Kingston SSDNOW 300 Case Opening

[ddrecovery]

Any advice on how to crack open this case? No screws in this one.

Attachments

[thatdellguy]

Screws under front sticker...

[ddrecovery]

Screws under front sticker...

LOL, should have worked that one out...... Thanks

[fzabkar]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6733/king ... 300-review

[ddrecovery]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6733/kingston-ssdnow-v300-review

Thanks, I see its SandForce

[jermy]

Any advice on how to crack open this case? No screws in this one.

Just reading this thread, the first thing that cross my mind is, why in the world would you want/need to unscrew it, but I see you already on to it

Thanks, I see its SandForce

[ddrecovery]

How can you find out if there is obvious pcb issues without opening the cover?

[jermy]

I thought you going for chip off recovery

[ddrecovery]

No.. Sandford the chip from hell.

[fzabkar]

I can help you with the "not-so-obvious PCB issues" if you upload detailed photos of both sides. For example, there is a 5V e-fuse near the SATA power pins.

PCB protection devices - Electronic Fuse:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php? ... 8872#p8872

[ddrecovery]

I can help you with the "not-so-obvious PCB issues" if you upload detailed photos of both sides. For example, there is a 5V e-fuse near the SATA power pins.

PCB protection devices - Electronic Fuse:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php? ... 8872#p8872

Thanks. Here are the pics, let me know if you want me to focus in on anything in particular.

Attachments

[fzabkar]

I would start by measuring the +5Vin and +5Vout voltages at the 5V e-fuse.

Then I would measure the regulator voltages at V1, V2, V3 and V4.

I presume there would be a serial interface that you could test with the appropriate tool. That should tell you whether the controller is alive.

APW8804, Anpec, synchronous buck converter with high and low side MOSFETs, 3A, 2.6V - 6V in:
http://www.anpec.com.tw/ashx_prod_file. ... PW8804.pdf
http://www.wpgholdings.com/uploads/bu/b ... 8804a4.pdf

Attachments

V1.jpg (117.33 KiB) Viewed 20707 times

5V_e-fuse.jpg (119.68 KiB) Viewed 20707 times

[ddrecovery]

I would start by measuring the +5Vin and +5Vout voltages at the 5V e-fuse.

Then I would measure the regulator voltages at V1, V2, V3 and V4.

I presume there would be a serial interface that you could test with the appropriate tool. That should tell you whether the controller is alive.

APW8804, Anpec, synchronous buck converter with high and low side MOSFETs, 3A, 2.6V - 6V in:
http://www.anpec.com.tw/ashx_prod_file. ... PW8804.pdf
http://www.wpgholdings.com/uploads/bu/b ... 8804a4.pdf

+5 Voltages both read 5.06v
V1 1.06
V2 2.87
V3 1.06
V4 2.87

[fzabkar]

1.06V looks like a Vcore supply for the flash controller, but I don't understand why there would be two of them, unless the controller had two cores. However, there is no mention of this in the datasheet:

http://www.seagate.com/www-content/prod ... 1409us.pdf

2.9V would be the supply for the NAND flash array, but once again I don't understand why there would be two of them since only one side of the PCB is populated.

I expect that there would be a 3.3V supply for the serial diagnostic interface (at the headers at either end of the PCB) but I can't see where this would be coming from. Could either of the 6-pin chips (which I have marked with "?") be a 3.3V LDO regulator? BTW, the 6-pin chip marked "T730" is a temperature sensor.

In short, I don't understand the numbers. Sorry.

[ddrecovery]

I have double checked the voltages and they are correct. This board has 8 chips on one side and space for 8 more on the other side. So while they are not used at present, perhaps some of the circuitry is left in place and this is what gives the false readings. I will pass on this job a I do not want to cause damage by poking around too much. Besides more than likely this is a controller failure reading the posts about this drive. Thanks for you help.

[fzabkar]

I would think that there should be a way to confirm whether the controller is alive by hooking up to the serial terminal. Perhaps there are shorting points that place the drive is some kind of diagnostic (safe?) mode.

Here are some examples:

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=23134
http://www.e1.ru/talk/forum/read.php?f=29&i=357735&t=357735
http://www.rom.by/forum/SSD_OCZ_AGT-25SATA3-120G_otvaly_oshibki_chteniya
http://forum.ru-board.com/topic.cgi?forum=84&topic=4797&start=380

Code:

[ROM] PORRST
[ROM] Chip ID 0x200026BB

*** ROM Rev 20D Dec 20 2010 Build 288571 ***

[fzabkar]

Here are the terminal pins from an OCZ SSD with an SF-2281 controller:

[ddrecovery]

Making some progress. I did try some of the short points when I first got the drive basing it on the Samsung SSD as they also supply controllers to some Kingston SSD's. Anyway, tried a few different combinations and got what I think is probably safe mode access (using PC3K SSD). This drive is not supported by PC3K being Sandforce but at least its a start.

The drive ID shows:
Model: SandForce 200026BB (controller)
Serial: 1
FW: 402ABBR0
Capacity 64 sectors

When I complete a HDD self test the status shows as "Disk Controller Error
"......

[fzabkar]

Obviously the controller is not brain-dead. However, the following threads would suggest that your tool supplier(s) may not have a solution at present.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=31929#p221571
https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=32268

[ddrecovery]

Indeed, I knew we couldn't get the data by a firmware fix (using a loader), hence asking about the board in general to see if we were missing something. I think Ace Labs have been trying for 4 years to crack the SandForce controller, and now they are becoming less popular they have probably stopped research. Once again thanks for the help, its appreciated.