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    Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

    Good day folks. A colleague of mine asked me to take a look at his new laptop which he somehow managed to f-up right out of the box

    It's not very clear to me what exactly he did to it, but the end result is that it's no longer detecting the M.2 SSD, thus no longer booting, essentially making it a pretty expensive brick since it's useless without this single means of storage (no SATA on this thing). What he tried to do was swap the SSD from his old laptop into this one....sounds like a simple enough operation. He said it took a bit of force to jam his SSD into the Xiaomi, though I'm not sure exactly what "a bit" means to him. A careful look at the connector shows there is actually no damage to the plastic or the pins, so maybe he's referring to the springiness these slots tend to have, which require pushing the board down before fastening it with the screw....not sure.

    Regardless, it's worth mentioning he got the keying right, since I was afraid right off the bat he may have tried jamming an M-keyed SSD into a B-keyed slot, which could damage something, but that's not the case: both boards are B+M keyed and he claims he maintained the orientation of the drive as he pulled it out of his old laptop. Moreover, the SSD that was originally in the Xiaomi works on his Asus laptop just fine, so the drives themselves are fine - it's the Xiaomi laptop that got busted somehow. I also noticed it is entirely possible, with no effort at all even, to plug the drive in upside-down, despite him claiming he didn't do it....I'm not sure if that's allowed to happen or if it damages anything...it could very well do so....

    The only measurement I could take, since it's really obvious, is on that cap right next to the slot. It reads around 1.2v without the drive in and around 0.2v with the drive....I'm not liking this. Something's definitely not right. He didn't unplug the battery when attempting this swap, so maybe that had something to do with it as well. I could not identify where that power trace leads, so I don't know what lies downstream - I'm expecting a transistor which tells switches on/off power to that sub-rail (something like 3.3v_SSD, derived from the main 3.3v rail). No short on this cap......what do you guys thing ? I'm not sure if I should expect to see 3.3v on that cap without the drive actually installed. This could also mean the laptop is not detecting the drive to command the power rail to come on, despite the power circuit for the drive actually being fine. If that's the case, I'm afraid it might be game over, as a reminder that it's best to leave stuff like this to someone who's a bit more experienced than you
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Dannyx; 08-03-2020, 10:08 AM.
    Wattevah...

    #2
    Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

    test the voltage pins https://pinoutguide.com/HD/M.2_NGFF_...r_pinout.shtml
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      #3
      Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

      Originally posted by SMDFlea View Post
      Will do, though like I said: I believe that cap to the left of the connector corresponds to the 3.3v power pins, on which I get almost nothing, so I believe I already did this. Still not sure about the correct orientation of the thing...will have to take another look....
      Wattevah...

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        #4
        Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

        if it is new laptop he have warranty on it. but u dissassemble it so the warranty is gone

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          #5
          Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

          Originally posted by ktmmotocross View Post
          if it is new laptop he have warranty on it. but u dissassemble it so the warranty is gone
          Hmmm...actually HE disassembled it first No signs of seals or anything that could give it away though, so I suggested that, buuuut...he got it from China, so....yeah
          Wattevah...

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            #6
            Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

            I tried taking some close-ups of the connector today. Pics are not great - it's all my S10+ can manage. I did it mostly to see if I can get a better view of the pins and the plastic tab, since I noticed the drive also doesn't sit parallel to the board when inserted (the part towards the key doesn't want to go in all the way. Sure enough I was able to see the plastic key of the slot was pushed sideways, towards the larger part of the connector, indicating he tried inserting the drive with the B cutout towards the M-keyed slot which means the B notch which is ever so slightly larger pushed the M key out of the why, which also explains why the drive went in but with a bit of force...it's quite possible the MB didn't like this and something popped...

            I managed to remove a tiny piece of plastic that was at the bottom of the connector which at least allows the drive to sit up straight, but didn't solve the issue....I guess I could attempt replacing the connector and hoping for the best....not that big a deal....
            Attached Files
            Wattevah...

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              #7
              Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

              have you replaced the connector.. probably the ssd is not sitting properly because of some loose connection that is why it is not detected...
              Never stop LEARNING because life never stops TEACHING!

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                #8
                Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

                Originally posted by Duranitron View Post
                have you replaced the connector.. probably the ssd is not sitting properly because of some loose connection that is why it is not detected...
                I'll try...provided the chap is willing to wait 2 months for it to arrive if I can't source one locally....turns out these vary in the way they're mounted to the PCB, so I have to be careful not to order the wrong kind
                Wattevah...

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                  #9
                  Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

                  Ok...update: laptop got fixed in the meantime by someone else in the joint apparently. The owner doesn't know anything about electronics so this other chap could've told him anything really. He told the owner that he replaced some shorted transistor based on some schematic.... Now I have a very hard time believing he actually found a schematic for this thing, so maybe he's referring to a pinout of the m.2 slot, but how would this help him know what transistor does what ? :| He's definitely not some genius either, so he couldn't have been psychic about it, esp. since he doesn't do laptop repairs for a living...

                  I actually wanted to see for myself, so I asked the guy to let me pop the bottom off again just to have a look and I couldn't spot anything, of course (admittedly, he may have worked on the bottom of the board, though I don't recall seeing any components there...)....I'm a bit perplexed because the laptop indeed works, so I'm more curious what/if he actually swapped any component indeed or he somehow got lucky and it's just hot air. I didn't want to dig deeper into it and remove the board again, since he was in a bit of a hurry and needed to use it......I got PWNED hard with this one :|
                  Wattevah...

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                    #10
                    Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

                    i bet it is transistor that provide 3,3V power for slot. it can burn when shoted that 3,3V line

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                      #11
                      Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

                      Originally posted by ktmmotocross View Post
                      i bet it is transistor that provide 3,3V power for slot. it can burn when shoted that 3,3V line
                      I though the same: SSD was inserted upside-down so the VCC pins got connected to GND and since there's bound to be a reverse-polarity protection diode onboard the SSD, it started conducting and killed something. However, this got me thinking: if said transistor functions like a switch and is in series with the VCC output to the slot and becomes shorted, shouldn't it behave like a wire and send power to the slot all the time ? That is of course, unless the slot has its own buck-converter and the transistor which died is part of it, which I doubt - it's just being fed off the 3.3v bus...
                      Wattevah...

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                        #12
                        Re: Xiaomi Laptop not detecting SSDs anymore

                        board have 3,3V rail so why making another.

                        thansistor can died as shorted or as not functioning/open/

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