SanDisk Flash Drive Not recognized Freezes - Is it repairable ?

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[@euphoricmonk]

Maybe the customer thought if you lost one of the notes you would have a backup? It's a reasonable measure, don't understand the hate.

[@alexparakan]

Bruh it's just Alex being Alex. He's just straight forward and don't really care much about feelings.

[@dahrafs9798]

This him is better businessman. Two years ago him was a better person.

[@TLM-Nathan]

It just adds to the clutter around. Put as much detail as you can in the ticket and be done with it. However; I understand wanting to add notes. As a former mechanic it was cool having a note from the vehicle owner because you get the description of the problem from the person themselves rather than some service writer that's only half paying attention and pretending to be in a hurry and leaves out half the stuff or doesn't word it properly.

[@SHINdanny]

...maybe because he might lose time, he has to read both notes and compare since they can have different or additional information. From that point of view I can understand ;)

[@joawesome2319]

He can never loose the note if he has it stored in his system on the computer.

[@joawesome2319]

Those sandisk flash drives are known to get very hot during operation. It could be a possibility that the chip overheated itself

[@Bus2000]

my idea to

[@paultomlinson528]

The controller does all power management and often fails

[@maklogetrich2378]

I use sandisk flare and yes it's very hot because it's very fast

[@netninjask1zer]

There might be overheating protection on the chip. Try cooling it while extracting data. It’s a long shot but I am curious. Also you might try a bit lower usb voltage.

[@Mr28d23]

Was going to say this.

[@manickn6819]

Yeah I would say put it in a non conductive fluid or try thermal paste and a decent heat sink.

[@unrealmanel]

Like the idea

[@sihamhamda47]

@@manickn6819 I think thermal pad + heat sink is enough to cool a removable drive

[@manickn6819]

@@sihamhamda47 probably is. Forced cooling of the heat sink may or may not be necessary depending on the size.

[@leeheggie7043]

I do this kind of work and when windows acts weird like it was i then take the flash drive and plug it into a linux based environment. the amount of success i get with this method is 7 out of 10 times linux allows you to see the files where windows hung. before i take drives apart in this situation i always try linux environment first. The local college sent a female student to me with a flash drive with similar symptoms as they tried for days to recover her college work off the drive and failed. She came to me and i sent her to a local shop about 5 minutes walk from my place to buy a replacement drive as i was out of them. By the time she got back i had a backup of her files on my desktop ready to put onto her new drive. She walked away over the moon happy. Within half an hour the college it guy comes to me to ask how i did it. I told him not everyone lives in a Microsoft world.

[@Produkt_R]

My first thought exactly. You could even quickly salvage some data by doing dd

[@leeheggie7043]

@@crylune was that operator error or linux error.

[@paranadayo]

tengo el mismo pendrive con el mismo problema y en linux falla igual. Es un defecto de fabrica de este modelo por desgracia

[@leonkernan]

Your a braver man than me plugging in random peoples usb drives.

[@austist]

definitely working on a virtual machine so that the system and its file contents are accessible at all times. i just assume by how the file explorer looks anyways-

[@kaimojepaslt]

@@austist he isnt working on virtual.

[@pavloss3119]

I mean they do have his info

[@ributasmara5841]

I think win 10 devender is good enough

[@nopelandfill]

@@pavloss3119 its not always intentional, the customer's computer may have a rootkit on it that he's unaware of himself, have some mercy 😂

[@CiderPang27]

Looked like the heat was coming from the led. Noticed it wasn’t lighting up either. What about removing it and trying it?

[@agostini81]

I noticed the same thing

[@kingKai2022]

I was about to say that too haha good thing I'm not posting also

[@DALOCKATTACK]

That's not how leds work

[@undertakerg9]

Hi. There is a way to slide those kinds of drives out from the shell through the back. One clip holds it inside. Regards

[@Blackdog4818]

If this channel has shown me one thing, it's double save everything you wish to have, because it's a lot cheaper buying a flash drive than sending it off to this guy. Love his work though.

[@mrtechie6810]

Don't use flash for backups! It's not reliable!

[@JasonBiggs666]

I've had some low success with cooling the chip . Used canned air, holding it upside down, to keep it super cold. maybe 15% of the time it'll keep the chip cool long enough to work. works on HDD controller chips as well.....rarely, but sometimes. Easy to do.

