Crucial M4 SSD failure?

[SuperAman]

I have a Crucial M4 SATA 512GB SSD which has failed. It's a few years old but was new, only used a few hours. I was using it with a usb 3.0 enclosure as an external backup drive when suddenly it stopped working in the middle of a video I was watching. The usb to sata adapter works as I've used it with other drives. The drive now makes a small ticking noise as soon as it is plugged in, kind of like it's trying to fire up but it can't. Twice it worked for me for short while after I opened and cleaned it with alcohol but now refuses to just clicks. I'm thinking one of the ICs is fried or a bad cap?

[mon2]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

Hi.

1) love love love ethiopian veg food

2) the ssd is solid state but it was making these noises? Perhaps could be the power supply region and may be the switching power supply components like the coil?

Anything look like it is burnt? Perhaps you can post some pictures of the internals?

Suggest to try the ssd with another known good enclosure.

[diif]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

Remove it from the enclosure, can it be read ?

[redwire]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

I have many problems with USB3 cables breaking off the enclosure pc board.
Try a new cable, they are very fragile. Then look at the connector on the USB enclosure board. Not the SSD drive.

[SuperAman]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

I have many problems with USB3 cables breaking off the enclosure pc board.
Try a new cable, they are very fragile. Then look at the connector on the USB enclosure board. Not the SSD drive.

I have tried the ssd in a laptop as a boot device and it prevents the laptop from powering on (no display). I have tried multiple enclosures and cables but same kind if chirping, clicking noise which is very faint.

[SuperAman]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

Hi.

1) love love love ethiopian veg food

2) the ssd is solid state but it was making these noises? Perhaps could be the power supply region and may be the switching power supply components like the coil?

Anything look like it is burnt? Perhaps you can post some pictures of the internals?

Suggest to try the ssd with another known good enclosure.

Thanks I like it also. Nothing looks burnt, but I did clean it with alcohol so can't tell. I will post pics of both sides of the board tomorrow.

[SuperAman]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

[redwire]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

I wonder if a MLCC capcitor has shorted? The clicking would be one of the buck-converters trying to power up into a short circuit.

I would try to power up the board and you can measure the power supply voltages at the top-side square testpoints. See there are 3V3, 2V5, 1V5, 1V0 voltages to look at. There should be 5V coming in for main power.

If a cap is bad, hopefully it gets hot so you can find it.

[SuperAman]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

I wonder if a MLCC capcitor has shorted? The clicking would be one of the buck-converters trying to power up into a short circuit.

I would try to power up the board and you can measure the power supply voltages at the top-side square testpoints. See there are 3V3, 2V5, 1V5, 1V0 voltages to look at. There should be 5V coming in for main power.

If a cap is bad, hopefully it gets hot so you can find it.

I did not hot test it yet, But I did measure the caps to ground near the coils and they were giving me low resistance in the 200s. Probably a partially shorted cap then preventing it from starting up? None of the caps or the board heated up to a noticeable temp when I had it connected to the sata adapter and cable.

[petehall347]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

top pic bottom left components marked 3R3 .look like coils . 2 are looking wonky

[SuperAman]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

top pic bottom left components marked 3R3 .look like coils . 2 are looking wonky

I removed the 3 small caps next two and below the right most coil and I tested them and they are ok.

The coil on bottom gets 1.1-1.3v and it outputs.1.52v
The coil top right gets 1.0v and outputs 0.70v
The coil top left directly above bottom coil gets 2.14v outputs 2.52v
The biggest coil gets 3.37v and outputs 3.30v
Is the IC in-between these coils ok? I am also getting 3 caps with low resistance (100 ohm) and 132 diode mode on the back of the board behind the ic.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

Please measure the voltages at the test points suggested by redwire, I attached a photo where I highlighted them.

[SuperAman]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

Please measure the voltages at the test points suggested by redwire, I attached a photo where I highlighted them.

I wonder if a MLCC capcitor has shorted? The clicking would be one of the buck-converters trying to power up into a short circuit.

I would try to power up the board and you can measure the power supply voltages at the top-side square testpoints. See there are 3V3, 2V5, 1V5, 1V0 voltages to look at. There should be 5V coming in for main power.

If a cap is bad, hopefully it gets hot so you can find it.

Sorry for late reply, was busy. Nothing is getting hot.
1V5 = 1.53v
ATP = 0.60v
5VF = 0.00v
1V0 = 1.01v
2V5 = 2.52v
3V3 = 3.37v

[SuperAman]

Re: Crucial M4 SSD failure?

Sorry was a little busy and put this on hold. I had determined the 5v was missing. Also the 3 tiny caps I removed, couldn't find them. Lot of useful info on this site. I just found it, will investigate further. https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=29757