M.2 Failed? Help Please

[YoshiMoshi]

Here's my RIG

 

MOBO: ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming: https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ROG-Motherboard-Lighting-Heatsinks/dp/B07SW8DQVL

 

CPU: AMD 3900X: https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-3900X-24-Thread-Processor/dp/B07SXMZLP9/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=3900X&qid=1606744090&s=electronics&sr=1-2

 

CPU: Nvidia ASUS 3090 TUF (Non OC): https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Graphics-DisplayPort-Military-Grade-Certification/dp/B08HJGNJ81/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=3090+TUF&qid=1606744142&s=electronics&sr=1-2

 

Storage Device: Rocket NVMe 4.0 M.2 SSD 1 TB: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Internal-Extreme-Performance-SB-RKT4P-1TB/dp/B08P2B6JKV/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=rocket+nvme+4.0+m.2+ssd+1tb&qid=1606744216&s=electronics&sr=1-3

 

Diagnosis:

I had the storage device above in a M.2 slot in my MOBO. I removed it from the slot while doing some maintenance and visibly damaged the M.2 socket. So I put it in the second slot on my computer that had no visible damaged, it didn't read it. I've used this slot many times with this particular SSD without issue though. So I assumed one of two things happened.

 

1. The SSD Failed

2. Both M.2 Sockets Failed on my MOBO (can't read the SSD)

 

There is no visible damaged to the SSD or the second socket on the MOBO. I decide the least costly way to diagnosis this issue and assumed my socket/MOBO failed and can't read the SSD. So I got a PCIe 16x SSD reader. I purchased it brand new.

 

Product: ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NQBQB6Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Plugged in the SSD and the card into my MOBO. It didn't recognize it. It doesn't show up in the BIOS. Put a Windows 10 OS on a old HDD and booted from that.  The M.2 SSD doesn't show up under My Computer, and it doesn't show up in Device Manager.

 

So I conclude that my SSD failed? I find this extremely difficult to believe. I don't have a spare M.2 SSD to verify this. Meaning plugging in a known good SSD into the same slot and see if it reads.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions or troubleshooting tips for me? I really prefer to get the data off it.

 

I'll post pictures in a few minutes of the SSD. Thanks for any help!

 

The M.2 Expansion card - I heard the fan within it spinning and felt it vibrating. So I'm sure it was getting power.

 

The SSD in question you can find below.

 

[Duckster]

When you send in pictures, can I please see the post screen? Thanks!

 

Edit: two of the connectors look damaged

[YoshiMoshi]

Just now, Duckster said:

When you send in pictures, can I please see the post screen? Thanks!

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated. How do I get the post screen to come up again? I've only ever seen it when I installed my CPU for the first time.

 

Something like this right?

[Duckster]

1 minute ago, YoshiMoshi said:

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated. How do I get the post screen to come up again? I've only ever seen it when I installed my CPU for the first time.

 

Something like this right?

yup, that's it.

[YoshiMoshi]

1 minute ago, Duckster said:

yup, that's it.

How do I get it to come up again? And I should have the SSD installed in the expansion card when I get the post screen to come up?

[Duckster]

1 minute ago, YoshiMoshi said:

How do I get it to come up again? And I should have the SSD installed in the expansion card when I get the post screen to come up?

try to turn the computer on without the ssd

[YoshiMoshi]

21 minutes ago, Duckster said:

try to turn the computer on without the ssd

Thanks. I unplugged the keyboard and mouse to get it to come up. The three devices shown are a CD Drive, a SATA SSD, and a HDD. It looks like the M.2 SSD didn't show up. This is the screen that came up with my M.2 Expansion Card plugged into the MOBO with the M.2 installed, with the fan within the card spinning.

This is hard for me to believe. I have never even had a HDD fail. So It's hard for me to believe that the M.2 SSD failed.

 

American Megatrends

AMIBIOS(C)2019 American Megatrends, Inc.

 

ASUS ROG STRIX X570-E GAMING ACPI BIO Revision 0604

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core Processor

    Speed: 3800MHz

 

Total Memory: 32768MB (DDR-2199)

 

USB Devices total: 0 Drive, 0 Keyboard, 0 Mouse, 1 Hub

 

Detected Devices...

SATA6G_8: HL-DT-ST BD-RE GBN-H20L

SATA6G_7: Crucial_CT1024MX200SSD1

SATA6G: HDC WD10EZEX-75M2NAO

 

No Keyboard Detected!

[Duckster]

I think your ssd was damaged, since I could see some of the connections were damaged. (to be honest though, I could be wrong since it's really hard to see)

[YoshiMoshi]

Just now, Duckster said:

I think your ssd was damaged, since I could see some of the connections were damaged. (to be honest though, I could be wrong since it's really hard to see)

Yea I see what your talking about. I'll see if I can get another picture.