[@budgetking2591]

huh, what a vague description, use canned air, hold upsite down???????????? uhhhhhhh ok............

[@redbaron6805]

@@budgetking2591 Canned "air" is basically R134a refrigerant. When you hold it upright, it dispenses gas, when you hold it upside down, it dispenses liquid refrigerant which basically works as a freeze spray.

[@vadimbellous8313]

@@budgetking2591 Anyone who works with electronics in any capacity knows what he means. Although there is a first time for everything, for everyone, and hearing about canned air and its uses might be yours.

[@detmer87]

I have two Sandisk Ultra 64GB usbsticks. Both still work for a few minutes but as soon as they get hot (which they do at idle) they stop working. Sandisk really made junk. Mine both died little over two years. If I had stress tested these when new I'm quite certain I could destroy these within a few days...

[@Toby1952]

Since you've already deemed it a lost cause you might try a long shot and put the drive in a plastic bag and immerse the bag in a container of ice water. Doing so MAY cool the overheating chip just enough to get it functioning long enough to pull the data off the drive.

[@Djbiohazard1991]

The heat isn't keeping the drive from booting. There's a dead short inside the IC package (which keeps it from working) that generates heat. :)

[@jamesjames2761]

Was about to buy a 128gb version of this drive. I'll keep looking for something else. Great vid

[@sadmatch41]

So you won't be buying anything that goes to a repair shop? You're not gonna buy anything cuz everything break at one point and that's normal Nothing in this video stated that it died prematurely or anything like that

[@GregM]

All flash drives can fail. Do not use them as your main drive. Do REGULAR backups of your critical files

[@kunka592]

Basically all flash drives are terrible for random catastrophic failures. Especially if you leave them plugged in. They overheat easily and will lose everything on them. Only use them for transporting files or as a backup (of a backup, preferably), or some other task where data loss is acceptable.

[@paultomlinson528]

These devices seem to fail often but only because they are so popular... buy a good brand and stay away from Chinese cheapo things

[@VladoT]

You should have a cooling spray in hand and try to cool the drive's chip and try to read that way.

[@ernestmccollum2397]

@Vlado T but if the chip is shorted inside it will not work.

[@Steffen_]

There is a short inside the Chip, i have the same problem with a Sandisc usb drive. When the ice melt, what your cooling spray generate, u get another short of all usb pins.

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

The heat is not the problem. The heat is a symptom.

[@mbwatson1000]

I always used these sorts of no-fix situations as an opportunity to teach the customer something about data backup, suggesting to them ways of ensuring they do not rely on any single physical device to store their data.

[@mrvolcada5355]

Now you may think I'm silly but 40 years ago I used to do data recovery on floppy discs, place disc in plastic bag, place bag in the freezer for 10 mins, remove and try again. Worked 90% of the time. Also used to go around the PCB with a can of freezer spray and spray individual components, then power up, eureka

[@frosty.winnipeg]

Yeah the LED part has me wondering too. Snap it off. Let’s not forget what these drives are good for - transportation and backing up files! So where are the originals then?

[@mrtechie6810]

Don't use flash for backups! It's not reliable!

[@binmode]

I had a pendrive working but it is faulty now because of all the UV light it got exposed to when I watch your videos 🤣🤣🤣 great video!

[@gordonm2821]

When I used to use a car repair shop near me the woman on reception would book your car in with her diagnosis of the fault, not the symptoms so you had to leave a note on driver seat with the actual issue to look at.

[@FanaxLt]

It's a longshot, but try connecting to USB 1.1 port on 2000's PC.

[@incandescentwithrage]

That would not help at all. There's a short, not a data protocol problem

[@Dolofanu2]

With all do respect, you ar one of the best from KZbin .... nobody can tell me that I'm wrong ....

[@fraenkiboii]

I love how you're having this peaceful and intimate moment with the holy flash drive at 11:40 :D

[@paultomlinson528]

I've done a monolith nand read on the early versions of those devices, but the later ones have a unique pinout under the black paint I don't have this pinout yet

[@pingpong9656]

Must be a way of COOLING the chip to give you enough time to see if data can be read off before it;s protection kicks in.

