What made SSD burnup using Molex to SATA Adapter?

[Eric Kazer]

[GalacticRuler]

You've answered your own question. Molex to SATA is infamous for exploding or causing fires, since the vast majority of adapters aren't properly made.

[Eric Kazer]

Anyway I had just finished transferring components to new case, turned it on, powered on fine. Smelled burning smell and No boot device came up on screen. Also, think that I may have lost 2 SATA ports on the board. Won't use this kind of adapter again. (China). 2 6 pin surface mount ICs are burned and the NAND chips have shiny spots on them. Can't get a good shot with camera, too old.

[GalacticRuler]

My condolences for your loss. A rule of thumb is never to use Molex to SATA. If you need more SATA power, convert from PCIe 6-pin, PCIe 8-pin, or CPU 4-pin. All of those will offer the right amount of power, and are much safer since you aren't relying on the adapter to merge 2 power sources.

[Eric Kazer]

Ya, used stupid thing to take short cut because I did not had a Sata I could get to in case. Too bad I didn't find the cable that went with PSU til afterword. Don't even know if it's wire wrong. I'll leave it with the burned up drive as a reminder.

 

Wiring from left to right SATA plug.

yellow, black, red,black

 

Wiring Molex side left to right  flat side of plug.

red, black, black, red

 

It probably would have worked if I made it myself.

[Eric Kazer]

It's Wired wrong! 12 went to 5 and 5 went to 12. that will kill it.

[mariushm]

SATA SSDs only use 5v, so you really only need the black wire and the red wire.

 

The problem with cheap molex to sata adapters is the use of MOLDED sata connectors, which are those sata connectors with wires that can't be removed.

 

On this molded connectors wires are often spot welded to pins, then pins are placed in a plastic base, then hot plastic is injected around this base with the pins to form the sata connector housing.

 

Proper connectors in which you insert wires crimped to pins have much less issues

[CerealExperimentsLain]

1 hour ago, GalacticRuler said:

My condolences for your loss. A rule of thumb is never to use Molex to SATA. If you need more SATA power, convert from PCIe 6-pin, PCIe 8-pin, or CPU 4-pin. All of those will offer the right amount of power, and are much safer since you aren't relying on the adapter to merge 2 power sources.

This is actually painfully incorrect advice based on a fun sounding rhyme.  'Molex To SATA Lose All Your Data'.

The problem with it, as you prove, is that the rhyme is dangerous because it promotes ignorance.  There's nothing with with MOLEX, it's a big, fat, hard to screw up connector.  The problem is the SATA connector.  As in, any SATA connector.  Cheap, badly crimped SATA connectors, since the connectors are small with little pins, are where the short happens.  It has nothing to do with 'Molex To SATA', it's 'Cheap Crappy SATA'.  Suggesting PCIE to SATA as an alternative has potentially the same problems because you think MOLEX is the problem instead of the SATA connector.  You are literally giving advice to possibly repeat the same mistake.  ...Also PCIE and CPU pins have 12v only, SATA requires 12 and 5v. (Basically nothing uses the 3.3v pins), unless your cable includes a buck to convert 12v to 5v as well, it won't power the drive.

But yeah, 'Oh MOLEX to SATA is the problem' is bad, ignorant advice.  With SATA being the problem, MOLEX to SATA, SATA to SATA extension, SATA power splitter, anything really, including potentially your modular power supply cables, are the problem if they've been badly/cheaply crimped.

 

You've just learned to blame the wrong thing because it's a lot more fun to say.

[BondiBlue]

1 hour ago, GalacticRuler said:

My condolences for your loss. A rule of thumb is never to use Molex to SATA. If you need more SATA power, convert from PCIe 6-pin, PCIe 8-pin, or CPU 4-pin. All of those will offer the right amount of power, and are much safer since you aren't relying on the adapter to merge 2 power sources.

No. The molex connector is not the problematic part; the SATA connector is the issue. Molex to SATA adapters are fine if they're properly made, and the one OP has looks fine to me. 

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, BondiBlue said:

No. The molex connector is not the problematic part; the SATA connector is the issue. Molex to SATA adapters are fine if they're properly made, and the one OP has looks fine to me. 

 . The molded type causes issue because the heat generated is enough to soften the plastic/glue used to separate the wires. This leads to shorts. 

 

 

My bad, on closer inspection, his looks crimped... 

 

[GalacticRuler]

5 hours ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

This is actually painfully incorrect advice based on a fun sounding rhyme.  'Molex To SATA Lose All Your Data'.

The problem with it, as you prove, is that the rhyme is dangerous because it promotes ignorance.  There's nothing with with MOLEX, it's a big, fat, hard to screw up connector.  The problem is the SATA connector.  As in, any SATA connector.  Cheap, badly crimped SATA connectors, since the connectors are small with little pins, are where the short happens.  It has nothing to do with 'Molex To SATA', it's 'Cheap Crappy SATA'.  Suggesting PCIE to SATA as an alternative has potentially the same problems because you think MOLEX is the problem instead of the SATA connector.  You are literally giving advice to possibly repeat the same mistake.  ...Also PCIE and CPU pins have 12v only, SATA requires 12 and 5v. (Basically nothing uses the 3.3v pins), unless your cable includes a buck to convert 12v to 5v as well, it won't power the drive.

But yeah, 'Oh MOLEX to SATA is the problem' is bad, ignorant advice.  With SATA being the problem, MOLEX to SATA, SATA to SATA extension, SATA power splitter, anything really, including potentially your modular power supply cables, are the problem if they've been badly/cheaply crimped.

 

You've just learned to blame the wrong thing because it's a lot more fun to say.

Interesting, I never knew this. I was always under the assumption that it was the molex end to blame, given that molex is singled out as the cause for most problems in PCs.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

1 minute ago, GalacticRuler said:

Interesting, I never knew this. I was always under the assumption that it was the molex end to blame, given that molex is singled out as the cause for most problems in PCs.

It's singled out because it's a common case, where as when it's the modular PSU cables (Cheap ones) they blame the whole PSU.  And SATA to SATA extensions and splitters are not quite as common.  Plus, there's people repeatedly citing the rhyme 'Molex To Data, Lose All Your Data'.  In the end people are unknowingly selectively highlighting cases of of MOLEX to SATA cables while assigning less significance to other cables when HDDs get shorted.

But go look at a Molex connector.  It is fat, the pins are widely spaced and the cables are all crimped in there.  A Molex connector does not fail subtlety.  Also, you'll notice that no one talks about how bad Molex was before SATA was standard and you don't see retro PC enthusiasts warning each other about Molex connectors blowing up hardware.

 

It's a problem where someone focused on the wrong thing, made it a meme, and then people only remembered the meme without learning what the real problem was.

[Eric Kazer]

 'Molex To SATA Lose All Your Data'. This sounds correct to me. There was 12 volts on that adapter. I could have simply clipped 12 volt wire and saved drive (maybe). 

 

It's important never to trust these adapters. There should never be 12 volts anywhere near a 2.5" HDD or SSD. They both call for 5 Volts only. The 3.5 " HDD calls for 12 and 5 volts. 12 for spindle motor, and 5 for logic. Also, grabbing power from a CPU connector is bad for SSD. CPU has yellow wires if you look at any generic PSU. You would be send 12 volts to the SSD.

 

I confirmed this with a DMM.