Burned ssd contacts!

[Oyeve]

Almost had a heart attack! I was setting up a new 2tb ssd and was gonna clone one if my 1tb ssd on it. I have a total of 4 ssd drives and I was unplugging them one at a time and boot to see which one was my boot drive. Found out which one, plugged the new 2tb drive and attempted to turn the pc one. Quick fan spin and quick shutdown. Then I spelled the dreaded burnt electronic smell of doom! Unplugged it all and saw that one of my ssd drives was not connected to the power cable all the way and the power cable and two contacts on the drive burned and melted away. I was pissed as I was hoping it was just my backup of videos and not something critical. Anyway, cloned the drive and out it back together but left the burned drive out. I connected it to my laptop via USB 2 sata and the drive shows up. It's the video backup drive so I backed it up to my laptop.

So, I'd like to know how it's powering up with 2 contacts on the power pcb burned off and is this now a non reliable drive? If you are looking at the contacts with the data portion to the right contacts 3 and 4 are totally fried off.

 

[CorsairDemon]

Oyeve, I absolutely love your avatar. For more than a few reasons.

That's a scary situation. I have no idea what would burn up on a drive and still work. Holy crap.

 

[ronbo613]

You were disconnecting power cables from SSD's with the computer powered up?

 

[thesmokingman]

You were disconnecting power cables from SSD's with the computer powered up?

Whoa... D:

Talk about a hotswap...

 

[master_shake_]

probably the 3.3 rails.

you don't need them.

 

[hal2kilo]

At least you did not manage to reverse the connector. Otherwise, it would be a paper weight.

I did this by accident using one of those hydras that can connect IDE or SATA to a USB connection. Managed to get the big old power plug adapter in backwards.

 

[Oyeve]

I didnt unplug or plug with the system on. I was unplugging one at a time.

I did trace the contacts, one is a 3.3v rail and one is a ground. So, I can use this in a non-critical system.

 

[master_shake_]

yep 3.3 and a ground according to this

since these exist

you don't have to worry about reliability.

since no 3.3

iirc 3.3 is only used in hot swap applications.

hence why they stick out further.

 

[thesmokingman]

So you had a short then?

 

[master_shake_]

if you are good with a soldering iron you can resolder a new connector on it.

i had to, to an ssd i had ripped the data and power connector off of.

it was quite easy.

 

[hal2kilo]

yep 3.3 and a ground according to this

since these exist

you don't have to worry about reliability.

since no 3.3

iirc 3.3 is only used in hot swap applications.

hence why they stick out further.

That's the friggen culprit. Manage to get the molex connector backwards somehow.

 

[LTC8K6]

If it was not plugged in all the way, then the contact area would have been poor. This could result in the pins heating up.

However, if the 3.3V pins are not used, then I don't know why there'd be any current flowing there to get anything hot.

 

[Oyeve]

If it was not plugged in all the way, then the contact area would have been poor. This could result in the pins heating up.

However, if the 3.3V pins are not used, then I don't know why there'd be any current flowing there to get anything hot.

I know. When I go home tonight I will investigate. The PSU is 9 years old but it's a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad - Copper 750W Continuous. Not cheap back in the day.

 

[Elixer]

Pics would be good.. then we can see which pins.

 

[Oyeve]

Pics would be good.. then we can see which pins.

It's the 3rd and 4th. One is 3.3v and the other is ground. It works via USB 2 sata. I copied all the data off. I also clipped off the burned out sata power connector on the psu. Tomorrow I'll throw the drive in a test pc at work at see if it works there. If not I'll keep it as an external backup drive.

 

[Elixer]

Right, but, I am thinking there could be more damage to the PCB, so, taking a macro pic of the traces from those lines will say if they were used for anything, both front & back of the PCB.