LASERandDVDfan wrote:
1. Semiconductor junctions have a leakage current that is temperature
dependent.
2. Solder joints that are intermittent can be thermally sensitive.
3. A hairline crack in a circuit board can be thermally sensitive.

Others will no doubt add more.



I don't think there is anything more to add.
As you said in a fantastically detailed fashion, it is likely a problem in the
drive electronics which has made one or more critical components thermal
sensitive.

What is important now is determining how the drive sustained such damage to
allow this condition in the first place.

For instance, if it was the result of an overheating problem in the computer
itself, this would be an issue that requires effective ventilation to prevent
it from occuring again. - Reinhart

Thanks to all who replied. One thing I did NOT mention in my original
post was that I had acquired an identical HD with the same firmware so
that if the logic board was the cause of failure, I could get the data
off the disk. Swapping out the logic board did not improve the
situation. My reason for suspecting the logic board was that the HD
appeared not to get up to speed fast enough. Upon powering up the HD,
the computer bios would NOT initially detect it. If I did a warm reboot
while still powered up, it would detect the drive as being present on
the second attempt. This logic board swap DID NOT improve the ability
to read the drive, but I thought the motor drive might not be getting
the disk up to the proper RPM's fast enough. When this did not solve my
problem, I went into desperation mode and froze the drive.

Myself, I tend to agree that some connection or the IC inside the disk
was being effected by the cold enough to allow an otherwise weak signal
to be read. It is hard to understand how a mechanical function could be
effected by the cold that would give the same results. However, I am
always willing to learn new things.