Desktop SATA troubleshooting

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1Philip

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#279955 18-Nov-2020 20:41

I'll firstly try this with minimal detail and see if there's some simple fix it steps,

I have a Win7 desktop PC, it's a few years old. It's a 500watt PSU, I'm running an old Nvidia GTX 660, 8gb RAM, 3.20 Ghz i5-4570 CPU.

Mobo has 4 Sata controllers.

I have 2 SSDS and 2 HDDS.

I am getting almost 0 consistency with the drives being connected.

Sometimes 1/4 show, sometimes 2/4, sometimes 3/4, a couple of the drives show more consistently than others. There no one drive that never shows (Although one of the HDDS seems to be failing, and almost never shows).

I wondered if due to the inconsistent nature, it may be a PSU problem?

It's a 500watt PSU, so probably strong enough?? But I wondered if maybe it's failing and that would be causing the problems.

Changing the leads around don't make much of a difference, it's hard to pinpoint a pattern.

Any tips would be great. Drivers etc are updated AFAIK.

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#2606504 18-Nov-2020 21:22

500W is plenty, most non-gaming PCs use about 150W. For diagnostics can you boot into Ubuntu from a memory stick and see if the drives consistently show? If they do, it's Windows. If not my best guess is motherboard failure.

AKLWestie

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#2606505 18-Nov-2020 21:26

SATA cables are quite cheap, so I would buy four brand new SATA cables and swap them with all the old ones. If problem persists, the next thing I will try is to replace the power supply.

How old is the PC? i5-4570 was released back in 2013.

timmmay

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#2606512 18-Nov-2020 21:43

I'm not sure I'd spend money on anything to fix a PC that old. A new power supply could of course be used in a new computer if you build your own new, so the risk isn't that high, and a PSU is less than $200 for a decent one like Cooler Master.

K8Toledo

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#2606556 18-Nov-2020 23:47

Could be SATA cables or SATA ports. What motherboard is it?

K8Toledo

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#2606558 18-Nov-2020 23:53

timmmay:

500W is plenty, most PCs use about 150W. For diagnostics can you boot into Ubuntu from a memory stick and see if the drives consistently show? If they do, it's Windows. If not my best guess is motherboard failure.

150W at idle maybe. If gaming power draw could be closer to 500W. Depends on the system......

timmmay

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#2606564 19-Nov-2020 05:26

K8Toledo:

timmmay:

500W is plenty, most PCs use about 150W. For diagnostics can you boot into Ubuntu from a memory stick and see if the drives consistently show? If they do, it's Windows. If not my best guess is motherboard failure.

150W at idle maybe. If gaming power draw could be closer to 500W. Depends on the system......

A non-gaming PC can use less than 100W at idle, and 150W at full CPU / all disks working. I measured my 2600K which has a few disks and a couple of SSDs while it was busy. GPUs can use a lot of power.

My new PC (link to parts) is estimated to use 170W at peak load. At idle it'll probably be quite a bit less.

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#2606577 19-Nov-2020 07:00

Can you put the disks, one at a time, on another PC that can perform a SMART scan/diagnosis?

gbwelly

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#2606583 19-Nov-2020 07:28

1Philip:

There no one drive that never shows

What about the other way around, is there a drive that always shows?

I'd probably jump to the conclusion that the motherboard is faulty given it's age. If you have one drive that shows reliably then see if the other drives become reliable when plugged into that same port.

richms

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#2606586 19-Nov-2020 07:39

I have had sata ports die on a motherboard, didnt really become erratic before dying, maybe lost all the drives once or twice off some of the chipset ports, making the mirror fail, then just had several die all at once, the only working ones left were from a pci chip on the board. Whole board failed not long after that. Was a 3 series iSomething CPU board and failed when 7th came out, so no huge loss to me to replace it.

Richard rich.ms

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#2606616 19-Nov-2020 09:04

"Although one of the HDDS seems to be failing, and almost never shows"

Dont even try to use the HD that you think may be failing , untill youve sorted this out
failing HD's can give unforseen issues with other drives (usually not, but can happen)

as above , try the drives 1 by 1 .

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#2607174 19-Nov-2020 17:43

Can you get it to boot into windows ?

what does device manager say? any ! or not detected errors?

What motherboard is it? do you have the latest bios and chipset drivers?

also try running this to check on the HD status

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

Try using a ;linux boot cd and and see if they show up.

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#2607196 19-Nov-2020 19:19

Oops , the first step should be seeing if they are detected in the bios.

A bios reset might also be a good idea, and if the pc has been stored and not used the motherboard battery is sure to need replacing.

K8Toledo

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#2607268 19-Nov-2020 22:52

timmmay:

A non-gaming PC can use less than 100W at idle, and 150W at full CPU / all disks working. I measured my 2600K which has a few disks and a couple of SSDs while it was busy. GPUs can use a lot of power.

And how was this measurement taken? With a Watt Meter?

A PC that draws less than 100W at idle & 150W loaded is not a PC, it's a laptop.

The 2600K has a TDP of 95W, calculated with turbo enabled @ stock clocks. Overlocked under load expect ≥ 150W.

AMD's 125W FX-8xxx Vishera when overclocked to 4.8-5.0GHz draws 220W under load, and that's just the CPU. Add GPU ~250W-350W (at stock) plus board now we're up to 500W.

SLI/CFX takes the number to 750W-800W.

HDD's/SSD's @7W don't really factor into power draw except in server environments.

K8Toledo

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#2607269 19-Nov-2020 22:53

timmmay:

My new PC (link to parts) is estimated to use 170W at peak load. At idle it'll probably be quite a bit less.

Estimated is one thing, actual is something else altogether.

Also the estimate omits a dedicated GPU. So take the 170W peak & add another 300W.

timmmay

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#2607274 20-Nov-2020 05:47

K8Toledo:

And how was this measurement taken? With a Watt Meter?

A PC that draws less than 100W at idle & 150W loaded is not a PC, it's a laptop.

The 2600K has a TDP of 95W, calculated with turbo enabled @ stock clocks. Overlocked under load expect ≥ 150W.

AMD's 125W FX-8xxx Vishera when overclocked to 4.8-5.0GHz draws 220W under load, and that's just the CPU. Add GPU ~250W-350W (at stock) plus board now we're up to 500W.

SLI/CFX takes the number to 750W-800W.

HDD's/SSD's @7W don't really factor into power draw except in server environments.

Ah yeah, the estimate goes up to 234W when you add the basic video card I got. That's peak, at idle it's less - computers are fairly efficient now.

When I measured my PC power usage it was with a watt meter. I have a different watt meter now, I'll measure my PC when I turn it on next if I remember.

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