UX32VD - iSSD not detected

This works perfect for me.

 

Hi all,
I had the same problem and managed to fix it without removing the iSSD from the motherboard. Here's how it panned out:
I began having issues with slow windows start, and could see that the iSSD wasn't detected in the BIOS. I tried disabling the SATA port that the iSSD was on to no avail. So I returned it to the store I got it in. It was out of warranty but they agreed to fix it if it was a manufacturing issue. So they returned it to me a week later and I noticed that they replaced my main SSD drive and not the iSSD. I could see the iSSD was still on the motherboard. But the problem was solved.
So I reinstalled windows with a clean install and noticed the problem was back. So I knew it was software/OS related. I remembered installing Intel rapid storage driver. So I went to remove that. But it wasn't in my programs list. I googled it a bit and found it had to be removed from device manager in safe mode. So I uninstalled in safe mode and windows installed its own driver. Instead of being listed under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers as an intel controller, it was listed as Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA controller and also ATA Channel 0 and ATA Channel 1. From the BIOS I could see that my main SSD drive was on port 0, so I disabled ATA Channel 1. Rebooted and it was back to normal, lightning fast startup.
BINGO!

 

Thought I'd make an account to offer what worked for my Asus UX32VD.

Failing iSSD + Symptoms:
I, too, had a failing/disappearing iSSD. The problem occurred a few hours after installing Windows 8 on it. Particularly, after updating to 8.1, my iSSD ran out of space (down to under 100mb) and then never turned on after letting it hibernate. After reading this and relevant threads, I concluded installing Windows catalyzed my iSSD failure. I couldn't see the drive in my BIOS, Windows, Ubuntu, or special Linux programs. I'd recommend that no one use this iSSD for anything - memory, Windows, Linux, shoot maybe even IRST/ExpressCache - as it will cause unnecessary pains and huge loss of time. After 2 painful weeks of slow boot times of 3+ minutes (exact symptoms described by others), having to exit bios every single time after powering on my laptop from hibernate or shutdown, and random shutdowns, I met the ultimate problem: my primary drive wouldn't load Windows properly. This is when I booted into BIOS to boot from my USB with Windows setup, and found my original iSSD! I knew I had to destroy it once and for all (figured I could clear the Windows installation) and booted into Ubuntu from another USB. Unfortunately, any format changes (delete all partitions, create new partition table, and/or install Ubuntu) led to an input/output error (basically couldn't speak to the drive). I had to give up here, and go down the scary route...

Final Solution
Thanks to jaminbird for taking one for the team and being the first to remove the iSSD! I was extremely hesistant simply because this laptop is my expensive baby, and I would hate to end its life so early. Unfortunately, if I didn't do this (no warranty), I would have to use an extremely crippled timesucker (can you imagine doing a group project but having to wait 5 minutes before your laptop turns on?). I used my soldering iron and stuck it on the back of the iSSD (at this point I could feel beads of sweat forming!) with no idea as to how long I should hold it. After about 30 seconds, I pried off an edge (yikes! too early).



I considered stopping here as there was no way the iSSD would work... but since I started, I might as well as finish the job (achilles' heel). I then held the iron closer to the corner and had better luck as I pried with the motherboard as a lever base (sweating like a pig here). I stopped prying, held the iron for 2 more minutes, and then repried and heated. Finally after a POP!, the little devil came off. I quickly flipped my laptop over and turned it on. To my relief, this baby burned through and started up in less than 10 seconds (have a primary SSD installed) - no kidding, this thing is like brand new!




I know this is a first post, and its crazy to trust me, but hear me out, I personally spent 2 weeks trying EVERY SINGLE software solution I could Google and try. I gave up and tried living with this problem before the iSSD magically struck again. Jaminbird's solution works. Plain and simple. Obviously be extremely careful when prying your iSSD: don't use the motherboard too much as a lever (avoid the small electronics), which also means to heat the darn thing for awhile (try 2-4 minutes and start prying after the 2nd minute). For those of you who don't have a soldering iron, try a blow dryer. DON'T try a stovetop (utterly failed at that when I tried to replace my phone's cracked glass...).

