[SOLVED] Can anyone explain this?

[rtadd]

Hello, I've encountered a problem while working on a PC and I think I solved it. However, I've just started working on PC's as a hobby and I don't understand what was the problem nor how it was fixed by what I did.
I know that this might not be a regular post because the problem was solved, but I don't like not knowing what happened and if there's something else I might have missed thet might cause another problem later on.
I'll try to be as torough as possible, so it will be a little long. Sorry in advance.

-PC specs:
Motherboard: msi b365m pro-vh
CPU: intel i3 9100f
GPU: asus rog strix gtx 1070
RAM: kingston hyperx DDR4 2400 MHz 2x8GB
SSD: kingston 480GB
HDD: a couple of WD (1TB and 320GB)
PSU: Sentey 650W (I don't remember the exact model)

-Here's what happened:
The owner was using the PC and started noticing that something did't work just right. It took longer to boot, some programs weren't available anymore and shortly after that the PC would't boot at all. When I opened it and tried to start it the EZ debug led on the motherboard was stuck on the VGA
In another build with similar specs thet led ment that the pc didn't have a GPU since the 9100f doesn't have an iGPU, but when I put the graphics card everything was fine. So I thought it might be a problem with de GPU. I had an older card available (gtx 460) so I changed it but the problem persisted. I couldn't find what else that VGA led ment, so I moved on and hoped the graphics card was fine.
Then I started to think that the problem might be on one of the drives, so I tried unplugging the HDD leaving only the SSD (with windows). The computer started just fine. The 320GB HDD also worked, the problem happened again when I plugged the 1TB drive.
So the problem seemed to be solved, I removed the "faulty" drive and eventually replaced it for a 2TB one.
However, a little bit later the pc started to have the exact same problem than the first time. When I removed the new 2TB drive the computer started again. The last test I could think was to plug the HDD in another SATA port on the motherboard, and that seemed to work, at least to this day the PC is still working. I even added another 2TB HDD and still no problem.
One other thing that I tried was to plug the "faulty" 1TB HDD in another computer, and to my surprise the drive seems to be working just fine.

My question is, could a bad SATA port on the motherboard cause all this trouble? Is there anything else that I could have tried to identify the problem?
Thanks for reading this far!!

 

[Math Geek]

a bad sata port is not at all uncommon and sounds like the problem here.

you did pretty much the same things i would have done and came to the same conclusion i would have as well.

even on a newish system, i've seen a bad port too often really.

what to take away and learn from this is that it is always a good idea to remove un-needed pieces when troubleshooting. those extra hdd's, rgb controllers, fan controllers and so on are often the source of problems.

often a non-booting system starts with removing everything but the cpu and a stick of ram to see if it posts. then slowly adding parts until something starts causing problems.

sounds like you did the right thing to me and most likely found the problem even if you did not realize it at the time

 

[rtadd]

Thanks!! That was really helpful! One last question, is that SATA port completely lost or it may be recovered with something like a BIOS update?

 

[Math Geek]

sorry but no. once it goes bad, it's just out of action. you have to use the other ports and ignore the broke one.