M.2 NVME SSD Repair. Reballing a chip the size of a letter on a Penny.

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Phone: [phone]
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[@sijig3501]

As someone who does tech repairs you cannot understand how hard a reball is until you try it. Especially on a chip that small. Excellent work Alex. It was a beautiful reball.

[@jbtec5730]

I've got my ass whooped trying to solder a M92 chip in a Nintendo switch. I can't fathom reballing a nvme drive so small. Alex haz da skillz indeed.

[@sijig3501]

@@jbtec5730 it’s all practice, practice, practice. I was the same when I started. I couldn’t remove a hdmi port. Keep at it.

[@seckinseckin3919]

generally i dont reball like this, i use Sorin's technique like Alex made joke first touch to chip in the video

[@sijig3501]

@@seckinseckin3919 I think every tech has their own way of doing repairs. I think practice all ways and find what suits you.

[@jbtec5730]

@@sijig3501 I do, but Alex does make it look like it's really easy. When you actually try to do it like he does, it's not that simple. Mostly, if I may, because of his proper equipment. His solder wick, iron, heat blower and specially the Amtech flux make the absolute difference.

[@HardcoreEngineering]

The Drive is working its Bitlocked Well Done Alex

[@DELTAALLSTAR08]

Were you the original owner??

[@PracticalKnow]

One thing that works really well when trying to clean up chips prior to reballing is to *stick the upside-down chip onto a piece of sticky-side-up Kapton tape.*

[@KrispyBizcut]

Jeez i didn't realize how small those things were!! Their ain't no way i could do what you do!! And reballing that chip was awesome to watch!! Love watching you do your stuff!!! Amazing!!!

[@orange_tweleve]

💀thats the same type of size I would've thrown away as a dot of debrie before I started doing smd stuff for fun. How things change.

[@paulkingeu]

I was so pleased you put the penny beside the chip because I can show others just how tiny these things are. Thank you

[@ThriftyToolShed]

Excellent video Alex. That tiny reball was amazing and thanks for sharing that sometimes even with our best effort we can't win them all! We give it our best, that is what counts! Blessings!

[@tonymantinelli6747]

He tried his very best! most techs will not even reball a chip..too much work and usually never worth the time..great job man

[@andrewmiller3834]

I’ve been fascinated by these repairs from a few different channels but you Alex blew me away with this one. I’ve wanted to learn this trade for a few years but things get in the way (investment capital/training etc.) Comparing this chip to the Penny showed me just how difficult this can be. Hats off to you and those who work with you. You are all amazing people!!

[@gaineredison390]

I always advise those who criticize you Mr Alex of being proud of your self that the door is open for them to also do what you do and be proud of themselves. 95.5% of your work is always success. Why can't feel proud!

[@hombrepepega3472]

He doesn't show everything, how do you know his success ratio? Also if the problem is anything harder than soldering a new cap it's a nofix. 😂 Sure, his soldering skills are good, but diagnostics sucks ass.

[@Healcraft]

@@hombrepepega3472 his diagnostics are great for waht he has. better than great. he isn't a specified vendor, he doesnt have schematics for every 999999999 product out there. if you need a new programmed chip or something obviously he cannot do that

[@mrgatogrande4284]

Hi Alex, this could be an encrypted drive somehow, or a Linux filesystem that Windows or Mac won't recognize. If two volumes showed up at least the OS is able to read the partition table... meaning SOME data is flowing through. Definitely advice doing a sector by sector dump with a tool like dd, at the disk level.

[@boromoose]

Could definitely be an encrypted drive or an unrecognized file system that neither Windows nor Mac OS could read. Though I would hope the customer would have told Alex that when the drive was dropped off. Have the customer try the drive on their computer system to be certain. In any case, this was an amazing repair attempt by Alex. I greatly appreciate that he shares his failures as well as his successes. We can learn from both.

[@tvuser1]

Encrypted drive would display a locked volumn. This is corrupted nand. Hense the freeze.

[@OneIdeaTooMany]

​@@tvuser1It might depend on how it was encrypted right. Do LUKS encrypted volumes show up as a padlocked drive in windows?

[@x66Hawk66x]

No the nand was done for. if it was a partition formatted as something like EXT4 for example, windows would simply request you to format the drive. in the case of encrypted as already mentioned the drive would simply display as locked.

[@Nobbie248]

Yeah possibly steam os for the steamdeck

[@jayeshc4092]

Extraordinary work Sir..This nothing less than a surgery.. reballing such a tiny chip is no joke.. was worth the effort.. thankyou for another educational video..I would love to learn more about reballing.. 👍

[@TexasHollowEarth]

Yeah, I still got my original Fat PS3 that needs a CPU reballing 👍

[@peterpiper4722]

I would like to thank you for the many hours I have spent watching you videos. When I watch your videos it takes my mind off all the worries in life for that I'm grateful to you

[@Cro-mos]

First time seeing you reball and you make it look so easy. Great job!

