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Please help! Schiit Modi 2 not being recognized anymore by Windows?

Tom C said:
I was just trying to say that is a curious phenomenon. Makes me wonder, what the heck?
Click to expand...
Ah. I see. Yeah. probably bad soldering joints or defective chip like others have mentioned. If Schiit offers out-of-warranty repair and the cost + shipping is not too much I might do it. If it is too much, just get another brand I guess.
 
My Modi3 is 2.5 years old and stopped being recognized by my PC a couple of weeks ago. Schiit were polite and professional but couldn't suggest anything beyond sending them the DAC (on the other side of the planet) for repair at my own expense., which wouldn't have made sense for me financially.

I didn't see this thread at the time, but immediately bought a Topping D10s locally. I figured that if only the USB receiver had failed then the spdif inputs should still work and I could test this with the D10s' digital output. And if the whole thing had died, then I had a ready-made replacement.

Sure enough, little Modi3 works perfectly when fed through an optic fiber. To my uncontrolled, subjective ears - and with absolutely no quantitative evidence in support of this opinion - Modi3 sounds marginally nicer than the D10s, so I've ordered a Sky Song USB-SPDIF converter and will use the Topping in another system.

Regarding the source of this seemingly common problem: my guess is a systematic defect in the chip. It sounds like the hairdryer treatment is thermally activating carriers in the channel of a bad transistor within some type of latching circuit, thus explaining why a single brief dose of heat is sufficient to fix the problem until the power is cut. But I haven't worked on silicon since I was an undergrad so am very happy to be corrected here.
 
Made an account to say I have had the same issues with my Jotunheim, I almost wasted money buying a new DAC card for it but now I just use a SPIDF to RCA from my PC to the amp. When I feel like spending more cash I'll get a new DAC. I will never ever buy another Schiit product.
 
My Schiit Eitr also just started doing this yesterday, heating up the chip fixes it but only until its turned off and wont restart. I ordered a few replacement Cmedia CM6631A's to swap the bad one out, but has anyone had this issue appear again after they replaced the chip?
 
I have a Modi 3 that developed this problem after ~2.5 years. It failed intermittently at first but now consistently - on Windows, Mac, and I tried a Chromebook as well. So frustrating, I spent a lot of time trying to debug it and now it all makes sense.

I also had the xbox 360 RROD and *two* failed Onkyo receivers for similar issue. I guess I'll send it back to Schiit for repair, and/or maybe look at other options.
 
I bought the pair modi2 + magni after the "amazing reviews" you could read till few years ago... and I had the same problem after ~2.5 years. The modi 2 needed a lot of time to be recognized. I guess a lot of people have the same problem, but they don't write about and it's clearly a well-known production problem ignored by the company.
It had even distortion while increasing or decreasing the volume and the quality compared to an integrated audio is practically insignificant. Next time i will thrust my instinct avoiding any cheap product with "fancy" names.
 
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yeah, I did contact support who quoted me $20-50 + shipping for the repair. which... I'd probably do it for the former but not the latter - especially without any assurance it wouldn't happen again. so, I used an old fiio e17 i had lying around instead.
 
Bought my Modi3 2½ years ago from Schiit Europe. Got the same symptoms as everybody else; the Modi 3 suddenly no longer could be recognized by my Linux pc's when connected by USB. Heating the unit with a hairdryer solves the connectivity issue temporarily. After a couple of email to Schiit Europe they finally said they did in fact not offer repairs. Are presently connecting it to my pc with s/pdif and Toslink cable, which is slightly irritating since I used the s/pdif port for my stand alone cd-player for those cd's I haven't ripped.
 
Been doing the heat gun trick for a few months now, but I was starting to notice problems with other USB devices on my PC (webcam would frequently malfunction and need to be restarted during meetings) so I disconnected the Modi and it seems like these problems have resolved.

I've been looking at the Modi+ which appears to use a completely different usb controller than the previous models (designed by Schiit themselves) so should be immune to the problems we're experiencing?
 
Just wanted to chime in that yes, this thread just saved me in 2024. I reorgnaized my desk wiring and when I plugged my modi back in, nothing.

I didn't want to believe it, but since I had nothing to lose, I tried a hair dryer. 10-15 seconds later, my modi was connected.

Lol.
 
"Just a comment here—I found this topic after struggling with the same problem.

I've noticed that placing my finger on top of the chip for 3 seconds usually solves the issue. However, this is not something I'll be able to do during regular use.

I don't have the skills for this type of soldering, and the chip is quite hard to find in my country. Has anyone considered a workaround, such as using a resistor powered by the USB-B supply to gently heat the chip? I'm not sure if something like that would work. Don't wanna pass another USB like davlumbaz did.
 
Cafofo said:
Has anyone considered a workaround, such as using a resistor powered by the USB-B supply to gently heat the chip? I'm not sure if something like that would work.
Click to expand...
I don't see why it wouldn't, reviving the chip doesn't seem to take much in your case. If you have either a 1/4 W in 220 ohms or 1/2 W - 1 W in 100 ohms, I would solder leads to that, apply a bit of thermal compound (a tubular resistor on top of a flat chip doesn't exactly have much contact surface) and use Kapton tape to hold it down on top of the chip. USB isn't going to mind an extra 22.7-50 mA.

This is quite a fascinating fault. I assume it has to be a bonding issue of sorts. Normally chips don't work better when they are heated up, quite the contrary.
 
AnalogSteph said:
I don't see why it wouldn't, reviving the chip doesn't seem to take much in your case. If you have either a 1/4 W in 220 ohms or 1/2 W - 1 W in 100 ohms, I would solder leads to that, apply a bit of thermal compound (a tubular resistor on top of a flat chip doesn't exactly have much contact surface) and use Kapton tape to hold it down on top of the chip. USB isn't going to mind an extra 22.7-50 mA.

This is quite a fascinating fault. I assume it has to be a bonding issue of sorts. Normally chips don't work better when they are heated up, quite the contrary.
Click to expand...
I'll give a try on weekend. I've tried only addin the Kapton tape above just to see if something bettter happened, but nothing ! hahaha...I'll give a try together with a resistor and see how it goes. And yes... that's totally weird, I've been usually on foruns trying to get rid off 0.5 degress from my computer processor for better performance, but here I'm trying to warm it... hahaha
 
Just wanted to post an update. I replaced my chip 4 years ago and the Modi worked perfectly until recently. It broke again in the exact same way. The usual hair drier method revives it temporarily again. My conclusion is that there is something wrong with the circuit design. Replacing the chip gives you a brand new Modi, but does not permanently fix the problem. The circuit must be killing the ICs in some way.
 
I've did that small change as per the image bellow. I've used a 18Ohm 5W resistor on the 3.3v line. I've tried many times during the day.
I've connected the usb, waited a few seconds and that worked. Disconected and wait the chip to cool down and again... sounds to work pretty well.

Now ill do some isolation and soldering it properly.

20240904_000105.jpg
 
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