Fixing a broken memory pen

Leprechaun312 · 2 May 2013 at 23:24

So my sporty history teacher was giving us out all the notes and powerpoints this year for us to revise on our memory pens and being one of the rugby teachers thought it would be fun to throw the memory pens back to everyone. Of course he missed....we'll go with that and mine hit off a desk and now will not work, windows recognises it has been plugged in after a few seconds but says "this device is unknown" is there anyway to fix this or is the memory with the driver or bios for the memory pen corrupt or bust. i had a look at the curcuit board and nothing is borken connection wise but the wee red led doesn't turn on when plugged in

Philtor · 2 May 2013 at 23:41

Throw it back at him and ask for another? Or just get a copy from someone else and put it on your own flash drive.

Leprechaun312 · 3 May 2013 at 10:20

is there anyway to flash the bios on a memory pen or is the data on it not going to be recoverable

enigmo · 3 May 2013 at 10:40

Leprechaun312 said:
is there anyway to flash the bios on a memory pen or is the data on it not going to be recoverable

Having seen a lot of busted USB pens, once they reach the stage where they're recognised but unreadable, or not recognised at all, they're done. There's no fixing them, or recovery really.

BUT
I will attach one special case scenario to that. I did once get one to work again long enough to recover data, and it was using the old Xbox-in-an-oven solder reflow trick. I cracked off the nasty plastic case so all I had was a PCB with a memory chip and USB connectors and put it on a silicone baking sheet in the oven on 160C for 5mins. I'm sure this was a fluke specific to this stick and this problem and this oven and the phases of the moon, but it worked once and then failed again soon after. YMMV greatly!

Leprechaun312 · 3 May 2013 at 11:02

i might look into that, i have most fo the important stuff off it but it would have been nice to get all the stuff i needed off it. The only thing is if i was to do a reflow there is unfortunately glue on the back fo the circuit board would this not also reflow

enigmo · 3 May 2013 at 11:04

Leprechaun312 said:
i might look into that, i have most fo the important stuff off it but it would have been nice to get all the stuff i needed off it. The only thing is if i was to do a reflow there is unfortunately glue on the back fo the circuit board would this not also reflow

Depends on the glue, really, and what it's holding down. If it's on the PCB itself then it won't be electrically conductive, and depending on the glue it'll either soften and flow, or cure and harden. Either way, as long as it doesn't flow over the USB contacts then it shouldn't matter,

Leprechaun312 · 3 May 2013 at 11:08

it looks like hot glue, you know the stuff that comes in a cylinder and slots into the back of a hot glue gun

enigmo · 3 May 2013 at 11:50

Leprechaun312 said:
it looks like hot glue, you know the stuff that comes in a cylinder and slots into the back of a hot glue gun

Then it will flow. You could prop the stick up so the connectors are highest. That way the glue won't flow over them.

Leprechaun312 · 3 May 2013 at 12:08

thanks will try that when i get home

darael · 5 May 2013 at 08:26

If it's hot glue, it should come off fairly easily. It'll just need a bit of leverage at first.