 

A good work is that as long as the stuff still works. :thumbsup:

 

Yup, I just pulled out my failed Sandisk iSSD and now my UX32VD boots instantly, like a dream.

For what it's worth, once I got my soldering iron up to 330*F, the chip started pulling off with very little force (Just a little prying with a small jeweler's flathead screwdriver). I didn't want to try any higher temp than this.

 

Just removed the chip, works for me so far
Should have done this 2 years ago, when I first had problems with the iSSD.

This should be more prominent when googling!

Thanks for the tip igulpslurpee

 

I've sent mine to ASUS and they replaced the mother board with a brand new iSSD (it took approximately 2 months).
Then I installed re-installed windows 8.1 pro on the main hard drive (another SSD I've got).This was last May/2013.
Some reports are right ( I used to have windows on the iSSD before it crashes). After that, I don't use the iSSD for nothing, even for cache or quick reboot.
The iSSD pretty much became useless, but the rest of the computer works fine with my 512GB SSD with no issue by now. Boot and re-start super fast and sleep/hybernate/resume in a blink of an eye.
If I knew I could remove the iSSD in Mar/2013, I believe I would try it!

 

After about three months of living with this problem I decided it was time to remove this thing. It suddenly happened over the course of summer after I hadn't used the UX32VD for about a month or two, and I quickly found this thread explaining it all.

I've had about to wait 10 seconds until the bootloader appeared after the Asus logo disappeared and I noticed that OS X booted unbelievably slow (2-3 minutes until I could log in). I thought maybe that was due to me changing to Clover and the configuration wasn't right, but that was certainly not the case. I also noticed a great delay after waking from sleep. All of those problems was solved by removing the iSSD.

I used a soldering iron with an extremely pointy tip (I don't have access to any other tips at this moment) which worked, but clearly wasn't optimal as I needed to crank up the heat to about 370 degrees celcius for the iSSD to even get warm. That would probably be solved by having a wider tip so if anything use a larger tip if possible. Held it down on the thing for several minutes on and off for about half an hour (it barely got hot at all) until I decided to use a little extra force and managed to slowly peel it off the motherboard.

So here's my advice:

• If you don't have this problem yet, do NOT use the iSSD as storage like I did.
• Don't wait if you have this problem. Just do it. It isn't going to solve itself, so get that tumor removed.
• Don't bother with very pointy iron tips.
• Use some force to peel it off, preferably with a tool for it (I used a prying tool)
• Don't give up, have some faith in yourself, it's going to be fine.

Thanks people, I'd never thought of doing this without you. :thumbsup:

 

Well done, it's still considered a success since you were able to remove the tumor, and to allow the notebook to work great again. :thumbsup:

 

I was experiencing the same "issd not detected" problem on my laptop Samsung NP530U4C
Slow boot time since a year.
Finally i decide to open it for removing that tumor
On my model, the issd was at the back of the motherboard, so i disassemble the motherboard to access it.
Everything works just fine now.

Thanks guys

 

I removed the iSSD as explained above, change the HDD for a 500Go SDD and added 8Go of Ram. Looks like I have a brand you laptop!
Thanks!

 

It's amazing the price you can get a solid 500GB drive for these days. The capacity and speed is awesome too A lot better than the early days! (My first SSD was 40GB ^-^.

 

Which SSD did you install?
It must be really fast.

 

No need to damage motherboard. Just desolder power jumper PJP8901

 

Hi All

I have an Asus UX32A and I am having the slow boot times etc... and I think the iSSD is the issue. I've read that some people were able to get this resolved by disabling the iSSD drive in the BIOS but for some reason I don't have the option to disable it. I am using BIOS version 216. To add my issue as it turns out the 2.5 HDD was bad as well so i need to replace the HDD as well. So I went and bought a 7mm SSD drive and installed it but the slow boot time is still there. I haven't removed the iSSD chip yet. I've read the comments above and I wanted to know how to you desolder power jumper PJP8901? The picture above shows the jumper but I don't know what he means by desolder? If anybody can help me out that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

 

It's the iSSD, but soldering takes a little bit of skill.
Desolder is to heat up and remove the electronic component.
You can also check youtube since it's both audio & video instructions.

