Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

[diif]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

The OCZ SSdrive I had that went bad the technical department help me as much as they could and in the end I sent the drive in to them and they analyzed it and told me one of the sector was bad where they keep their program. They sent me a new drive of larger capacity for free because it was still with-in the 5 year warranty.

OCZ went bust because of their shit controllers and firmware.

[DJ_MIX]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

sorry to go off topic, but I have a SSD drive that is detected and is only readable.

I can't delete, copy or add partitions. Any thoughts how to fix this?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

No idea how much you could/should charge. To me it's more about offering a complete service.
Hard drives are cheap, reputation goes a long way.

No cloud BS for my serious customers. A few use external drives rotated and kept off site, one uses a NAS, yes RAID isn't a backup but it is a duplicate of their hard drive, their massive photo collection is also synced to their laptop.

So maybe I should offer off-site backups, like I keep them on my personal server, maybe on a RAID array or something, if they're interested. Long term storage or something like that. I wonder if anyone would be interested. I'll offer it to a few computer customers and see what they say.

If something ever happened and I lost all their stuff, that'd be horrible. I was cloning hard drive images and keeping them for a few months, in case they came back and said hey, I had these pictures here that are gone now! Or hey, this program needed to be reinstalled and I thought I had the key but I lost it, bring it back! It got to the point where I was fixing too many PCs though and my 4 or 5TB just wasn't enough anymore. I was filling it up really really quick like. I'm trying to get out of the PC repair stuff now though. I want to do more challenging, more fun stuff.

When someone offers me money though, right now, I take it, regardless of what it is.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

The OCZ SSdrive I had that went bad the technical department help me as much as they could and in the end I sent the drive in to them and they analyzed it and told me one of the sector was bad where they keep their program. They sent me a new drive of larger capacity for free because it was still with-in the 5 year warranty.

Yeah, they don't really help much. If it's under warranty, a company will replace the drives, but when there's a failed component on the drive, they're not going to share schematics or, from my experience, even answer questions. Last time I tried getting help, I contacted this company that made monitors (like security ones). They said our units are not user serviceable and if I took it apart, it'd void the warranty. All I needed was a burnt out component identified. They refused to help, despite the unit being out of warranty. There wasn't even an option to send it in to be repaired. It was if it's out of warranty, buy a new one kinda things.

Tech support is okay for people that don't know a lot about PCs and everything, but with stuff like this, there's nothing they could do, except for charge me money to send it in and have one of their companies try to repair it. It's like someone bringing me a TV that isn't working and me just calling a TV repair center to have them repair it and then charging the customer more than what I got charged. Or someone bringing me a PC and me just taking it to Southern Tier or paying Microsoft tech support to login and fix it.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

Have you contacted scan disk to see if anything might be recoverable?

No, I'm in Linux, but the BIOS does not recognize the drive, so there's no way to run a filesystem check. If the BIOS doesn't recognize the drive, the operating system will not recognize the drive. Something on the board has died. Either the chip that holds the firmware (very possible) or one of the many little surface mount components.

If the PCB (circuit board) was good, then the BIOS would at least see the drive. It doesn't.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

if you run out solution you can always try to heat up board, maybe some cracked joint wenat bad but thats kinda last solution cos you can easy destroy drive which can be recoverable by professional

might wana try reading a bit on hddguru.com but without pc3000 and tons of expirience i doubt its recoverable

I almost thought of doing that, just reflowing it a bit. What about those flash chips though? I heard once they can't handle a lot of heat. Is that true? I could try and find a datasheet and just make sure my hot air rework station doesn't go over that temp. I might throw it on the preheater first and then throw the hot air on it. Gonna finish checking the SMD components in circuit first using my DMM (the ones I can test at least). I might pull the larger SMD caps off and test with my ESR meter, I dunno. There's no markings on them though, so if one is bad, I'll have to take an educated guess as to the value and voltage.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

sorry to go off topic, but I have a SSD drive that is detected and is only readable.

I can't delete, copy or add partitions. Any thoughts how to fix this?

Generally people start their own topic and ask there. What operating system are you using?

I know on my operating system, if there's errors found on the drive, it'll mount the filesystem as read-only.

