A short circuit was detected between the power rail and ground on a 32 GB SD card. Because of the card’s monolithic structure, the location of the fault was identified using X-ray and a thermal camera. Once two small capacitors at the edge of the package were removed, the short circuit disappeared and the card worked again. The incident showed that the fault could have been caused by passive components rather than the memory and controller.
Why it matters
This case shows that troubleshooting failures in monolithic SD cards cannot focus solely on the memory chip and controller. While the card’s inaccessible structure makes it difficult to directly replace the faulty section, methods such as X-ray and thermal imaging are becoming central to the diagnostic process. The possibility that the problem may originate in passive components indicates that, in similar cases, it should not be concluded too early that the card is completely unusable. However, although eliminating the short circuit restored the card’s operation, the question of what these types of interventions mean for the data stored on the card remains unresolved. The repair in question demonstrates that even small components can play a decisive role in the operation of storage hardware.