HGST SN150 / Application Accelerator s1130 1.6TB Bad Firmware Update

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wickedgtr

New Member
Jul 25, 2016
15
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Hello,

I have a SN150/s1130 PCIe NVMe Drive that I attempted to update the firmware. There appears to be 4 slots on the device, and I attempted to flash it twice, using different slot numbers. First Slot2, then Slot4. When I flashed it to Slot2, it didnt work, but a powercycle brought it back online using the original firmware, but it said Slot2 was active next boot.

I then tried updating again (different bin file, I have no description on which is the correct one since HGST support moved to WDC's portal) - this time to slot4, set it active and reset. Now the device doesnt appear to be visible on the PCI Bus, solid orange light (error status).

I believe my mistake was not setting Slot1 back as active, rebooting, then attempting to flash again, because it does seem to have a failback for bad flashes, but now the previous active slot, slot2 is also a bad flash. Does anyone know of a way to change the active Slot for firmware, if I am unable to see the card? There is a micro-usb port on the rear of the adapter, and I have ttl converters and other serial devices if there is a low level way to access the drive/firmware/nvram to fix this.

Any help would be great, I have no idea if there is active support on this device, since I purchased it 2nd hand.
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
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plug it into your pc via the USB connection and see what you get (unknown device, USB > serial adapter, etc). If you're lucky you'll get a standard USB > serial adapter and can pull up a u-boot CLI or similar
 

wickedgtr

New Member
Jul 25, 2016
15
1
3
Before I posted, I did attempt connecting to the USB port, both while installed/powered on in a PC, and while disconnected. There is no device found or discovered. I assume there is something that either needs to be connected/changed to enable the USB device, or they are just using a micro USB connector for a different interface, like a TTL serial port. I'll pull out my micro usb break out, and see if I can find anything.
 

croakz

Active Member
Nov 8, 2015
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Seattle, WA
plug it into your pc via the USB connection and see what you get (unknown device, USB > serial adapter, etc). If you're lucky you'll get a standard USB > serial adapter and can pull up a u-boot CLI or similar
How do you get into the CLI from the USB connection?
 

pred

New Member
Apr 16, 2016
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did you find a solution?
Seems like my SN200 is in the same state...
 

wickedgtr

New Member
Jul 25, 2016
15
1
3
I haven't found a solution yet. I've kept the drive around, and have an idea, just need to snip the same model on ebay for cheap, and attempt to dump the flash via jtag using those SOIC clips. I think this would be a lot easier to resolve, but WD hasn't integrated and HGST firmware/software/drivers and it took 3-4 weeks with support for them to add flashmax and a few other hgst flash disks I have.