[@reasonablebeing5392]

Thank you for doing this video - you saved me a ton of time. The Toshiba drive I have had the same cap shorted - luckily most of the key files are backed up.

[@yuri_alba]

I suggest put in a linux system and do a "dd" of the drive. Maybe you can get the files back. A linux system doesn't try to read the system file initially. So you can do the "dd" (disk dump) of the files even without read the file system. I made this process a lot of times and generally succeed.

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

DD really stands for "disk destroyer" Restoring a data from a failing storage media - ddrescue is made for that.

[@theRizza791]

@@volodumurkalunyak4651 dd = disk dump...

[@ytdlgandalf]

​@@volodumurkalunyak4651try 'man dd'

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

@@baghdadiabdellatif1581 1. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M 2. Good luck convincing dd to skip failed block, retry later and using mapfile (failing storage media can templorary disappear from system, dd will lose it's progress)

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

@@ytdlgandalf dd without something like -bs=64k or -bs=1M is slow. dd without -conv=noerror will stop on error. dd with -conv=noerror and bs higher than 512b (default value) will mangle your data upon recieving an error. ddrescue - copies data fast and accuratly.

[@memyself2905]

I love your honesty 16:15 so awesome. Nobody can explain step by step how detail like you did. We always learn many experiment of our job. You're are a role model for my hobby in this job. I'm keep learning by doing in every case. Hello from Indonesia 🇮🇩.

[@timm.8249]

i find it relaxing watching you work..thanks

[@ThisIS_Insane]

Cracked chips don't usually bode well, for a successful repair. Ya gave it the old college try, Alex, and that's all we can ever do! Love watching you work!

[@snooter28]

You sir, are a beast at this profession. Holy crap I would have never understood the size of that chip without literally getting out a penny myself.

[@CooLDEaFY4204Me]

At least you do your best for customer. Yea sometime you win, sometime you lose is scientific fact. Sorry for customer unable to get info...it's so motivated for me watch your work. I'm ready to order electronics tools through your sites Alex soon. Can't wait. 😊

[@robertmosen6126]

You sir, are a magician. Very impressive work.

[@MlnscBoo]

Can't Wait to get into micro soldering. Your the man Alex! The size of the chip is honestly intimidation compared to the pennie, but I never say never and have never failed at something I want to do. Can't wait to get into this stuff. Their is still a chance that the drive wants to see it's original PC. Maybe if he plugs it into his original peice of equipment it may work. If not like you said, it comes with the job. Great video

[@azis7281]

Yup it should be checked by puttin back to its original place. Not a guarantee but worth a try.

[@nickwaters2802]

Start with a good microscope like northridgefix microscope and a good soldering iron like sugon a9, really that's all you need. Hot air later, like atten ST-862D. These tools make it much easier to get really good at microsoldering.

[@nickwaters2802]

Microscope is arguably the most important, it gives you superpowers to microsoldering. If you are careful, anything is possible with a good microscope

[@MlnscBoo]

@@nickwaters2802 Thanks for the tips guys. I'm going to eventually get one of NF's microscopes but right now I have to work with what I got. It's a Cannon rebel t7. The cool part is I bought a 58mm reverse lens ring and extension tubes. Just with the reverse lens ring I'm able to see the individual pixels on my 4k panel. I also looked at the little owl in the top right hand corner of a dollar bill and it makes it as big as my hand on my tv screen lol. It's pretty cool

[@T3hderk87]

10:00 "If you want to sneeze, if you feel that itch, do not do it!" I honestly laughed way too hard at this. What you do is wild sir, takes a great deal of skill and we definitely appreciate it.

[@tmark33]

Wow man, that is an excellent work 👋

[@Ryan_DeWitt]

I think this is a great example of work smarter, not harder. Some people complain "why don't you do any BGA reballing work." Well there you go. A situation where it was required and it is not terribly hard for someone with great skills, but requires skill and is time consuming. You normally buy the chips pre-balled which saves a whole lot of time and time is money.

[@Emulation_Inflation]

Damn. That's a small reball. The settling of the chip is so satisfying.

[@spectrecular9721]

I was sitting on the edge of my seat by the end of this 2 part series. It's a damn shame there was no victory at the end, but that's life sometimes

[@m-elokkichawki9694]

hello first time seeing you reballing .....expert job as expected from a master

[@TheMossberger1]

Never seen you go this far on data recovery. Keep it going. You are on the front lines of repair for many of your fellow tech's. Cheers! (More data recovery videos!)

[@kesindestek9329]

Video ve ayrıntılı bilgi için teşekkürler, Önemli olan bilgi. Her zaman onarım olmuyor.