[@jonathanjacob468]

no way sherlock

[@alanuiliam4954]

Question ? Whats happen if you cool it down with freezing spay and check if the drive stay longer conected and maybe readable

[@scripter2510]

5:43 is there a problem with the back of the flash drive components ?

[@grproteus]

It seemed that the heat was coming from a specific SMT component on the top of the flashdrive? Was that an LED? If it's a LED, I'd try to remove it before deeming it a nofix

[@marcdedouallier3209]

Some folks wonder why repairs are sometimes not cheap. They should watch these videos to get an understanding of the work involved.. Even something as "simple" as opening a USB shell takes time.. :-)

[@paultomlinson528]

When I deal with these devices I have a old soldering iron and melt the plastic

[@tomluque]

LED? You did not mention testing the LED using the DIODE Mode on the meter which will light the LED if the meter outputs over 2.5V test voltage. I was thinking that the LED was shorted because the FLIR showed the hot spot where the LED was. I believe the clamshell case was ultrasonically sealed. In the medical field, I have seen ultrasonic machine that melt the plastic electronic box edges together. The company I worked for said they did not want the liability of someone trying to repair their medical electronics. I have been successful in opening sealed cases (glue or ultrasonic) by squeezing around on the seam with a vise till it will crack apart. ABS slovent is used to re-seal the plastic. I discovered yesterday that I could re-seal a case that was cut open with a saw by using the 3Dooler pen with ABS filament to fill in the gaps.

[@carstendahlhjarup8783]

I wonder if using external 5V power supply with current limiter could allow getting data without tipping over temperaure ,, or cooling of flash-IC while data recovery would work ?

[@procommel]

It seems that the four wires of the USB have been connected in a mirrored way so you have turned the power on in reverse

[@morsetoujours1396]

Hi Alex, You should have tried to recover files with a recovery software first. When Windows detects the drive even if it cannot read it there is a high percentage of recovering the files. Maybe you've tried this before and not putting it in the video.

[@bloeckmoep]

Doesn't help you in this case, as the handshake and power negotiation fails. Usb 2.0 usually allows 100mA pre device negotiation and 500mA if successful, that is important. If a device has problems and fails the handshake due to electrical problems, it is auto setback. That is the reason why you get an infinite device detect, device not recognized loop. If the defect on a usb device is heavy enough or the handshake loop has been retried one to many times, it could happen that the used usb ports power polymere fuse goes open and you can't retry a connection for quite some time. Anyway, if the device is not stably connected to host system, no software will be able to reach through the memory controller down to the nand or nor chip itself. This is probably a case of a defective memory controller. Only data forensics whith grinding down the storage, hooking it to a donor controller or some hidden spi pins and hoping it does not scramble the contents will yield a possible success.

[@Muslim_011]

Nope You can hear the beep detection then a second after it get unpluged

[@mrBDeye]

Recovery software wouldn't work in this case because the chip is getting hot.

[@AKG58Z]

Drives like this which are only Nand chips are destined to fail because these have extremely tiny trace's or tracks inside and when in use these chips get Hot and fail eventually cause of tracks start to break on microscopic level because of stress caused by Heat.

[@MrKab04]

thank you for trying to just do everything possible. very satisfying

[@clivewright7778]

Alex u re a very hard working man .👍🙏

[@Telee_Pawt]

I have had success with opening similiar sealed cases by lightly crimping the case in a vice. It flexes the plastic and cracks the joint without damage mostly.

[@thomashenden71]

Could it have worked, salvaging the data, if the chip was cooled during the process with transferring the data? Because it seems like the drive is recognized and maybe is working, until it gets too hot because of overheating. (We could be lucky, that there is a leakage of current that doesn't affect the data on the chip, maybe someone here has experienced something like this) Meaning - showering it with freeze spray while it is connected, or possibly using dry ice would help. Maybe even also pure, cold ice/water as it doesn't conduct too much electricity, would have worked.

[@maunaker]

Hello Alex! In that important piece from NASA, I see those pins that are floating. What are they connected to? Instead of being a USB flash drive, it seems more like a USB to SD card adapter.

