HDD GURU FORUMS

This SSD was subject to a power outage.

It has a SandForce controller so the amount we can do with it is limited. Power light on PC3000 show both 5v and 12v power going to the board, but the status register lights are out. Visual inspection of the board shows no signs of damaged or burnt out components. So the outage may have taken out the controller but wanted to run some basic tests on the board to see if I can isolate a failed component. By the way, the controller does get warm so is received power. Any help would be appreciated.

Images attached.

I would confirm that +5V is present at the input and output of U21 (MP5001DQ).

Also measure the voltages at inductors L1 - L5.


TPS3808G01, Texas Instruments, marking AVW, Low Quiescent Current, Programmable-Delay
Supervisory Circuit:
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tps3808g01.pdf

LM73CIMK, Texas Instruments, 2.7-V, SOT-23, 11- to 14-Bit Digital Temperature Sensor With 2-Wire Interface, marking T730:
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm73.pdf
http://datasheet.octopart.com/LM73CIMK-0-National-Semiconductor-datasheet-8326679.pdf

ST1S32, STMicroelectronics, step-down switching regulator, 2.8V - 5.5V in, 1.5 MHz, 4A, 8-pin:
https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/st1s32.pdf

ST1S31, STMicroelectronics, step-down switching regulator, 2.8V - 5.5V in, 1.5 MHz, 3A, marking 1S31, 8-pin:
https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/st1s31.pdf

L6928, STMicroelectronics, synchronous step-down regulator, 2V - 5.5V in, 800mA, 1.4 MHz, 8-pin,
https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/l6928.pdf

MP5001DQ, Monolithic Power, 5V, 1A - 5A Programmable Current Limit Switch, marking W5xx, QFN3x3-10:
https://www.monolithicpower.com/pub/media/document/MP5001_r0.94.pdf

ADM6710PARJZ, Analog Devices, Low Voltage, High Accuracy, Quad Voltage (adj, 3V, 1.8V, adj) Microprocessor Supervisory Circuit, marking MAV, RJ-6:
http://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/ADM6710.pdf

74LVC1G07, Diodes Inc, single non-inverting buffer, open drain out, 1.65V - 5.5V in, marking UNywx, 5-pin:
https://www.diodes.com/assets/Datasheets/74LVC1G07.pdf

TPD2E009, 2-Channel ESD suppression diodes for 6Gbps eSATA, marking 4T, SOT-3:
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slvs953b/slvs953b.pdf

fzabkar wrote:I would confirm that +5V is present at the input and output of U21 (MP5001DQ).
Also measure the voltages at inductors L1 - L5.

U21 - 5v
L1 - 1.v
L5 - 1.8v

Seem pretty normal?

I meant L1 to L5, ie L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5.

fzabkar wrote:I meant L1 to L5, ie L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5.

Sorry LOL, dumb as a rock here...

L1 - 1v
L2 - 2.88v
L3 - 1v
L4 - 2.85
L5 - 1.8v

Those voltages look OK (they are similar to those in another SF-2281 thread).

You might want to check the terminal port. Look for something like this (SF-1222TA3-SBH) ...

CLI> PINRST
*** ROM 106 Mar 12 2009 20:29:35 ***
FW_SRC 0 SHA PASS!
*** EEPROM 207 Jan 3 2011 18:36:47 BuildServer:FW_Common_Critical_Fixes:P1_EEPROM_2_0_7_drop-290232 ***
IMFT25 Timing EPch
*** Patch 1.4.1 Aug 22 2011 18:55:20 BuildServer:FW_Common_Build_Release:P1_3_6_4_MP4_Patch4_RC1_Drop-333796 ***
IMFT25 Timing EPch
RCPch SAK0

There is no terminal port on this drive. I did experiment and found the short points to get the drive into safe mode. However as its SandForce it doesn't really help.

Many thanks for the help as always.

ddrecovery wrote:There is no terminal port on this drive. I did experiment and found the short points to get the drive into safe mode.

The following thread discusses an Adata S510 which is based on a SandForce SF-2281VB1-SDC controller. The voltages are the same as yours.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/ssd-recovery-(adata-s510-128gb)/

At least something is alive - by shorting J3 (as mentioned in https://geektimes.ru/post/263876/) I can activate the "developer mode" which appears in Device manager as "mass storage device". Also hooked my USB-UART dongle to J4 TX pin and found out that the firmware doesn't load properly.

Now I have safe mode activated (called developer mode in that post) I can see that the FW is not loading in PC3K. Would be nice if Ace Labs can get this one sorted one day.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but ISTM that, instead of admitting that they can't do it, Ace are saying that it's not worth doing:

http://forum.acelaboratory.com/viewtopic.php?t=9443

fzabkar wrote:Maybe I'm too cynical, but ISTM that, instead of admitting that they can't do it, Ace are saying that it's not worth doing:
http://forum.acelaboratory.com/viewtopic.php?t=9443

I am not sure which one it is. It would be a big feather in their cap if they can do it, so I am sure they are doing their best but yes, it has been about 4 years in development and perhaps its time to move on. Luckily the SandForce controller is not so popular now so might be out of circulation in the next few years.