[@Indiskret1]

I stopped watching these kinds of videos when another great KZbinr stopped doing them, but now I've found your channel with so many great videos. As a bonus, I also love your sense of humor! Beautiful re-balling of an incredibly tiny component, even if the repair didn't work out in the end. You sure got the skills. Thanks for sharing your work!

[@xrellx]

Who quit? I go through phases of binge watching them a couple times a year

[@gekkkoincroe]

Who are you taking about ?

[@perspicacity89]

You are a computer wizard, Alex-jan.

[@hpat225]

Great video. 👍

[@mugabirapaul8653]

great work bro

[@MaqsoodAlamShafiq]

Your hands are amazingly steady. I bet you could have been the best neuro surgeon had you opted for a medical degree 👍🙂

[@kevinhoward9593]

your videos are very informative.

[@mohamedatheef6284]

that 9th dimension was hilariours 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@dobaayaz]

Solder on gold plated pin can make difference 12:41

[@GenericPast]

I wondered if that was solder or plating chipped off

[@claudiotonelli7709]

Compliment for your video!! Great!

[@twitch54304]

I’m ordering that universal stencil as soon as I’m done watching this!

[@MikkoRantalainen]

8:49 Wow! That's small. Great work on reballing that one!

[@jme36053]

If you can’t fix it, it can’t be done. Thanks for the additional attempt.

[@hebe1792]

Masterpiece! Too bad it did not work out, but the work was first class.

[@e630fnr]

Reminds me of an expression we use in Greek for similar situations, "The operation was successful but the patient died"!

[@tek4u22]

amazing man !

[@Oheng75]

Omg the suspense of waiting for the drive to popup.

[@kennedyabellana8813]

Its ok master sometimes good but somtimes bad.but your the one direct to the point.idol....

[@MinusMedley]

I can certainly suggest linking it to an actual motherboard's slot to double check, USB peripherals tend to cause issues when assigning drive letters and can misread partition info like the drive's MBR/GPT tables.

[@vassilischr]

The music at the end of each video was very good, bring it back.

[@CooLDEaFY4204Me]

More videos of NF. Alex is awesome. Always enjoy watch your work.. always excited about your teaching. Awesome. Better than FaCToRY lol

[@wurstwasser6567]

I've never seen anything like it on this scale. Reballing is always like that, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it doesn't matter what was done here is so difficult, just the steady hand you need 😱👍

[@markcondrey2297]

Alex, come on man! You can’t fix a simple cracked memory chip? Lol nice work, your problem solving skills are top notch.

[@x66Hawk66x]

Hats off too that reball job. sad result but overall the best anyone can do.

[@kangarif9166]

Amazing👍

[@shokdj1]

You make it look so easy, I’ve failed too many times reballing lol

[@shokdj1]

I think I’ve worked it out my solder paste is too wet

[@goshm]

Hi dear Alex, I had the same issue with the same m.2 NVMe and it only worked when I’ve tried it in another reader, for some reason few of those m.2 drives are not getting read by certain readers, I’ve got about 7 different ones and it only works in 2 of them, even though they are all NVMe readers.

[@mrgatogrande4284]

Agreed, I have an NVME drive that does NOT work on an adapter, but works flawlessly when connected directly to the computer. The adapter works fine with all other drives.

[@SuperSpecies]

Should be ok in a real thunderbolt reader without conversion to usb

[@TheAnkit211]

Fantastic JOB , Alex beautiful soldiering skills. Its one of the reason why not trust nvme .... definitely not to a cheap one. Always take backup from any form of solid state drive . HDD gives signs of failing or degradation. SSD DOES NOT !!

[@leslielamptey8328]

Welcome back boss

[@MrGeneralScar]

nice work. I wonder if checking it out with the thermal camera will show a different component getting hot now that the cap and the microchip was replaced. Perhaps there is more wrong with it other than the NAND chip.

[@marwanmoussa7221]

Try attach it to the PC again and check drivemanger to see the drive info and partitions. By the way, you can tell if a drive is NVME by it having many data line pairs going to the PCIE connector (see 00:54). The sata only have 2 pairs.

[@Andy76swe]

It doesn't look like an NVMe connector.. It looks like an M.2 Sata connector

[@dewocomputersalatiga]

Very impressive work,i'm to long not reball

[@somebodythatiusedtoknoooooooow]

Nice work, the end tip of the tweezers is bigger than the component haha

[@naeemn45]

Hi Alex, During initial soldering of the reballed chip. What was the temperature and flow values. After contact was made. What were the values afterwards?

[@RejectedManiac]

Great video Alex. Quick question. Do you use an ultrasonic cleaner to clean the flux from underneath BGA chips you replace? Not necessarily data recovery. Or do you just leave flux there? Amtech has told me its okay to leave flux underneath BGA chip. Thanks!