[@thealienontheinternet]

Why get so heated only because the customer left a note in the package? It's not like they left you a whole book to read

[@liucyrus22]

Just asking, could you have dumped the drive with PC3000? If not through USB then by grinding out the NAND flash traces on the PCB surface of the package?

[@incandescentwithrage]

He doesn't have PC3000 - not a data recovery specialist, just having a go.

[@Senior.]

*Hi Alex.* Try cooling down this chip? maeby some heatsink?

[@trym2121]

My conclusion after watching this channel. If there is heat on a spot, then it's most likely due to short I could be wrong but cooling is most likely not the answer

[@lambda7652]

just pore IPA over it or Aceton.

[@TheThore]

there are grey clips inside, you can reach inside from behind and push them away. so you can fully slide it out. This worked for my SanDisk drive, don't know if there are other versions

[@DavidLeeMenefee]

Very interesting I've never seen anything like this before, thanks for showing!

[@stefanlechner]

Amazing work. Sad that you couldn't fixed it. Thank you for that video. Greet

[@euphoricmonk]

Maybe you can freeze the drive for a few minutes, just enough time to pull the data off it.

[@evdokios]

exactly what I was thinking

[@generalbutz8477]

This is the first time i hear such a technique. can it really work?

[@Muslim_011]

I dont think so the instant when you pluged it in it get hot imediately because of the short inside

[@dingdong2103]

Those Sandisk drives are total crap it seems. I have one and it has never worked properly. Slow as hell and fails to detect occasionally.

[@euphoricmonk]

@@generalbutz8477 Things generally work better in the cold. I have tried this on other devices and it works.

[@scottwojcik2148]

exact same issue here with the same flash drive and symptoms. The data on the drive is not very important luckily.

[@leafleap]

I cant believe how small those drives are when you take away the housing, almost looks to be the size of an SD card or something.

[@Geeayezee]

I've got one of these SanDisk flash drives which was formatted once as system storage for a Google Chromecast. I don't have the Chromecast anymore and the flash drive isn't recognized because of the formatting. Is there a way to short it out or something so that it resets the drive entirely? I don't care about the data on it.

[@ralphj4012]

The test at 7:15 seemed to imply that the top pin was positive (not ground), but I can't see clearly how the USB A plug was wired.

[@paulzac5481]

Try using fingernail polish remover. Acetone wait a few minutes and pry apart.

[@Druid_Plow]

Flash drives have gotten to the point we're actually just shoving a NAND chip into the usb port. That's kinda impressive. Lol

[@d0rk750]

did the orientation of the usb connector reverse?

[@Analoque444]

That's why I hate usb sticks and portable hd's too. When you plug it in, you never know whether the drive will run like it did the last time you used it, and you pray inside each time xD That wasn't even the case with the old 3.5-inch floppy disks 🤣

[@oojimmyflip]

these drives are supplied as Fat32 drives and the problems start when you convert them to NTFS I wonder if that is causing the overheating?

[@kunka592]

The problems start when you start using them because they just aren't very reliable (all brands, as far as I'm concerned).

[@infopackrat]

If you attach it to a heatsink it may work long enough to copy off the files.

[@googlex5273]

I use small size nail cutter to clip excess trace wires , it doesn't harm the boards wile cutting them off,,

[@dahrafs9798]

You have amazing skills. But compared to your videos of 2-3 years ago and now your average tone towards the customers seems unnecessarily harsh. It seems you were very soft spoken in the past. But with increased customers you seem to have lost the value of customers. Like insulting for attaching a sticky note. Saying let's take out "diamond" for packing something well. If you have time watch videos of your past. Maybe this version of YOU are a better businessman that version of YOU were certainly a better person. Don’t let the success take over you head. Best wishes.

[@petervoros8221]

There is a LED on the end where the heat coming from could be that?👍

[@NorthridgeFix]

LED is flashing and working fine.

[@darkbreed]

@@NorthridgeFix it would be just a test if this LED is having a too high internal energie consumption by a defect.

[@darkbreed]

@@pidhsome i don't think so, he is a person like me everytime interested in the solution for a problem. during the long time he is fixing stuff he has adapted many things from the comments of his videos, like the use of fixing damaged pads with strips instead of using wires for everything. he is watching at the comments and trying stuff mentiond here often because he is a real technician.

