After five years of moderate use, my Samsung PM951 seems to be bricked. It was a progressive problem: starting with "sudden controller death" maybe once a day, but then become totally bricked after I ran the "thorough" test in the BIOS for the drive (which presumably reads the entire drive). Longer description [url="https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/f4hqii/the_pm951_ssd_on_my_xps_15_died_at_2_write_use/"]here[/url].

I couldn't find much info about restoring this drive. I am fine with a full wipe: I have backups.

I read the missing manual, which mentions safe mode and I thought maybe I could do a secure erase from safe mode. However, the "7 vias" are not in the same place. Here's a closeup of the vias on the PM951:



Based on similarity to the "missing manual", I'd expect the two pins marked B to be the safe mode trigger. However, after power up, they measure 1.88 and 1.82 V, whereas the missing manual indicates that it should be 0 and ~1.8.

The two small vias, marked A, on the other hand do measure 0 and 1.8. I tried shorting those and the drive simply didn't appear after boot (not in lspci -v, at least).

I haven't tried shorting the other two pins yet, since the similar voltages kind of indicates they are not the safe mode pins.

Any ideas appreciated. If I get in to safe mode, is a secure erase command even possible?

This is an NVMe drive on an M.2 connector.

I would be snapping it half

It has certainly crossed my mind along with a the blender, etc - but I'm still holding out hope and maybe this excercise can help others who need to restore or recover from a similar device.

ACE Labs allegedly are the only DR company that sell hardware supporting NVMe drives. (see a recent thread they posted here somewhere)

I don't think they support Samsung as it is a likely Samsung Controller, unless it is a rebadges Phison or SMI.

I just don't see the investment of time worthwhile, except for personal "fun". (which I understand).

Another member, Sourcerer, posted some info about some Samsung SSDs, maybe there is something relevant :

http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=34856&p=243347&hilit=manual#p243347

look for Sourcerers post 1/2way down for links.

What are the markings on the 8-pin IC at the lower left corner?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.