My name is Joshua and I'm a PC Technician in Marietta, GA. I had a lady come into the store today with a flashdrive that was plugged into a laptop, and then the laptop took a fall. in the process, it slightly bent the flashdrive. The customer wouldn't specify what part of the drive was bent. I removed the drive from the plastic casing it was in and it appeared to be fine. I was hoping some of the solder points had been broken, but everything looks fine...

I told her it would be a longshot...but I felt so horrible I had to at least try. The drive was filled with pictures of her newborn baby. When I told her I was unsuccessful, she started crying! I am at home now and researching some possibilities...I was curious if you guys had any suggestions. I understand that flash memory is entirely different than a hard disk, but I figured you guys would be the people to ask. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

again, the board/chip didnt appear to be cracked or anything

the "head"? of the drive, the part you plug into the port, also appeared fine.

all the solder points appeared strong.

when you plug it in, the light stays on constantly

when you plug it in, it acts like it is working..but the drive never appears, and then says the drive has stopped working.

I have tried it in Linux, Windows and Mac.

I have access to a soldering gun, and pretty much anything I need at the shop...what would be the next step in a situation like this? What am I getting myself into?

I am willing to send it to someone (if customer is willing) to have the work outsourced. I have a lot of experience with hardware/software. I feel confident in my soldering as well. I'm willing to try anything new and I have huge interests in HDD recovery.

thank you so much!

If the customer is saying part of the drive (very likely to be the USB connector attachment) was bent, and when you look at it, everything looks normal, then we've got an immediate communication issue.

The customer needs to be honest and give "full disclosure" of what they have done, to help give anyone the best chance of repair - if everything now looks normal, that suggests they have "unbent" whatever was originally bent, and doing that may have caused further damage.


Since the original problem was mechanical (i.e. the fall), then damaged solder joints are likely, though this is not the only possible damage which can be caused by a fall. Unless you have a microscope (and ideally other test equipment), and are familiar with this type of damage, it can be difficult to identify.


Seriously consider using the services of a company who is familiar with this type of problem, so that you don't become responsible for making things worse or even making them unrecoverable.


Without a microscope, good lighting, and experience, it can be difficult to find solder joint damage (which seems likely in this case).


Depending on exactly what you mean by a soldering "gun", then this may be totally inappropriate for SMT soldering work. I can think of a few different potential repair approaches, but none of them include what I would call a soldering "gun".

My vote would be for you to outsource this to a company with experience in this area (or redirect the customer to such a company). You might get some recommendations for suitable US-based companies from other members.

I've already contacted DriveSavers, which is who we recommend to people at my work. I'm going to get a quote for her and attempt to reach her. I didn't realize they did flash recovery until I got home. They are pretty expensive, but if anyone can get it, it's them.

I asked the customer a couple different way, to describe to me where it broke. I'm not sure if she just didnt know how to explain it or what. And yes, she did bend it back herself. She actually had two flash drives plugged in when the laptop fell. The other flash drive was bent way worse than this one, she said, and apparently it still works fine. I didn't bother getting a better explanation because I was hoping it would be obvious when I got around to it.

A soldering gun may be an inaccurate term. I learned from my dad and that's what he called it. I've heard it called a soldering wand and even a soldering stick. anyways, it looks like a screwdriver with a soldering tip on the end, powered via AC outlet.

I saw some people on some of the other threads receiving outsource work, figured I could offer the same. Besides trying to see how difficult it would be to try myself, of course.

Thanks again

There are reputable members of this forum in your area which could do this job for you. At this point, it should be straightforward.
Contact member jono-ats. Works for drivesavers and he comes highly recommended.

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@savestheeday:

At least over here, that specific term "soldering gun" usually refers to something like shown on this web page:

Weller 8100UD - Soldering Gun at Farnell

Hence my comments about using that for SMT work.

How does Microsoft's UVCView utility see the flash drive?
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/USB_ID ... ew.x86.exe

If you shake the flash stick, can you hear it rattle? If so, then suspect a shattered crystal.

Could we see some close-up photos of both sides of the PCB?

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I'd considered that, but my experience is that with a shattered crystal, there is no USB recognition at all, which doesn't fit with the OP's report - however as always, YMMV!

Understandably a bad crystal would result in a brain dead flash controller. However, wouldn't the USB host controller still know that something was connected?

IIUC, a USB device signals its presence via pullup and/or pulldown resistors on the Data+ and Data- pins. The OP statement that "it acts like it is working" is a bit vague, so it isn't clear (at least not to me) whether the host and device have begun the enumeration process.

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Agreed that the OP's description could be clearer, but they specifically reported (and therefore I was using in my diagnosis):


For any error message to refer to it as a drive must mean that it has been recognised as MSD (and not any other type of USB device), which requires successful USB communication, of course. If the Windows error message has been mis-reported, then all bets are off.

Solder pads to the usb connector might look ok but the unseen tracks often underneath the same usb connector might have a break.
Shock damage might cause a crystal to operate out of spec or not at all so if there is an obvious crystal it is definately worth swapping out.
I fear to diagnose and repair all of this would be beyond the capabilities of the original poster. However I do wish him luck!