[@metingul595]

Good jobs

[@2368rafa]

Hola, genial trabajo. Has consultado si pudiera ser un problema de firmware del disco?

[@UnCoolDad]

Should have measured the cap for future reference.

[@zaprodk]

It's not a cap. It's a LC-pass-trough filter.

[@SuperSpecies]

How do you measure a faulty cap?

[@tipanatiinformatica]

a tip, always protect the connectors with kapton tape. Good job

[@deeharris1908]

I had the same issue on 1 of my daughters drives wen trying 2 read on pc, could see the drive on screen but couldnt read from it, inserted the drive into the pc again and it was as simple as changes to the drive properties, whatever the file format was saved as, changed the file format and it allowed me access 2read the files

[@suryavanshib]

Awesome ✌🏻✌🏻✌🏻

[@MotherboardClinic]

I have always longed to see you do reballing task.Nice to see you use this stencil. What if the Nand chip is desoldered and read via jtag? If successful dump data is transfered to new chip and installed.

[@user-qf2ih6ti8f]

Hi, Alex ... Yes if the nand chips is the problem then...no solution The M.2 drive is an old generation of M.2 NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor) the B key, then later generation came the M.2 NVME , M key... I wanted to say, the M.2 reader , do support all M.2 drives... because some didn't... If the problem is the nand chip, then on any readers won't see the drive... Thanks...

[@larkop6504]

Having worked in electronics and hearing about reballing, always wondered how it was done but now i know thanks. Would love to know what the viscous clear liquid is that you use to protect components when using heat gun?

[@hossemrahem3537]

Thanks alex you are doing great and profes job i ask if you have an lc meter device to measure caps and coil getting their real value for replacing the proper and exact component

[@user-fx9hp2ss9w]

I love your videos sir 💚💚💚💚💚💚 I am from India 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 Your videos are very useful.

[@macmurphy05]

Comes from my Hometown, get fixed in US and i watch the Video in Portugal.

[@andrewgjkgjk]

That cap you replaced looks like it has 4 leads? Are the ones in the center operative or just for mechanically holding it in place?

[@PolyCube71]

What kind of soldering pliers do you use to desolder smd capacitors for example? Can't find it in your shop!

[@JohnDoe-ot6he]

WOW the comparison of the chip with a penny 😵

[@ADRdaniel]

Alex you could image the drive and try an extraction tool if the computer recognizes the drive as a drive I've recovered many coustmers data this way.

[@kakkoishonen]

First time you don't begin your video with the traditionnal: "Here we have a ...." 😆

[@Dheazzo]

😂😂 Or in this repair video 😂😂😂

[@jk_bc]

What kind of ic is? a regulator? did you measure on diode mode its pads?

[@silasrush1903]

What temperature do you set your heat to when removing these components?

[@Dwedit]

Maybe try using a disk hex editor (such as HXD) to see if the disk sectors are readable at all.

[@user-uz9iz8pl7y]

hi, what program is used for checking schematics ?

[@natealbatros3848]

what microphone are you using?

[@ottospoelstra2481]

You can also use solderballs and heat them with low airflow

[@yusufyeltepe2066]

Adamsın. Büyük usta...

[@amarsrayer8141]

Impressive. That flux product you lay all over the board isn't a problem when it covers the connector?

[@wallysemenoff8110]

What size lens you use on your microscope??

[@EnthusiastPC]

Small chips are nothing to sneeze at 🤣

[@KieranShort]

Maybe try plugging the m2 drive directly into a motherboard rather than going through an external USB controller. Maybe something in the USB controller didn't handle the fault very well. Maybe the motherboard or CPU controller could do it better?

[@kevdog20]

I got to get that universal stencil

[@ahmedshibani9248]

My be it’s need to restore from old one If they reprogrammed 🧐 But you have done a good job 👏👏👏👍

[@ParkNathan]

Legendary

[@crispuloguerrero9266]

Let’s be honest the operation won’t succeed bud we’ll learn so much from it keep working hard bro you know what you are doing there I’m a tech myself and you work very smart not just hard👍

[@lanfear552]

Not working? I was under the impression that the B & M key of this drive means it's SATA, which does not support hot plugging. Was this also tested with a reboot (with the drive plugged in)?

[@briansharp8003]

I have had good lucc using testdisk to read bad disks and drives.

[@fraenkiboii]

What's the paste you applied for re-balling? Is it "just" regular soldering paste? And did you heat it up??

[@xlwirelesselectronicrepair]

Solder paste for reballing ic chips 183c

[@Dheazzo]

Me too I was nervous and when exactly you said wait a minute an Amazon advert popped up and I almost vomited my heart out. Let me ask a simple one, now that the reballing stencil is in stock should we expect alien wares to have there GPU/CPU’s rebelled and marked as a fix??