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

["Keith C. Perry" <kperry@daotechnologies.com>]

I was thinking this would be a job for Alibaba and...

http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/usb-flash-drive-chip.html

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
Keith C. Perry, MS E.E. 
Owner, DAO Technologies LLC 
(O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033 
(M) +1.215.432.5167 
www.daotechnologies.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "JP Vossen" <jp@jpsdomain.org>
To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 2:34:58 PM
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Flash drive "No medium found"

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
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