Question all SATA drives not showing in BIOS

[Sprinkz]

looking for some help because I’m pretty stumped, have I fried all three of my storage devices? any help would be appreciated.

yesterday evening I tried swapping out a EVGA 650w gold PSU and GTX 1070 for an EVGA 850w with a RTX 4090 from but after doing so caused me to go into full BIOS because no bootable device was found and now all of my SATA connected storage devices refuse to even show up. also notably I smelled a very very faint burning smell, it didn’t smell like the usual plastic burning smell. after a few minutes and all subsequent boots the smell is completely gone. I see no visible damage on any pins, ports, metal contacts or cables.

my storage was x1 500gb WD SSD, x2 1TB WD HDD and x1 500gb NVME m2 card

I’m using all the new cords from the new PSU

I’ve tried going into BIOS and trying multiple configurations with storage, making sure each SATA port was turned on, legacy, UEFI, CSM boot mode and priorities but the only device that shows up is the M2 card

I’ve tried rearranging each SATA cord in different slots on tand connected to each different drive, alone and together, tried using different SATA PSU slots/cable

I’ve tried replugging my old GPU and old PSU in and still all 3 of the SATA drives refuse to show up

The SATA controller shows up without issue in device manager, no errors and uses the latest version

I don’t have another PC to check the storage/cables on sadly

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

A faint burning smell is not good. I would look over the entire motherboard for any dark spots around the soldering everywhere on the surface of front and back. And look for any other sign of melting or bulging capacitors.

 

[lvt]

What motherboard do you have?

Does it have an SATA controller that is visible on the board?

Is the SATA controller damaged?

 

[Bob.B]

looking for some help because I’m pretty stumped, have I fried all three of my storage devices? any help would be appreciated.

yesterday evening I tried swapping out a EVGA 650w gold PSU and GTX 1070 for an EVGA 850w with a RTX 4090 from but after doing so caused me to go into full BIOS because no bootable device was found and now all of my SATA connected storage devices refuse to even show up. also notably I smelled a very very faint burning smell, it didn’t smell like the usual plastic burning smell. after a few minutes and all subsequent boots the smell is completely gone. I see no visible damage on any pins, ports, metal contacts or cables.

my storage was x1 500gb WD SSD, x2 1TB WD HDD and x1 500gb NVME m2 card

I’m using all the new cords from the new PSU

I’ve tried going into BIOS and trying multiple configurations with storage, making sure each SATA port was turned on, legacy, UEFI, CSM boot mode and priorities but the only device that shows up is the M2 card

I’ve tried rearranging each SATA cord in different slots on tand connected to each different drive, alone and together, tried using different SATA PSU slots/cable

I’ve tried replugging my old GPU and old PSU in and still all 3 of the SATA drives refuse to show up

The SATA controller shows up without issue in device manager, no errors and uses the latest version

I don’t have another PC to check the storage/cables on sadly

Some options.

Get a usb to sata cable....test.
Get a disk docking station...test
Take the disks to a service counter for testing

 

[Sprinkz]

What motherboard do you have?

Does it have an SATA controller that is visible on the board?

Is the SATA controller damaged?

Asus Prime z490p is the MOBO

I’m picking up a sata adapter and some new sata cables to test if I can read any data from any of the three cards. If not I’ll pick up an SSD after that to confirm the MOBO can at least detect it and then I guess I’ll have to start looking at my recovery options if any that aren’t an arm and a leg recovery service 🙁

 

[fzabkar]

There may be a zero-cost DIY solution. Can you show us detailed photos of each PCB?

 

[Sprinkz]

There may be a zero-cost DIY solution. Can you show us detailed photos of each PCB?

I don't have a Torx screwdriver at the moment so I can't remove the hdd covers, was going to volt check the piece that commonly blows (apparently) and try that fix where you just remove that piece. I tested the two hdds and single ssd with SATA to USB adapter, still wasn't showing in BIOS. then I tested new sata cable and new SSD to sata slot, also didn't show up in BIOS

I suspect all three drives are fried and so are the SATA ports unless I'm missing something

 

[fzabkar]

The SATA ports will not be affected. I'll wait for your photos before suggesting anything.

 

[Sprinkz]

The SATA ports will not be affected. I'll wait for your photos before suggesting anything.

any idea why the brand new SSD isn't showing up in BIOS with a new sata cable? that's what makes me think the ports themselves are gone

 

[fzabkar]

You say you are now using the correct SATA power cables, but did you initially use the cables from the old PSU? If so, then you probably impressed 12V on the SSD's 5V input.

 

[Sprinkz]

You say you are now using the correct SATA power cables, but did you initially use the cables from the old PSU? If so, then you probably impressed 12V on the SSD's 5V input.

well i meant I used the extra SATA PSU cable (850w came with 2 sata+1 perif cable) from the 850w and then a brand new SSD and brand new SATA to SSD cable I just bought. I thought if everything was new/unused besides the mobo that would point me to what’s dead

I don’t think I mixed the modular cables from the old PSU but I guess maybe I did based on the symptoms 😕

would that normally take out the SATA ports on the MOBO as well?

 

[Sprinkz]

Here's pictures of the PCB. the black stuff on the 2nd HDD is the like foam adhesive pad that sat against the card?

HDD1:

HDD2:

 

[fzabkar]

HDD1 has taken a big hit on the +5V supply. Due to the nature of the catastrophic damage to the SMOOTH IC, the chances are that the preamp on the headstack has also been damaged. If this is the case, then this job is beyond DIY. If you have a multimeter, we can take some measurements to determine whether it would be worth trying a replacement PCB. I suggest you start by measuring the resistances of R67 and D3 in the top right corner of the photo. These components are WD's embarrassing attempt to "protect" the PCB. WD's more recent PCBs do it properly, but these earlier ones are woeful.

HDD2 does not appear to have any protection, so the most expedient solution would be to buy a replacement PCB and transfer the 8-pin "ROM" at location U12 from patient to donor. PCB suppliers such as hdd-parts.com will include a free ROM transfer in the price of the PCB.