Computer wont start if molex is powering a new USB 3 card.

palosanto

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Nov 16, 2011
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I've finished building a new rig with a ASUS Z9PA-D8 server board and dual Xeons 2670 and a 750w EVGA PSU.
The computer runs great but, since this motherboard only has 2 USB3 ports, I bought a Orico expansion card with 5 more ports.
http://orico.cc/images/201606/goods_img/4896_P_1466549263292.jpg
The card requires a molex power input.
However, if I try to start the machine with the card powered, I get no beep, and the fans have a split second attempt to spin but they don't. The mobo lights are on.
I tried with another power cable with the same result.
I've tried in both the 3 SATA sockets and the 2 PATA. See image:
750G-650G_Modular.png

The card is fine because I tried in another machine and it was ok. And if disconnect the power on it, the machine starts normally but of course, the USB 3 ports are dead.
There's no possibility of having the wrong power, is there? The cable has 2x3 pins on the PSU side (with two of the corners empty) and a couple of 4 female molex pins along the way.
http://www.btosinte.com/images/6p-3xMolex.jpg
Could there be some jumpers that I have to set in the board?
All the other powered elements (GPU, SATA HDD's) work fine.
This is the only thing that I'm powering with a molex ...
Any ideas ?
 
Dual Xeon 2670
ASUS Z9PA-D8 server board
32gb 1866 RAM
750 EVGA Gold PSU
Nvidia Gforce 770 4GB
250 Samsung SSD
3TB SeGte HDD

I've tried removing all HD and GPU and MB still shorts ad rejects it.
The card works fine on another system with ASUS Z97M-Plus with an i7-4770K
I've run a PSU calculator at http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator and I get 485W with everything way above myactual utilization and my PSU is a 750W unit so power capacity it's not an issue
 
Hi

Just a guess your PSU has 2 sockets marked PATA
a molex 4 pin plug is what powers 3.5" PATA hard drives and PATA DVD drives

so cable with molex plugs on one end (to USB 3.0 card) and 6 pin plug on the other end to PSU PATA socket

VGA means PCI-e cable & plug for standard graphics cards

I assumed the modular PSU would come with clear instructions explaining this


for pictures of standard PC motherboard & PSU plugs & sockets (not the modular ones to the PSU sockets)
see
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html


they use term 4 pin peripheral power cable connector also commonly called molex plug

note red/ black /black /yellow wires

regards
Mike Barnes


 


Thanks Mike, Yes as you can see in my first post picture, there are 2 pata and 3 sata sockets. I've tried in all of them with the same result. I'm starting to think that the card is simply not compatible with this MB. If you read the post, I've tried the card in a nother system and the system doesn't short and starts normally.
But really? Incompatible ? Aren't they standards in the industry to make things work with each other ? ...
The wiring of the cable is correct with the colors that you indicated. I've also tried with only the PCI-card, no HDD, no GPU . Nada.
The MB rejects it.
You are with ASUS for what I see, are you aware of any BIOS setting or MB jumper in this particualar MB that could cause this behaviour ? I've also chatted this morning with ASUS support and we got nowhere.

BTW I sent you a PM last night on the subject because you replied to a post a long time ago with a similar situatio:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/349983-28-molex-adapter