I recently moved and encountered a major issue when I plugged my computer in—it made a loud pop and wouldn't boot. After a lot of troubleshooting, I discovered that my PC only boots up when I unplug all drives aside from the M.2 boot drive and the GPU. If I plug in any drive, it refuses to boot again, and even removing the drive doesn't resolve the issue, leading me to unplug the GPU each time.
I've been living without three hard drives, but the storage situation is getting critical. So, I purchased a UPS and replaced both the motherboard and PSU (got an identical model), which allowed the system to boot without issue. However, when I plugged in a brand new HDD with new SATA cables, the same problem occurred. The BIOS shows all SATA ports as "Not present". I've tried various cables and ports but to no avail.
Here are my specs:
* New Motherboard: PRO B550M-VC WIFI
* Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
* Storage: 500Gb M.2 Drive
* PSU: EVGA 750W Gold (750 GQ)
In short, I've replaced two motherboards and two PSUs, yet my hard drives keep getting ruined. I'm at a loss and considering just buying a prebuilt system.
2 Answers
Honestly, if you've already lost a few drives, it might be time to stop trying to connect more until you get this sorted out. You definitely don’t want to risk frying more hardware if there's something seriously wrong. Have you checked the power supply connections to the HDDs?
When you got the new PSU, did you swap out all the old PSU cables? Using incompatible cables can lead to serious damage, so you might want to double-check that you’re using the right ones. Mixing up cable types can be a gamble, so be cautious!
Oh man, I just realized there might be a compatibility issue. I thought they all would fit easily, but it seems I might have used the wrong one. Now I'm worried I’ve damaged my drives! What should I do with my old cables?
I get that! I really want to load up Baldur's Gate 3, which is why I pushed my luck with the drives. I thought it could be the SATA cable from the new PSU causing the issues.