[bdd]

Reflowing the controller worked for me twice for now. Once with an Intel Optane drive that worked without issues for 3 years and started overheating one day. And another one from a fanless machine that used an mSATA drive that chose to die on a Sunday, with no spare mSATA disk lying around. In both cases I went for short hunting under a microscope, looking for that one guilty shorted cap, yet finding none. It was the controllers with "tired" BGA solder balls, which could use some tender loving care of 225°C (soak) -> 400°C (peak) -> 325°C (hold) reflow.

[russdill]

That's quite aggressive. I typically reflow with peak 225C.

https://microchip.my.site.com/s/article/SAM-Cortex-M3-M4-M7-...

[bdd]

Dunno. This works for me without damaging the parts, pads, or traces. Your link is for PCBA reflow ovens. Talks about minutes long of exposure. I'm using a Atten ST-862D hot air station with questionable temperature and airflow accuracy. For an M.2 drive I'll probably soak 225 for 15 seconds 3 times the size of the chip areas in circles. Hit my memory-1 button to go to 400 and focus on the chip for 3 seconds. Hit memory-2 to go down to 300 and one up arrow for 325 for 5 more seconds while watching nearby caps' solder pads and ensuring they don't fly away. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[jjoonathan]

That sounds low, unless you are using one of the commercial brands notorious for displaying too-low temperatures (so that their iron/air/oven will be "the good one" that works when others don't).

[amelius]

According to that datasheet peak temp should be above 245C for at least 20s.