[@mikeypc3592]

@@pidhsome why exactly do you care? He clearly states there is a no fix fee in his terms and conditions. People either accept that or take their services elsewhere. He's entitled to charge for his time in investigating a problem regardless of whether he fixes it or not.

[@chilly1661]

@@pidhsome ignorant

[@GiGaSzS]

Probably you just have to pull out the moving part. There should be a v shape inside the shell, preventing it from going too far out, but if you cut it, you can pull the stick out. At least Verbatim has this kind of mechanism.

[@tinman9341]

Despite the outcome, it was a great lesson still my friend. Thanks for your insight!

[@samanthafierro5679]

Don't get angry! It's a love note!

[@DrVinylBcn]

I believe you are a incredible professional, and maybe you didn't had a good day for something that's why u was in this case a bit straight.

[@Morpheus-pt3wq]

I had whole bunch of these SanDisk flashdrives (this exact model). This flashdrive model has a manufacturing defect - once the unit detects a failure in data readings, it locks itself against writing. My entire stock suffered from this fate. And yet, SanDisk keeps selling them. Since then, i´m avoiding that brand. It kinda sux, as i have one of SanDisk´s more expensive flashdrives, which is fast and reliable (works to this day). If you need cheap and reliable flashdrives, look for Adata. And remember to ALWAYS HAVE BACKUPS OF YOUR DATA.

[@mrtechie6810]

Don't use flash for backups! It's not reliable!

[@RexxSchneider]

@@mrtechie6810 Nonsense. It's as reliable as any other electronic component. What are you using for backup, floppy disks?

[@theowink]

Stupid question but what happens is you superfreeze it and then connect?

[@Heinrich.Fourie]

hi have you fix flashdrive before that suddently have password lock message

[@Cutesillykitty]

مرحبا استاذي فيني استفسر منك عن مشكلة عن تصير معي .. عندي microsoft arc keyboard والدونجل الخاص فيه ضايع وما عم لاقيه ... حسب خبرتك شو الحل ... وشكرا الك وسلام خاص للولاد الحلوين

[@memeconnect4489]

i always wondering what you do security wise in case the usb drive have some type of automatic virus install when you plug into the computer and test it

[@mrtechie6810]

Turn off autorun. But there could still be a firmware-based attack.

[@PK01234]

Hi Alex, I think I remember you saying you attempt to repair 15 to 25 devices a day. What is the daily avg of successful repairs. Good work as normal.

[@trym2121]

I'm more interested on Fix percentage for devices that hasn't and has been tampered, either total or per week or per month Maybe we can quantify something interesting like for example Alex's success drops (by how many %) for tampered devices.

[@SubjectiveFunny]

he often says 50/50 for most things.

[@the_seb9587]

just a little question , what kind of component is the white smd in the middle? i see one in an unworking bluethooth recever and i have gessed it was a fuse.

[@the_seb9587]

@@toolsarecool this drive don't make light (i have one),and the one in the bluetooth reciver have no voltage drop.

[@the_seb9587]

after some searching, i think you're right on this one but i don't understand the point of having a led here because the light is blocked by the houssing. i just have a small magnifier and it's difficult to see so clearly what is the component in the bluetooth reciver.

[@bigstone5124]

A beast, other words are superfluous 😎 amazing stuff

[@pdr5926]

"let me remove that piece of diamond from this Rolex box..." lol

[@Maltmeister1]

All I can say is,, You know your shit friend,,nice to see skill at this level

[@d0rk750]

despite being a monolithic design - a peek at the back side might be useful. sand the mask off the back of the pcb?

[@888snuffy]

Thats why they have a blade tip for soldering irons....

[@jaimeortega4940]

Couldn't you try to put the chip on a heat sink with a fan in an attempt to get enough time to suck some of the files off?

[@schottepaul]

Is the LED getting hot?

[@vulgartech9192]

I put drives on a Linux box before I start to dissect, sometimes 'nix can mount a volume windows can't, even damaged.

[@MehmetSutas]

On these type of stubborn plastic cases you may use YMI coorporation blb13 case glue remover liquid to open the case easily.

[@elmariachi5133]

Are these surely glued, not welded?

