Baking Flash Memory

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Okay it's 12:38 AM here and I came across some crazy article about "high temps heal flash memory"

Can this be true? Can I take my old Pokemon Sapphire game, chuck it in the oven at 400F and cook it for 8 mintes for an extra 10,000 read / write cycles???

Does this work on old SSD drive's?

Or is it late at night and I need sleep?

Here is the link I found it in a Google search!


Silver_Pharaoh

 

[Woomack]

Sounds interesting ... I doubt it will work but maybe will try if I get some dead flash drives. So far all my dead flash drives were still within warranty period so I just made RMA.

 

[Mpegger]

250C would desolder everything on the board of the ram/memory stick, including any plastic bits. You'd need to remove the memory chip alone, and if its a BGA, reball it before you reflow it back on the board.

I must say, this does sound interesting. I'd like to learn more about the "why". I'd also like to know if this is true, why hasn't any more information on this come about since 2012.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I must say, this does sound interesting. I'd like to learn more about the "why". I'd also like to know if this is true, why hasn't any more information on this come about since 2012.

Probably 'cause we'd never have to buy another flash card again!

I'd be sweet if this works on any flash based device. Even older ones.

My Pokemon Sapphire's flash memory chip is rated for 10,000 Read / Write cycles. It works out to about 3 years of 24/7 non stop playing. Mine's original so 11 years old I'd love to "refresh" the chip with heat... Maybe I would but it works now and I don't want to risk killing it in the oven.

But yes, I haven't heard anything about this technology since 2012 too.

Nice avatar Mpegger!

Nice avatar Mpegger!

Silver_Pharaoh

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

250C would desolder everything on the board of the ram/memory stick, including any plastic bits. You'd need to remove the memory chip alone, and if its a BGA, reball it before you reflow it back on the board.

What about a lower temp, just high enough to reflow the solder for a bit?

Silver_Pharaoh

 

[OptyTrooper]

I have two dead flash drives i'm going to have to try this but first I need to fix my oven.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I have two dead flash drives i'm going to have to try this but first I need to fix my oven.

Fix your oven?

What happened? Just kidding, it's not every day you hear of a broken oven!

If you do try this OptyTrooper, please let us know if it works! I may just have to "break" my old flash sticks to try this!

Silver_Pharaoh

 

[Mpegger]

What about a lower temp, just high enough to reflow the solder for a bit?

Silver_Pharaoh

The article said 250C for a few hours to fix the flash chip. So just throwing a usb stick in the oven would render it useless from the plastic melting, and components falling off. To prevent that, only the memory chip should be baked. To do that, the chip has to be removed from the board. So lower temps are moot in this case.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Yeah hey, I was trying to find an article about the "baking at 250C" part, but I could only find news articles mentioning it...

Is there some guide that explains how to "bake at 250"? 'cause I've nevwer heard of that trick even though the link says "it been long known".

Silver_Pharaoh

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I've been thinking about this..
How does heat even help flash chips? What if it's just faulty soldering on the chip and it "heals" after you heat it in the oven which can reflow and resolder the chip?

Or maybe there is more to it than I can find on the web?

Silver_Pharaoh

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Optytrooper, were you able to bake your dead drives yet?

 

[larrymoencurly]

One engineer here said that when he was at Motorola, EPROMs (probably UV erasable) were baked at 400F+ to make them useable after too many writes, but they were housed in ceramic packages that could take the heat.

There's an Israeli company that wants to make flash memory withstand more write cycles by putting digital signal processors in athe chip to read the voltage levels of the individual cells more accurately. It's supposed to work just as fast as regular flash.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

One engineer here said that when he was at Motorola, EPROMs (probably UV erasable) were baked at 400F+ to make them useable after too many writes, but they were housed in ceramic packages that could take the heat.

There's an Israeli company that wants to make flash memory withstand more write cycles by putting digital signal processors in athe chip to read the voltage levels of the individual cells more accurately. It's supposed to work just as fast as regular flash.

Hmm, New technology for the flash chips.

Another report of the "baking treatment" working too... Maybe this does work for any flash chips!

 

[magellan]

I usually like to lightly pan fry my flash memory on high heat until golden brown, then quickly sprinkle some powdered sugar on it. It's a crunchy, sweet and surprisingly low calorie treat.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I usually like to lightly pan fry my flash memory on high heat until golden brown, then quickly sprinkle some powdered sugar on it. It's a crunchy, sweet and surprisingly low calorie treat.

While baking is lower in fat, pan frying surely must result in a crispy coating!