Help: New PSU does not post if HDD is connected

Hello,

I have a mini itx system and the existing 450w psu (silverstone) fan is making a rattling sound so I decided to change it to a corsair sf450. But after swapping the psu the pc does not boot even into bios if any of the HDD's are connected to psu.

Here is what I did so far:

1) connect everything and power on, fans spin one turn and I hear a click and everything turns off

2) I disconnected everything including memory and tested by adding back one by one.

I can boot into bios with memory installed but not any of the 3 hdd's. It stops booting as soon as power is given to the HDD's. I used the new cables that came with the PSU, seems like it goes into protection/fault mode.

3) when I reconnect the old PSU, it boots and all HDD's are working fine.

 

What seems to be the problem? Any help is appreciated.

I am using all the cables that came with the new PSU. The new one is modular and the old one is not so I cannot reuse any cables. And the issue is with all my HDD's (2 ssd and 1 spinner)

That's a very strange problem. I would get hold of a Molex to Sata power cable adapter from ebay, and use the peripheral cable you have for your Corsair PSU. If the problem goes away it's the cable ( although I can't see how ) if the problem remains it's the PSU.

Hmm... Odd. And the PSU only comes with one SATA cable, so it's not like you can try another cable.

 

What does the SATA cable say on the end that plugs into the PSU?

 

It should have a part number starting with "34".

 

I do have a bunch of cables from other psu's but I am hesitant to try for the fear of frying hdd's is real. I am going to return and ask for a replacement at the moment.

That's a very strange problem. I would get hold of a Molex to Sata power cable adapter from ebay, and use the peripheral cable you have for your Corsair PSU. If the problem goes away it's the cable ( although I can't see how ) if the problem remains it's the PSU.

 

I have a few of those too and tried it and nope, the fan/everything cuts out immediately with a click. Some protection kicks in and shuts it. Thankfully no damage was done to the data, so kuddos to the designers. Sadly back it goes.

 

I appreciate all the replies folks.

I suggest getting a larger capacity PSU as the 450W is evidently not handling the workload.

 

This is why I do not like pint sized units, they are too inflexible when problems surface.

37 amps on the +12V..

I doubt two HDDs would trigger OCP, even at startup. that's not yet a "workload"

 

That said.. i once had a similar problem and it was nasty. it could be worth checking :

On the last HDD i ever used, when swapping cases, i did not notice that the little nub that does the L shape at the end of the SATA socket on the drive had broken off.

It got plugged shifting every connexion by one pad... basically shorting or cross connecting voltages together, or with ground... anyway, same symptom, the computer would not start until i unplugged that drive.

 

its PCB was fried, all data lost.. was nasty, i hope that's not your issue.

37 amps on the +12V..

I doubt two HDDs would trigger OCP, even at startup. that's not yet a "workload"

 

That said.. i once had a similar problem and it was nasty. it could be worth checking :

On the last HDD i ever used, when swapping cases, i did not notice that the little nub that does the L shape at the end of the SATA socket on the drive had broken off.

It got plugged shifting every connexion by one pad... basically shorting or cross connecting voltages together, or with ground... anyway, same symptom, the computer would not start until i unplugged that drive.

 

its PCB was fried, all data lost.. was nasty, i hope that's not your issue.

 

I have not had that problem. Mind you I am careful with hard disks. I spent more $ on perfect sized cables etc so that parts fit better.

 

I have 5 disks in my chassis so I am very conscious of disk health. I also have a pair of M.2 SSD drives and a front panel box with 4 more hard disks.

 

I use the front box to close disks fast. Less demand now but I installed a lot of SATA SSD in laptops. More recently I have been doing capacity increases.

yep, mishaps are rarely planified :) but SATA connectors are very fragile