Re: [PLUG] Flash drive "No medium found"

On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 2:34 PM, JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org> wrote:

Thanks for the thoughts.

I did glance at eBay but I haven't really trusted anything on there in years.

I doubt it's cracked solder, the chip is tiny and very integrated. If I can get it out I'll certainly look and try the heat/solder gun ideas if appropriate.

I'd love to swap in better guts, the key (ha ha) is that the chip is small and flat, like I said at bottom, 11 x 23 x 1.5mm so any clues where to find a chip like that appreciated. Best pics I could find at bottom.

On 04/27/2016 01:04 PM, Rich Mingin (PLUG) wrote:

With a drop being involved, and the data not being important, you might
be able to reflow the connections with a heat gun and get it working
again, but IMO USB flash entered the "disposable, replace instead of
fix" realm a few years ago.

On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 1:02 PM, John Kreno <john.kreno@gmail.com
<mailto:john.kreno@gmail.com>> wrote:

Along the same thought as Rich, if you get the thing open, mayhaps
it is just a loose component if you have steady hands, a sharp iron
tip and some fine solder you might be right back in business.

On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 12:57 PM, Rich Mingin (PLUG) <plug@frags.us
<mailto:plug@frags.us>> wrote:

As someone who has done what I suggest, if you go as far as
prying open the plastic, I'd swap out for different/better guts.
One of my old favorite USB keys is built into a decent pen, and
it's been 64MB, 256MB, 1GB, 4GB, and now 16GB over the years.
Just need to find a replacement with same size or smaller PCB.

On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 10:47 AM, K.S. Bhaskar
<bhaskar@bhaskars.com <mailto:bhaskar@bhaskars.com>> wrote:

Did you check eBay for a replacement?

Regards
-- Bhaskar

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 5:59 PM, JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org
<mailto:jp@jpsdomain.org>> wrote:

On 04/24/2016 09:12 AM, Mike DePaulo wrote:

On Sat, Apr 23, 2016 at 5:58 PM, JP Vossen
<jp@jpsdomain.org <mailto:jp@jpsdomain.org>> wrote:

My son has a really cool Victorinox Swiss Army
4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive [1],
but someone knocked a computer over at school
when he was using it and now
it doesn't work.

<snip>

My theory is that the flash memory is damaged, but
the flash memory
controller is not.

-Mike

Thanks Mike, that was a good idea for testing. Unless
someone else comes up with something brilliant, it looks
like it's toast. And I can't find a replacement anywhere.

The chip itself looks to be 11 x 23 x 1.5mm when I
measure it and the best images I've found are
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Army-Flash-Drive/dp/B00A3ISWPO/
and
http://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/cat/victorinox-alox-slim-16gb-usb-flash-drive_413-3001677-4617128G16/.
If I got something like that I might be able to prey
open the plastic part and just swap the chips. Ideas there?

Later,

JP
-- -------------------------------------------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP | http://www.jpsdomain.org/ | http://bashcookbook.com/
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John Kreno

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