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Samsung 850 PRO 128GB Won't Initialize

Posted: February 7th, 2024, 22:07
by christophunkk
Hello, I have a 128GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD that went dark on me. Was my main OS drive and I have a couple documents that I'd like to get back if possible. I've tried different SATA, external SATA cable, and taken it to a nearby shop and they can't seem to get it to initialize or register to windows. When I am in the disk management window it shows up as "Disk 4" and when I initialize it says "The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error". There was another shop who said the data is recoverable but cost was too high.

I looked into some forums and saw that there is an e-fuse on this model (no TVS diode). Looking at the e-fuse chip when powered I have 5V at input and 5V at the output of the chip. This is where I'm not sure where to continue troubleshooting. I'm an EE by trade and if I had a schematic I'd be all up in it. Can solder, measure, etc. Just need direction! Any help out there?

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This link sprung me down a road of troubleshooting to some degree: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads ... ge-2#posts.

Thank you!

Re: Samsung 850 PRO 128GB Won't Initialize

Posted: February 8th, 2024, 6:16
by Lardman
You can check the voltages at the inductors around the PMIC - there are no drive schematics other than ones we create in house.

Given it's age and use this is likely to be a firmware issue caused by the nand degrading rather than an electrical problem. Best to send it in to a pro as it's a supported model shouldn't be much more than 300 USD.

Re: Samsung 850 PRO 128GB Won't Initialize

Posted: February 10th, 2024, 16:21
by fzabkar