When you say read-only, have you only tried deleting, adding and copying partitions? You might want to try booting off a Linux Live Disk (like gparted) and see if you can do anything with the partitions there.

http://gparted.org/livecd.php

I did read in a forum where some people claimed the firmware was stored on some partition on a SSD drive. I doubt that was true, but if it is true, you might want to be careful before you delete the partitions. This one guy deleted all the partitions and couldn't access the drive anymore. Someone said he deleted the partition that contained the firmware on it and his drive was officially dead now. I highly doubt this was the actual case. I couldn't imagine a company putting firmware on a partition like that, so I took it with a grain of salt.

[goontron]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

sorry to go off topic, but I have a SSD drive that is detected and is only readable.

I can't delete, copy or add partitions. Any thoughts how to fix this?

When SSDs fail gracefully (EG, NAND wears out) it goes read-only. Though, if you're using WS Mindows, it could be the OS is unhappy, and wiping the drive will bring it back.

OCZ went bust because of their shit controllers and firmware.

Ah, yes, SandFail.... (NANDJAIL) Now a Seagate company!

[diif]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

sorry to go off topic, but I have a SSD drive that is detected and is only readable.

I can't delete, copy or add partitions. Any thoughts how to fix this?

What make/model ?
Have you tried the manufacturer's diagnostic software ?

[keeney123]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

Yeah, they don't really help much. If it's under warranty, a company will replace the drives, but when there's a failed component on the drive, they're not going to share schematics or, from my experience, even answer questions. Last time I tried getting help, I contacted this company that made monitors (like security ones). They said our units are not user serviceable and if I took it apart, it'd void the warranty. All I needed was a burnt out component identified. They refused to help, despite the unit being out of warranty. There wasn't even an option to send it in to be repaired. It was if it's out of warranty, buy a new one kinda things.

Tech support is okay for people that don't know a lot about PCs and everything, but with stuff like this, there's nothing they could do, except for charge me money to send it in and have one of their companies try to repair it. It's like someone bringing me a TV that isn't working and me just calling a TV repair center to have them repair it and then charging the customer more than what I got charged. Or someone bringing me a PC and me just taking it to Southern Tier or paying Microsoft tech support to login and fix it.

I think it depends on the company and the tech your talking to. I always try and if I find they will not help I tell them my displeasure with their services. You may not have the time to do this. I try to change things to try and improve systems that don't make any sense. I think once people make a good profit off of something then it is time to move on and create something new that will make a good profit.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

I think it depends on the company and the tech your talking to. I always try and if I find they will not help I tell them my displeasure with their services. You may not have the time to do this. I try to change things to try and improve systems that don't make any sense. I think once people make a good profit off of something then it is time to move on and create something new that will make a good profit.

Okay, fair point. I'll give it a shot. A schematic could help a lot. I'll see if they're willing to share.

There is a list of computer motherboard manufacturers that will share schematics. Asus used to be on that list. Then, the guy who was maintaining the list called and asked for a schematic for a laptop board he was working on. They said they can't give them out, ever. He said Asus gave them out in the past. The guy asked who gave them out. The maintainer of the list said he couldn't remember his name. The Asus guy said the schematics are intellectual property of Asus and if any workers are handing them over, Asus will file criminal charges!!!!

Needless to say, Asus got removed from the list. The guy that handed them over, he wasn't even given the complete schematic. Just the section(s) we needed help with!

I signed some petition to require companies to provide schematics to people like us when requested. Some companies now-a-days (Asus is one of them) sometimes don't even print a silk screen, so you can't go on-line and say hey, what's the farads of C108?

[keeney123]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

Okay, fair point. I'll give it a shot. A schematic could help a lot. I'll see if they're willing to share.

There is a list of computer motherboard manufacturers that will share schematics. Asus used to be on that list. Then, the guy who was maintaining the list called and asked for a schematic for a laptop board he was working on. They said they can't give them out, ever. He said Asus gave them out in the past. The guy asked who gave them out. The maintainer of the list said he couldn't remember his name. The Asus guy said the schematics are intellectual property of Asus and if any workers are handing them over, Asus will file criminal charges!!!!

Needless to say, Asus got removed from the list. The guy that handed them over, he wasn't even given the complete schematic. Just the section(s) we needed help with!

I signed some petition to require companies to provide schematics to people like us when requested. Some companies now-a-days (Asus is one of them) sometimes don't even print a silk screen, so you can't go on-line and say hey, what's the farads of C108?

