sata power cable problem

skoatdestroy · February 10, 2019

Computer Specs-

-Amd ryzen 2700

-Asrock x470 Taichi

-Amd RX 590 red devil

-evga 750 GQ 80+ gold

-Samsung 860 evo 1tb

-Seagate barracuda 4tb 7200 rpm

-16gb G. skill ddr4 3200 cas 14

So this is my first build and at first i only had the samsung ssd and everything was working great, but i wanted to have more storage for games so i ordered the seagate 4tb hard drive along with some rgb case fans (antec 5 pack of 120mm with controller hub) and after i installed everything i noticed the issue.

So i plugged my sata cable with three heads into my ssd, hdd, and fan controller to power them all but when i would turn the system on i went straight to the bios and neither of my hard drives were being recognized. So i tested my hard drives and they were fine then i tried plugging everything in to sata power cables one at a time and testing it and that's when i realized only one device would get power, i tried different cables, i tried different sata ports on my psu but to no avail. so right now i have three sata cables running from my psu with 9 heads available just to power my three devices. what could i possibly be doing wrong?

if anyone could help with any ideas or anything i would appreciate it very much

mariushm · February 10, 2019

The fan controller may cause interference on the power cable, affecting the other drives.

I would put the fan controller and the fans on a separate strand of connectors.

Otherwise, SSDs are using 5v only, and mechanical drives are using both 5v and 12v ... so the load on 5v and 12v should be relatively balanced, no reason why you wouldn't be able to power both a mechanical hard drive and a SSD. You should be able to power both with two SATA connectors on same strand of connectors.

Maybe double check that there isn't some physical defect with that particular strand of connectors like one of the wires not making contact properly inside the connector, or maybe some pins inside are bent, broken, missing?

Maybe you're not pushing the connectors inside far enough, maybe you're too careful?

Devices are not recognized either when they're not receiving power or if the sata port on the motherboard isn't working for some reason.

With mechanical drives, you know when they get power as you hear them or feel them vibrate... with SSDs it's not that easy to tell.

As for sata ports... be careful if you also have a nvme or m.2 sata ssd ... if you insert a sata ssd in m.2 connector, one or two regular sata ports may become disabled - the motherboard manual should have that information.

Honestly, your system doesn't produce so much heat that you'd need 5 fans, but since you bought them you might as well use them...

skoatdestroy · February 10, 2019

3 hours ago, mariushm said:

The fan controller may cause interference on the power cable, affecting the other drives.

I would put the fan controller and the fans on a separate strand of connectors.

Otherwise, SSDs are using 5v only, and mechanical drives are using both 5v and 12v ... so the load on 5v and 12v should be relatively balanced, no reason why you wouldn't be able to power both a mechanical hard drive and a SSD. You should be able to power both with two SATA connectors on same strand of connectors.

Maybe double check that there isn't some physical defect with that particular strand of connectors like one of the wires not making contact properly inside the connector, or maybe some pins inside are bent, broken, missing?

Maybe you're not pushing the connectors inside far enough, maybe you're too careful?

Devices are not recognized either when they're not receiving power or if the sata port on the motherboard isn't working for some reason.

With mechanical drives, you know when they get power as you hear them or feel them vibrate... with SSDs it's not that easy to tell.

As for sata ports... be careful if you also have a nvme or m.2 sata ssd ... if you insert a sata ssd in m.2 connector, one or two regular sata ports may become disabled - the motherboard manual should have that information.

Honestly, your system doesn't produce so much heat that you'd need 5 fans, but since you bought them you might as well use them...

Thanks for the help and the advice but I tried what you said and put the ssd and hdd on the same cable and I'm having the same issue I'm only getting the ssd and the hdd isnt being recognized but if I unplug the ssd I can see the hard drive