[@Joey-ir3lk]

@@elmariachi5133 I had to open the same drive yesterday with the same issues as in the video. From the outside it looks like it's 2 pieces but from the inside it looks like one solid piece. I had to cut it open as well.

[@elmariachi5133]

@@Joey-ir3lk Thanks!

[@jackiemay9471]

are they ultrasonic weld

[@Joey-ir3lk]

@@jackiemay9471 idk man, I do electronics, not plastics 🤣 All I can say is that it looked like one solid piece from the inside and that cutting it open is probably the only way. But just like Alex said, let me know if you know a better way.

[@Bobi1978.]

Kupiš neki fleš velike memorije,prebaciš gomilu podataka na njega i on prestane sa radom.A onda ti ovaj čovek javi da ne može da ga popravi i ti odeš i skočiš sa mosta na beton😂😂😂

[@AstronxD]

What would happen if you add a super cooler in it? Would that work?

[@Frank55]

I think this man is a skilled repairman, but I'm glad he's not my neighbor. (I suppose we'd have a problem every day then...)

[@stephenharris5729]

You can open the drive and power supply case using petrol in syringe

[@AbdAlgani1999]

cant you put heatsink on it then take the files?

[@tripjet999]

These chips come either fried or baked. Your choice.

[@presstoolsengineering8365]

I lost my 16 GB sandisk pendrive due to write protect error can we fix it. Previous stored files we can seen them but can't edit delete or format

[@kunka592]

Nope, drive is dead. Just copy your files off and use something else, and keep backups.

[@icommandoi145]

sandwich it between 2 heatsinks to try and keep it cool, good luck.

[@SimonRileyGhost141]

It come from the LED area. Try to remove it.

[@amehboob28]

I wish someday you take this chip out and let us see whats inside it :)

[@stabilini]

Man, the led is fried, you can look at it in 5:33. Remove it, or replace it with something else.

[@shamsalfaisal]

Came in for repair.

[@AmmarH413]

Can anyone please give me the values of these 5 components on the memory chip . I have an exact one which lost all 5 components on top due to heat and now its not working

[@buddy2016]

One note that is all i require!!!!!!

[@chosenli]

The thing is ultra-speed USB 3 thumb drive generates a lot of heat, I have one that comes with an entire metal shell, and when it is plugged in for a couple of minutes it begins pretty hot to touch, so I use a thermal conductive double sided tape and stick it with a small aluminum heatsink fins on its body so it can spread the heat to more surface rather than in one spot. IQ 200! lol😅

[@gamerdudegamerdude4961]

Yep, I have a Kingston usb 3.1 with metal shell that gets super hot & can even burn your skin.

[@AmmarH413]

True that , mine overheats to the extent it lost the smd components on top . Any one has their values , please help

[@bbogdanmircea]

These are good quality flash drives, at least the shell is very well made

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

tough shell , weak electronics esp. the controller.

[@TLM-Nathan]

@@BigEightiesNewWave Maybe modern ones; I still have a 4gb san disk from 2013 and she works great.

[@kunka592]

@@TLM-Nathan My first USB thumb drive was a 1GB Kingston from even earlier and it totally failed after a few years.

[@pingpong9656]

The file system might be corrupt - did you look at it in Disk Manger?

[@mrBDeye]

Did you watch the entire video. Thermal camera shows overheating chip

[@MrMrvin27]

It is disconnecting as soon as it was connecting no way he would have been able to see it in disk manager.

[@orange11squares]

if it appear in Device Manager as not recognized then it will not appear at all in disk manager...

[@DaleMarriott1337]

cant fix them all good to know what causes this though I've had it many times always thought overheating myself.

[@gerrymichaud3851]

I wounder if the drive could have been corrupted by malware or a virus.

[@OMP25]

I encountered a few sandisk flash drives that simply stopped working

[@roshankhan6723]

Hello sir .how to unlock sr2f0 soc pch programing

[@Darren777Au]

Looks like the seam of the case has been heat sealed. There maybe other programs around that can get the data of the flash drive.

[@BertoldVdb]

Ultrasonically welded I think

[@tiporari]

I just squeeze plastic shells in my bench vise. Crack the sonic welds and then they peel apart. I've been hurt by razor blades trying to open gummy plastic. Won't even attempt it anymore.