This is how you make a living. You are supporting their product by fixing it out in the field. They do not have to pay for your insurance, sick leave etc. To me it would be stupid for them not to help you. Their customer's would be happier if they can get the product fixed quickly. You can also provide feedback as to the failures out in the field. Most people have no interest in fixing these computers. They do not know or what to know how to read schematics. I can see they may want to keep their design private for a couple of years. The people who are going to steal designs are not people like you or other technical support people. They are other companies making computers that most likely know exactly how to steal designs.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

This is how you make a living. You are supporting their product by fixing it out in the field. They do not have to pay for your insurance, sick leave etc. To me it would be stupid for them not to help you. Their customer's would be happier if they can get the product fixed quickly. You can also provide feedback as to the failures out in the field. Most people have no interest in fixing these computers. They do not know or what to know how to read schematics. I can see they may want to keep their design private for a couple of years. The people who are going to steal designs are not people like you or other technical support people. They are other companies making computers that most likely know exactly how to steal designs.

I agree, and so do a lot of other people. There's a petition to try and require companies to provide the necessary datasheets and schematics, when asked, in order for people like to me to fix them, maybe at a reasonable price. But most companies will not help.

So far, if I cannot find the schematic freely available on the internet, no company has provided one when asked. I've asked a lot of television companies. Panasonic says I have to become a certified repair tech, which basically means I pay them a lot of money, they add me to a database so when Panasonic TVs break down in the area, I get to repair them. When I looked into it, it was something like 1,200$ a year. I would gain full access to their schematics but there was no test to prove I even knew what I was doing. it's all about the money to them.

I was working on a light that was made by MacTools. They wouldn't provide the schematic, but they read it and gave me the information I requested. That's better than most companies out there. At the very least, they could do what MacTools does.

This PCB here, I don't see much a silkscreen. If they're not leaving a silkscreen, they're probably not going to provide schematics. Not sure how they fix them (or if they even fix them) without the silkscreen layer on the board, but more and more companies are making PCBs without the silkscreen for some reason. For me, this makes them even harder to repair. If I'm just randomly checking components because I have no schematic, I'll mark down on a piece of paper what I've checked, so I don't check it over and over again. That's really hard when the components aren't labeled.

With this PCB, let's say I find a bad SMD cap. I have to take an educated guess as to what the farad rating and voltage rating is. I'll have to go by the physical size of the SMD cap. I'll have to figure out what package it is and try to guess, more than likely.

So far, the company has not responded but I have a feeling, they'll either completely ignore my request or they'll say if it's out of warranty, my only options are to send it into the company to have them repair it. Sadly, this seems to be a common response and I've given up on requesting help from the actual companies. I have received the most beneficial help from places like badcaps.net and eevblog. I don't think technicians are the ones who are answering the emails. I think they're people working in a call center. Even if they wanted to send me schematics, they probably can't. They probably have never met anyone from the company they're answering emails for. Companies can pay people minimum wage to answer emails and telephone calls. They can give them basic training on how to fix simple problems and say if it's under warranty, send it in. If you can't fix it with these solutions, tell them for x amount per hour, we'll repair it and then have them send it in. It's the cheapest way to provide support I feel and that's what the companies care about. Not their customers so much, just maximizing profits.

[DJ_MIX]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

What make/model ?
Have you tried the manufacturer's diagnostic software ?

It's a Transcend 128GB TS128GSSD25S-M

I believe I tried there utilities a while back and nothing.

Windows 10 OS and it' been sitting on the shelve for months now..

[keeney123]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

I agree, and so do a lot of other people. There's a petition to try and require companies to provide the necessary datasheets and schematics, when asked, in order for people like to me to fix them, maybe at a reasonable price. But most companies will not help.

So far, if I cannot find the schematic freely available on the internet, no company has provided one when asked. I've asked a lot of television companies. Panasonic says I have to become a certified repair tech, which basically means I pay them a lot of money, they add me to a database so when Panasonic TVs break down in the area, I get to repair them. When I looked into it, it was something like 1,200$ a year. I would gain full access to their schematics but there was no test to prove I even knew what I was doing. it's all about the money to them.

I was working on a light that was made by MacTools. They wouldn't provide the schematic, but they read it and gave me the information I requested. That's better than most companies out there. At the very least, they could do what MacTools does.

This PCB here, I don't see much a silkscreen. If they're not leaving a silkscreen, they're probably not going to provide schematics. Not sure how they fix them (or if they even fix them) without the silkscreen layer on the board, but more and more companies are making PCBs without the silkscreen for some reason. For me, this makes them even harder to repair. If I'm just randomly checking components because I have no schematic, I'll mark down on a piece of paper what I've checked, so I don't check it over and over again. That's really hard when the components aren't labeled.

