Question Computer Won't Boot with Molex to Sata Power Connected

jda2631

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Hello,

I built a desktop recently to upgrade from my old one. I had 4 HDD in the new computer and 4 more inside an external enclosure, my case has 8 3.5" bays. So I wanted to move all drives inside the case. PSU only has 6 SATA power ports, so I got a Molex to SATA power adapter. Hooked everything back up and computer would never boot, worked great before hooking up the 4 additional drives. Working backwards, it will boot until I connect the Molex to SATA adapter to a Molex cord on the PSU. It gets to the boot screen, but I can't get into BIOS and windows won't ever start loading with that Molex to SATA connected to the PSU. Is this just a bad cord? Why would that prevent the computer from getting past boot screen?
 

jda2631

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I bought 2 more Molex to SATA adapters, different brand. I thought they were doing the same thing, but I left the computer running and came back later and it finally loaded Windows. But not a single HDD was recognized. I have 8 HDD connected, 2 through Molex to SATA cords and 6 directly from the SATA power cables from my PSU. So I restarted the computer, and it took like 20 min for it to reboot. Tried again, the same. So it's taking 20+ min for my computer to boot and it's not recognizing any hard drives. Is this a power issue, not enough power from PSU to power all the drives plus CPU and everything else? Specs are below.

I have an i9-9900k, 2x 16gb ram, 2x m.2 ssd's (OS is on one of these), 8 3.5" HDD, and a SATA raid PCI-E card to allow more drives to be connected to the mother board, all running off a 550W PSU. According to a couple of different PSU calculators that should be plenty of power, that hardware should be using between 350 and 375 W. I don't have a graphics card in it, just a lot of drives and then the ram and cpu.
 

jda2631

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With just the boot drive, it takes about 15 seconds to boot.

No, I do not have anything attached to the SATA ports on the motherboard that are disabled by having the M.2's connected. (4 HDD attached to MOBO directly through sata and 4 attached through the PCI-E raid card. I'm not using the raid feature on that card, just using it to add 4 sata ports to the mobo).

When I had 4 HDD in the computer and 4 HDD in the external HDD enclosure, it ran great and boots in 15 seconds. That enclosure was having issues, the drives in the enclosure would disconnect and reconnect randomly, all 4 at the same time so it appears to be something with that enclosure. That's the biggest reason I get rid of it and moved those 4 HDD into the computer.
 

COLGeek

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Did you alter the jumper settings to use the internal ports?

From your link:

Two dedicated channels are routed to two internal ports and cannot be disabled. The other two channels can be assigned to two internal ports, two external ports, or one internal port and one external port, all at your will. The configuration is implemented via the onboard jumper. The port multiplier function is great for multi-bay enclosures to minimize multiple cables and maximize storage. Support both FIS and command-based switching

See page 6 of manual: https://www.vantecusa.com/CKEdit/images/files/ugt-st644r_manual.pdf
 
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jda2631

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With the sata to molex adapter plugged into the PSU but not into a HDD it boots fine, and the 4 drives connected to the mobo are recognized by windows. With the molex to sata plugged into the hdd I get the boot issues and none of the hdd are recognized.

I have tried 3 different brands molex to sata, and all are causing the same issue.
 

jda2631

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Yes, I have tried 2 that were Molex to 2 Sata power, and one that was like that one. molex to 1 sata power.

And the ones that had 2 sata power, it didn't matter if i connected 1 or both of the sata power.
 

jda2631

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Is there a better way to get power to those hdd's? I used the molex to sata because I had used that method in the past and it worked great. The PSU is semi modular and has another connection for a sata power cord directly from the PSU, I just can't find them to purchase anywhere.