the least that these are that unreliable

LG drives used to be pretty good! It's been about the last 4 years that their QC went downhill.