 

So on the expansion card where you can install 4 M.2 SSDs. It has four LEDs. The literature that comes with it states that the LEDs flash when it's reading or writing from it. Well for me the socket that I installed the SSD in is solid green (not flashing), the rest are extinguished. So I guess it recognizes that something is there at least. It doesn't say what solid green means. Just that flashing is reading/writing.

[YoshiMoshi]

11 minutes ago, YoshiMoshi said:

Yea I see what your talking about. I'll see if I can get another picture.

 

So on the expansion card where you can install 4 M.2 SSDs. It has four LEDs. The literature that comes with it states that the LEDs flash when it's reading or writing from it. Well for me the socket that I installed the SSD in is solid green (not flashing), the rest are extinguished. So I guess it recognizes that something is there at least. It doesn't say what solid green means. Just that flashing is reading/writing.

I think you are referring to these two pads?

I got a close up with a microscope, and look what I found for the pins in question.

looks the bottom of the contact is damaged. I confirmed with a multimeter. With one probe at the bottom of the contact and one at the top. For these two pins. Sure enough there is not electrical continuity between them.

 

Are there any repair techniques to repair these pads?

[Duckster]

Nice work! Would there happen to be a warranty to send the ssd back to get fixed? Otherwise, I don't know how to fix it. 

[YoshiMoshi]

17 minutes ago, Duckster said:

Nice work! Would there happen to be a warranty to send the ssd back to get fixed? Otherwise, I don't know how to fix it. 

Thanks. It expired. I'm going to try something like this. Hopefully it'll work.

 

[YoshiMoshi]

yikes, am I completely missing some pads? I counted 34 pads on one side with the two damaged pins (this 34 count includes the damaged pins) and 33 on the other side. How many are there supposed to be?

[Duckster]

6 hours ago, YoshiMoshi said:

yikes, am I completely missing some pads? I counted 34 pads on one side with the two damaged pins (this 34 count includes the damaged pins) and 33 on the other side. How many are there supposed to be?

I counted, and where one side of the connectors is seperated from the others, one has 5 and the other has 4

I don't believe any are missing

[WhitetailAni]

What does the socket look like?

[YoshiMoshi]

The socket was totally destroyed.

 

So I tried using some copper tape, but I couldn't get it to stick to the board with to small of a tape to go over the gold contacts.

 

So I tried using some solder.

 

Using a multimeter I applied one probe at the bottom of the solder, and one at the top of the solder, and now have electrical continuity. The same thing with the second gold finger. I used the probes to ensure that none of the gold fingers were shorted together.

 

However it still wasn't read by my computer! This is a real pain.

 

I guess the only left to do is go from each gold finger to the pin from the socket to ensure that the gold finger is connected to the pin of the socket. I'm having difficulty doing this for the pins underneath the SSD.

 

Is there any type of like breakout board or some other type of m key NVME socket that I can use to verify that the continuity of the gold fingers to the socket?

 

Once I verify that every gold finger has electrical path with the pins of the socket, than I can rule out that it's not a connection issue.

 

I also ordered another m.2 NVME drive M key so I can put a new good one into the same socket to see if it's read. But that won't be here until tommorow.

 

Thanks for any help or suggestions on how I can recover the data on this SSD or further troubleshoot what's wrong with it? Perhaps the gold fingers aren't making contact with the socket, or perhaps there's something else wrong with the drive.

 

I also tested all of the gold fingers, there's electrical continuity throughout all the gold fingers now, on both sides of the SSD. So I don't believe the other gold fingers are  not damaged to the point where it can't be read.

[WhitetailAni]

Are any of the pins connected to each other?

[YoshiMoshi]

15 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

Are any of the pins connected to each other?

On the SSD, nope I tested with a multi-meter. None of the gold fingers on the edge connector of the SSD itself are shorted together.

[YoshiMoshi]

update a put a brand new m.2 drive into the same socket, and my computer was able to read it.

[YoshiMoshi]

Does anyone have any suggestions, I'm at a loss on how to further troubleshoot?

[YoshiMoshi]

bump, went onto second page still not solved

 

guys please i really need some help

[YoshiMoshi]

bump

[Shai Hulud]

On 11/30/2020 at 10:08 AM, YoshiMoshi said:

Thanks. It expired. I'm going to try something like this. Hopefully it'll work.

 

Sabrent has 5 year warranties if you registered within 90 days I think. 1 year otherwise. That drive has been on the market about 18 months, I guess you didn't register it?

[YoshiMoshi]

12 hours ago, Shai Hulud said:

Sabrent has 5 year warranties if you registered within 90 days I think. 1 year otherwise. That drive has been on the market about 18 months, I guess you didn't register it?

i did not, but they said they would replace it. I'm not sure why it's not working, I was hoping to get the data off from it. Any ideas why it's not working?