 

You can remove this drop of solder with knife and after that clean a gap between printed wires on motherboard with tip of knife or somewhat like a needle may be used.

 

A lot easier and a lot less nerve racking.

 

Using a knife is going to require a lot of control because it can accidentally trip and cut something else.

 

I had problem too, my windows 10 installation (installed on issd) stopped working, I tried reinstalling but the installation did not even work.

Opened up the case and did gently pry the chip of with a flat headed screwdriver. Now it work as a charm again.

 

I don't think the issd was supposed to be anything other than a cache really. Small non slc devices can get burned through pretty quick.

 

It didn't last long enough for some, not even a reasonable amount of time.
Or the option to disable it, which somewhat being forced upon its users.

 

Amaziiiing! thank you guys you solved my problem! I was having too much trouble with that! I used my propane soldering iron to heat the upper face of the ssd as a mini heat gun. Then I popped up the chip. Be carefull when you do that.

 

Thank you, guys, for your advices!

I had many problems with my ASUS zenbook UX32VD because of this iSSD 24Gb. This is the list:

1. Blue screen. It was couple of times.
2. Express cache (which is stored on iSSD) was flushed (disappeared) after few reboots. Every 2-5 reboots.
3. Express cache (which is stored on iSSD) was flushed (disappeared) in the time of working (without reboot).
4. Sudden shutdowns.
5. iSSD disappears sometimes from BIOS and Device Manager.
6. HDD is under high load 50%-100% a long period of time.

Yesterday, I heated iSSD by soldering iron and removed this annoying iSSD. I had detached it from the motherboard with the help of knife and soldering iron.

Now I do not have any issues. Thank you, guys! Everything is fine!

Moreover, I am going to change my HDD to SSD and upgrade my 4GB memory to 10GB. I am sure, it will make my ultrabook better than ever!

 

Great, thank you guys for sharing your stories.

 

Thanks jaminbird!

I heated up the back of the iSSD for about a minute, then used a small chisel to work at it and it popped off. Laptop works flawlessly now.

If anyone else is having this problem I can definitely recommend this method.

 

Just be as gentle as possible of course and try and focus any heat on just the chip and package itself.

 

same problem here, issd don't show up in windows anymore :/
in bios it gets sometimes detected and sometimes not. if not, then the zenbook startsup pretty fast, but if the issd shows up in bios booting takes about 10 minutes.

asked asus support for a bios update with an option to disable the issd, but they just answered to **** off -.-


has anyone tried the jumper method succesfully? it seems to be the cleaner solution for this...

 

jumper method: confirmed.
sata 1 channel doesn't show in bios anymore and notebook boots up in less than 10 seconds.

anyway: asus -> never ever!

 

More experiences with he jumper method? Which one is it, in a photo before removal? Because the one in the cirle, either is really small or it was removed already!
If there would be any video available online even better!

EDIT: I eventuall went for the removal os the SSD, since there were more positive experiences!
It wasn't that easy, but not even dramatic.
I think the heating might help, but it's probabably not essential, in fact it looks more like it's glued than soldered. I was having one of this basic pointy soldering iron that you cannot regulate the temperature, and I tryied heating just one corner. With a small flat screwdriver I managed to break off maximum 1mm from the corner. I pushed a little bit deeper, and clearly the heating wasn't reaching where it was supposed to be, so I was about to give up!
But then all in a sadden it just snapped off all togheter.
I even managed to melt the tip of the plastic case of the vent! I was actually lucky that it was nothing important, so be careful not to bend too much the soldering iron.
Now with a mechanical 5400 drive I get to Windows 10 login screen in 12 seconds and 17s to the desktop. Quite satisfied!

 

Hi jaminbird,

I had the same problem. Got a blue screen of death ( " driver power state failure") every time I tried to boot my zenbook UX 32 VD, which then needed about 8-10 minutes to succesfully boot. So I Sent the zenbook to Asus and they said they had to change the whole mainboard for 650 Euro due to the failure " can't detect ssd ". I didn#t agree and got it back. Then I found your post with the lead to remove the iSSD from the mainboard. I tried it carefully by heating it up and I could tear it off quite easily. And: Wow! The zenbook boots very fast and everything runs flawlessly again !

