Summary
As useful as USB-to-M.2 SSD adapters are, sometimes you come across a bit of a dud. A case in point is the Orico-branded TCM2-C3 that features both an attractive clear case and in its earlier revisions a JMicron controller-based circuit that apparently degrades over time, causing erratic boot behavior. After implementing a fix a few years ago, [Mark Furneaux] can happily report that the thus fixed enclosures are still working. These faulty board revisions feature the JMicron JMS583 controller IC, which has a 1.0V core voltage input pin. Apparently to save power, Orico designed the board to target the minimum ~-0.95V core voltage per the datasheet. Apparently due to component drift or degradation, this lower core voltage is after a while often not enough any more to start the controller, which thus translates into an unresponsive USB device and presumably some panic about lost data. Although [Mark] doesn’t describe the fix in detail, it entails bumping up this core voltage to something closer to the nominal 1.0V, which restores functionality at the cost of presumably a measurable amount of extra heat production by said controller. Later versions of the Orico TCM2-C3 enclosure switched from this JMicron controller to a Realtek one, which so far appears to be noticeably more reliable. Although Orico kept the same model name, the transparent enclosure makes it at least a snap to see which revision you are dealing with. I have/had several of these. Hackworthy for most of the audience, but in my case (since I have enough of them) if one ever became questionable I’d just bin it. In this economy?! I don’t think I paid more that USD$5 each for them. I had an Orico 2.5-inch SATA HD enclosure that caused data on an SSD to be corrupted a couple years ago. I don’t remember all the investigation and evidence I found but I recall deciding to not trust Orico again. I think I have this exact one. Not really worth saving because due to the NAND shortage I just shucked 5 USB drives that had M.2 hiding inside. 6 if you count an Xbox ‘Express’ storage. Name escapes me but it is the same interface as high end cameras I believe. I had this unit. Glad I kept it around; it’s working again with this fix. Handy to have when one needs to fix whatever’s on the M.2 the easy way.