[SOLVED] Computer crash -bad SATA port or cable?

wogfor

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Jun 30, 2016
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Hello!
I have a secondary system running an old Phenom II processor on a somewhat newer ASRock 970M Pro motherboard. I had a crash tonight where it went into BSOD on me. I disconnected all the drives and plugged in a small SSD that still had the original operating system on it, before I moved over to a 1TB HDD. (I don't game on it so a fast drive is not an issue- needed more room) and it booted.

Long story short, all the drives were tested in another system that I have a docking station on and all operated normally. I found that on one of the SATA cables, when the boot drive is plugged into it, crashes into BSOD. The other two are fine. The HDD also boots fine when not plugged into the one particular cable.

My question is: can a SATA port go bad? I am still in the trouble shooting stage right now, so I have yet to switch out to a different cable or port. It will take some time to dig it out due to cable management (zip ties and all that).

I am quitting for now as I must rest, but just wanted some thoughts on this. I am hoping for a bad cable at this point, but won't know until I get back to it tomorrow. I hate to think that it might be the motherboard having a problem. I do have more than a few SATA cables to try laying around, and 2 empty SATA ports to try as well.

Tell me your thoughts
 
Solution
Hello!
I have a secondary system running an old Phenom II processor on a somewhat newer ASRock 970M Pro motherboard. I had a crash tonight where it went into BSOD on me. I disconnected all the drives and plugged in a small SSD that still had the original operating system on it, before I moved over to a 1TB HDD. (I don't game on it so a fast drive is not an issue- needed more room) and it booted.

Long story short, all the drives were tested in another system that I have a docking station on and all operated normally. I found that on one of the SATA cables, when the boot drive is plugged into it, crashes into BSOD. The other two are fine. The HDD also boots fine when not plugged into the one particular cable.

My question is: can a...
Hello!
I have a secondary system running an old Phenom II processor on a somewhat newer ASRock 970M Pro motherboard. I had a crash tonight where it went into BSOD on me. I disconnected all the drives and plugged in a small SSD that still had the original operating system on it, before I moved over to a 1TB HDD. (I don't game on it so a fast drive is not an issue- needed more room) and it booted.

Long story short, all the drives were tested in another system that I have a docking station on and all operated normally. I found that on one of the SATA cables, when the boot drive is plugged into it, crashes into BSOD. The other two are fine. The HDD also boots fine when not plugged into the one particular cable.

My question is: can a SATA port go bad? I am still in the trouble shooting stage right now, so I have yet to switch out to a different cable or port. It will take some time to dig it out due to cable management (zip ties and all that).

I am quitting for now as I must rest, but just wanted some thoughts on this. I am hoping for a bad cable at this point, but won't know until I get back to it tomorrow. I hate to think that it might be the motherboard having a problem. I do have more than a few SATA cables to try laying around, and 2 empty SATA ports to try as well.

Tell me your thoughts
Well, obvious and first thing to try is to change data cable but power cable can also cause a problem.
 
Solution