It seems that the iSSD isn't very important for the performance since the HDD does all the work....

So jaminbird, many many thanks from Germany !!!

 

I have an ASUS UX32a and started using Linux Mint when the issd died, which has a fix for totally ignoring the drive. Recently I wanted to try installing Windows again and may have found a non-destructive way of disabling the issd, thru the bios, but have not tested it yet.

There is a bios editing tool called AMIBCP 4.53, which can easily be found thru a google search, which seems to have the ability to unlock all normally hidden bios options, by making the option visible thru the bios menu (by changing the Access/use entry to USER), or by just changing the hidden default. There is a hidden option to disable serial ata port 1 which maybe would work. I'm wondering if any one more technically savvy has some input.

 

Hi!
For me things got so far that I peeled off the iSSD stone on my UX32VD and now I got black screen. All connections of the LCD screen are fine and I didn't harm the motherboard on any way peeling off the stone. I have and SSD which is empty and ready to install new OS, but now the computer won't show any picture. It even does not blink or flicker (it did before with the stone attached). The computer itself starts, fans, lights on keyboard etc, but the screen wont show any life signs. Any thoughts here ?

 

I can confirm removing the small soldering will do the trick.

Make sure the channel is separated properly. Took me a few tries, but works like a charm, and waaaay less risky.

 

FYI, this worked like a charm for me on my UX32VD on Win 7. Same problems as everyone else...ISSD would periodically show up, then failed completely; slowwww boot times. Tried the software approach to get the system/bios to ignore the ISSD, no joy.

Used a soldering iron to heat up the ISSD and a small computer screwdriver to pry up the heated area. Easy to pry up the ISSD, for me it broke up into a few smaller pieces. But no problem, maybe 10 mins of being careful since I was working directly on the motherboard. I did NOT remove the motherboard and de-solder the ISSD from the back. Just as easy to remove the bottom cover of the UX32VD, locate the ISSD, and get to it that way.

Boot time problem completely gone!! I'd already put in an SSD to replace the hard drive, so the machine is really fast on boot up. Pretty close to the advertised 10 seconds.

Side note: While I don't have a compelling reason to upgrade the UX32VD to Win 10, I did find this helpful site with Win 10 drivers for ASUS. I may give it a try, but right now Win 7 runs great on the machine. Here's the link though if you're interested: http://ivanrf.com/en/latest-asus-drivers-for-windows-10/

Thanks for the tip on removing the ISSD!!

 

Wow so many successfull people. Can anyone may be identify the right chip on an Samsung machine? Its not just Asus facing this problem: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...bios-is-waiting-ultra-slow-boot.806079/page-2

By the way this is the youtube video you have been talking about:

 

It shouldn't be hard to locate the chip if you know the name of SSD, then locate for that particular chip on the mainboard. However, the challenging part is to figure out which component to disable so the SSD can be disabled.

 

Thanks for your reply. I found my iSSD hidden on the other side of the mainboard. Lucky there was iSSD written on top of it. I took it out: Computer works perfectly again

 

Great work!

 

Hi all,

I am really happy to say that I have removed this SSD from my SAMSUNG NP530U4C already. And my laptop is now work great like new.

I have the same problem as everyone who end up in this thread. My machine boots slow, like 5 minute at least. I have tried every possible way on the internet and found this thread yesterday. I decided to remove it immediately.

Now my beloved laptop take only 4-5 seconds to boot into Windows 10 on my 256GB SSD.

In case that you are the owner of SAMSUNG NP530U4C like me and not sure how to do it yourself, please take it to computer shop and tell them to follow the disassembling steps here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Disassembling+Samsung+Laptop+Ultrabook+NP530U3B/23322

and the SSD chip is on the backside of your main board as in the picture below (at step #16)


Hope this comment help confirm the solution. It just work really great for my case.

I wrote a blog about the solution here!