Static damage - electronics

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Over the last weekend, I attemped to replace an Optane 16Gb SSD with a

256Gb M.2 SSD, as a way to speed up my laptop.

Idea was the Optane was an hybrid system, Optane plus 1Tb HDD, which would become an SSD containing all the software and OS, plus the HDD empty.

I went through through the process of shutting the Optane down, swapping Optane stick for M.2, cloning from HDD to M.2, removed the HDD booted up and all worked great, at first. I then reinstalled the HDD, wiped it, rebooted, and it continued to work fine, until it began blue screening, more and more, eventually it would not boot at all. More investigation revealled the M.2 had disappeared completely.

I have since, reinstalled my Optane, software and OS, and all runs absolutely fine again.

The 256 M.2, was a used item, and the seller had supplied it in an ordinary plastic bag - not static protected. Does this sound like static damage please?

[Theo]

Hard to say, but the fact that it initially worked and then stopped working might point that way. Alternatively something in your system killed it - but that seems less likely, especially since the Optane works fine.

By your account it stopped working out of the blue, and rather than when you were messing about inside the PC? In the latter case it could have suffered damage in some way (eg dropping a screw on it while powered which shorted something, or similar).

Theo

[Theo]

Or, I suppose, the thing was knackered (eg flash at the end of its wear limit) and running it for a bit pushed it over the edge.

Theo

[John Rumm]

Without very high end lab facilities, identifying if something was static damaged is almost impossible. Also contrary to popular belief most static damage does not result in an immediate fatality - but will usually manifest in a higher failure rate possibly years after the event.

So yes it *could* have been damaged, but the most likely explanation is that the drive simply failed.

What brand/model of drive was it?

[Andy Burns]

My first thought would be has the SSD suffered over-heating or used-up its write cycles, rather than static damage? Can you read SMART data from it?

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Yep, I was feeling quite confident it was working fine, so I had boxed it all back up, then the bluescreens then just became more and more prominent as time progressed. There were no dropped screws, nothing to suggest I had got anything wrong, my only concern was it being supplied in an ordinary plastic bag.

The seller has agreed a full refund, but just to double check, I have ordered a USB to M.2 adaptor, to see if that can access it.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

The seller supplied it with a test sheet, which supposedly confirmed it was perfect. He was selling quite a number of them, so he might have tested one, and have simply included the good test data from that good one.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Samsung 256Gb

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

I could not access it at all.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I had similar with an SSD. It just took ages to boot and SMART confirmed that something was badly wrong. But not with the NVRAM - with the access electronics. Replaced under warranty.

[alan_m]

I once went on a half day course on handling electronic components and that is one thing they stressed. Static damage can result in long term unreliability and not necessarily instant failure. One other point that was highlighted was components already soldered to a board can also suffer static damage if mishandled.

[Fredxx]

The fact that it blue screened suggests that most of the drive was still working.

The drive may still be working and I would investigate using Disk Management to see if the drive exists even if it doesn't as a 'letter'.

Most drives have a life used/expectancy that can be accessed through their SMART monitoring system

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Once it became unbootable, none of the software (lots) could see it, including DM. As soon as the USB M.2 adaptor arrives, I will/might be able to delve a bit deeper into the failure - I'm also keen not to return it, with lots of my data on.

[Fredxx]

Did it only blue screen the once and effectively dead after? In which case I might well be wrong and this was a catastrophic failure immediately before the blue screen.

If Disk Management can't see the drive I would wager it is well and truly dead.

I understand the dilemma.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am afraid that data is gone. Unless you are prepared to pay hundreds to someone who can repair the SSD. People can and do replace chips on mobile phone boards with remarkable skill.

But check out the investment in hot air guns, specialised soldering irons, infra red scanners, and microscopes

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

No, it ran perfectly for a couple of hours, then began blue screening, which it did around a dozen times, with the interval between gradually reducing, but it rebooted fine, except for the final time, when it then refused to boot, said there was no OS.

[Fredxx]

I concur as someone who has recently re-balled FPGAs, and remounted BGAs on a 1mm pitch, and a memory on a 0.5mm pitch.

Instead of a "specialised soldering iron" I would use a hotplate and temperature controlled hot air gun. None is particularly expensive but it takes experience to get it right.

[John Rumm]

Generally, one of the most reliable drives out there.

Although I did discover to my cost recently that they had a bad batch of

1 and 2TB SATA drives early in 2021. I found a couple of mine developed some unrecoverable read errors. Fortunately I don't think any made it into customer's computers - which would have been harder to track down and fix.

[Vir Campestris]

I once nearly gave a factory manager a heart attack. He realised I had picked up a finished board to look at it without wearing a wrist strap.

He calmed down when I wiggled my arm a bit, pointing out to him the bare flesh in contact with the earthed bare metal bench frame :)

Andy

[John Rumm]

Given the price of new 256GB SSDs is getting close to the "free with cornflakes" level, is it worth going for used parts?

(entry level M2 256 drives are sub £20 new)