[SOLVED] Intel SSD 320 series fried diode (?) CR3, one contact, should I remove it?

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Apr 23, 2024
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Hi! Could you please help me with my SSD? I plugged 6-pin PCIE to 8-pin CPU, I also plugged 24-pin to 24-pin and 8-pin CPU to 8-pin CPU (my motherboard has two 8-pin CPU power slots) and pressed POWER button, I don't remember what happened next. SSD died after that, undetectable in bios. I see one fried component (A2 P0d) inside. Also it looks like the component have only one contact connected, but I'm not sure, it's so small.

Could you please take a look at the photos and give me any advice? ANYTHING WOULD BE HELPFUL!

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Apr 23, 2024
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The only DIY opportunity for your HDD would be to clone it with HDDSuperClone. It can handle a "difficult" HDD, and it maintains a log file so that it can resume after an interruption.

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecoverysoftware/wiki/hddsuperclone_guide/

A SMART report can check the health of the drive:

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecoverysoftware/wiki/index/smart/
Now it starts spinning and stops 5 seconds later with a click sound, not detected (not enough time for that). I tried 2 times. Is there a reason to measure the PCB with a multimeter? I'm ready.
 
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Apr 23, 2024
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Yes, if your drive has bad heads, you need a donor. But not just any donor will be suitable. Moreover, this requires cleanroom work and is not a DIY project.

It's a long shot, but try cleaning the HDA contacts with a soft pencil eraser. Don't scrub too hard, otherwise you will remove the plating.

https://www.hddoracle.com/download/file.php?id=420&mode=view

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=649
I used a knife, it was before diode's removing. Does it look like I broke something? Here are 3 photos (all-in-one image) with different lights:
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Also I have a video with a click sound, could you please take a look?
 
The contacts look OK. I'm no expert on HDD sounds, but spin-down is indicative of an internal fault. It could be that the PCB has damage that mimics a head fault, but that would be another long shot.

You could purchase a replacement PCB, but you would need to move the "ROM" chip (aka "BIOS") from patient to donor.

This company will supply the PCB and transfer the ROM:

https://www.hdd-parts.com/17124006.html

I suspect that you would be wasting your money, but you can't be sure until you try.
 
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Apr 23, 2024
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The contacts look OK. I'm no expert on HDD sounds, but spin-down is indicative of an internal fault. It could be that the PCB has damage that mimics a head fault, but that would be another long shot.

You could purchase a replacement PCB, but you would need to move the "ROM" chip (aka "BIOS") from patient to donor.

This company will supply the PCB and transfer the ROM:

https://www.hdd-parts.com/17124006.html

I suspect that you would be wasting your money, but you can't be sure until you try.
What do you think about the freezer trick? Should I try it? The HDD didn't spin right after copying 36% of the date from it but it spinned the next day (cooled down).
 
Apr 23, 2024
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You'll only risk making it worse.
I was able to keep the disk spinning from a specific position (connectors at the bottom) and I shook at a little before doing that (not connected to the power cable). Copied some files (1 gb) and it started making very quiet clicks and became unresponsive. I disconnected the disk from the power cable. What do you suggest next? What position is the best for the HDD in such case? I want to copy some important files. (not all of it) Also I put HDD in a colder place near a window for an hour or so. Maybe it made a difference.

Now I hear very quiet clicks (2 clicks per second) (I need to put my ear 5 cm from the HDD to hear them) if the HDD stops spinning so I guess it's trying to position the head but can't for some reason, also it stops regularly, starts and stops again depending on the position of the HDD so I stopped trying to not damage it more. But it's spinning at least, not every time but we have some progress. So it's either position or cold place or both.

Maybe I'll put the HDD near the window again for some time and try again later.

Looking forward for your opinion on that matter.
 
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That looks very strange. The SMART data normally live in a reserved area of the platters (System Area, SA). Some models also write the SMART data to the ROM on the PCB, but I don't know whether yours is one of these.

I don't know what is going on. At the risk of going down deeper into the rabbit hole, you could try to dump the drive's firmware using WDMarvel (demo version). Use the "SA operations" menu.

https://arch7rt.com/en/demo/
 
Apr 23, 2024
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Remove them and measure the resistances. That will tell us whether the ICs were responsible for the short, or whether the problem is somewhere else.
I did it. Could you please take a look? Most shorted capacitors are not shorted anymore (no more shorted caps around big black rectangular elements). Now it's 6 shorted caps on one side and 11 shorted caps on another side.

Should I connect a power cable to the SSD and check again what elements are hot? (C241 was hot before)
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Your measurements for U30 and L4 suggest that one or more of the ICs that are powered from this supply is shorted.

Shorted capacitors in proximity to the NAND flash ICs suggest that one of more of these ICs is dead, in which case there is no recovery, AFAIK.
 
Apr 23, 2024
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If all 5 of those circled capacitor test as shorted, then that points to a shorted NAND, AFAICT. You could try to remove the capacitors, one by one, in the hope that the short goes away, but I don't hold out much hope.
Red circle means it's not shorted anymore (U30+U33 has been removed)