With this PCB, let's say I find a bad SMD cap. I have to take an educated guess as to what the farad rating and voltage rating is. I'll have to go by the physical size of the SMD cap. I'll have to figure out what package it is and try to guess, more than likely.

So far, the company has not responded but I have a feeling, they'll either completely ignore my request or they'll say if it's out of warranty, my only options are to send it into the company to have them repair it. Sadly, this seems to be a common response and I've given up on requesting help from the actual companies. I have received the most beneficial help from places like badcaps.net and eevblog. I don't think technicians are the ones who are answering the emails. I think they're people working in a call center. Even if they wanted to send me schematics, they probably can't. They probably have never met anyone from the company they're answering emails for. Companies can pay people minimum wage to answer emails and telephone calls. They can give them basic training on how to fix simple problems and say if it's under warranty, send it in. If you can't fix it with these solutions, tell them for x amount per hour, we'll repair it and then have them send it in. It's the cheapest way to provide support I feel and that's what the companies care about. Not their customers so much, just maximizing profits.

Just tell them you are beyond certification. If they want to test your ability you could agree to that if they want to pay for your transportation an lodging to where ever they have a testing site or you can provide them with customers letters of repair work you have done. Also, remind them of the money they will be saving by not having you as their employee and hiring you as a contract worker. Also, tell them that you can repair it faster then having the customer send it in and you will be saving them on shipping it back and forth. You will need to get beyond the initial contact to a manager or vice president of a company. Also, tell them they will have happier customers because they will not have to hassle with shipping the product back and the cost to customer of the shipping and the time to wait for the unit to ship back and forth plus the repair time.

[cpt.charlie]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

My sugestions are:

1- check the main connector for bad solder joints
2- Check the voltages of the SSD, have a look at the attached image as generic reference, maybe one of the internal power supplies have failed, do you detect any overheating component on the drive?

If all voltages are OK, you may have a firmware corruption.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

My sugestions are:

1- check the main connector for bad solder joints
2- Check the voltages of the SSD, have a look at the attached image as generic reference, maybe one of the internal power supplies have failed, do you detect any overheating component on the drive?

If all voltages are OK, you may have a firmware corruption.

THANK YOU!!!! I will get right on this. You're awesome!!!!!

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

Keeney,

As I suspected, here is the response from SanDisk:

Dear Kenneth,
 
Thank you for contacting SanDisk® Global Customer Care. If the SSD is not detected in
BIOS, we can only replace the SSD. The information you are looking for is confidential.
Also we do not have access to that information.
 
For more information or further assistance, you can contact us at 1-866-726-3475 from
11am - 10pm EST (Monday - Friday) or reply to this email. We would be glad to assist
you.
 
Best regards,
Daniel B.
SanDisk® Global Customer Care

I feel there is no point in contacting them anymore. Almost all companies are like this and then ones who aren't, we can find their schematics online. Regardless of what argument I give them, and no matter how valid it is, if I want access to their schematics, the only way I will receive them is if they hire me directly as an engineer. Even then, I might not have access to these specific schematics.

Notice how in this e-mail, they don't even offer a service to try and repair the hard drive. They only offer to replace the hard drive. It wouldn't be for free, it'd cost money. Contacting the company is always a dead avenue (unless you find schematics online). A quick google search usually tells you if contacting the company will do any good or not.

Thanks for the suggestion but I think most of this stuff isn't supposed to be repaired and when it is, the companies outsource to another country. The companies might not even have the schematics, they might have outsourced to have the device made. The support people don't generally have access to schematics and even if they wanted to help, they simply cannot. Asus helped a guy and later, that guy would have had legal action taken against him for doing so, if they could figure out who he was. All he did was give a person part of a schematic, a small section. So, even if they do help, there's a chance they can get in a lot of trouble!

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

So I take my multimeter and start checking the voltages coming from the the PSU of my PC, but on the PCB of the SSD drive. I check where they're coming in from. The 12V reads around 12V, the 5V reads around 5V, but all three of the 3.3V read around 1.75V. When I first touch the probe, I'll see 3.3V, but then it drops in a flash down to 1.75V (roughly).

Is this normal? Or could this mean there's something wrong the components that require the 3.3V? Thanks!

[vinceroger69]

Re: Need help fixing a Sandisk X300 SSD drive.

This maybe worth a read another case of disappering ssd drives
https://www.extremetech.com/computin...ling-your-ssds