[SOLVED] Internal SATA HDD making a clicking nose with random disconnects, why?

[Jayvid]

Hey guys,

Just as the title says, I recently got a custom built rig. Apologies for the long drawn out post, but I wanted you guys to know exactly what I'm dealing with and what I've done so far. Honestly I don't know much about the composition of a PC and how it's put together but I've been learning as I google and troubleshoot all the issues I have LOL. But anyway, I currently have a 256 Solid-State Drive installed which also contains my Windows OS. I also have a 1TB Hard Disk Drive that I download all of my video games to. Following my upgrade that I did on my graphics card (Which was the gtx 1050 ti upgrade to the rtx 2070 super) which worked excellently for a while, My 1TB Hard Drive started disconnecting. I noticed this because I'd be in the middle of gaming and of course once the drive disconnects in comes the crash.

So far, I've opened the bay and disconnected and reconnected both the sata data cables and power cables to the HDD and I even purchased 2 new SATA data cables and replaced the old. The issue still persists so I'm now assuming that it may be a failing hard drive due to the clicking noise. I used another PC's internal HDD in the place of my alleged "failing" hard drive and the test drive gave the same results.. random clicking noises and disconnects and reconnects and I've made sure all connections are tight and in place. So I'm thinking, "There's no way both of these HDD's could be failing".

I removed the test HDD and put the original HDD back in. Placed the test HDD back into the PC I retrieved it from and the symptoms did not exist at ALL. The PC runs perfectly fine no drive disconnects. This has now lead me to believe that the hard-drive probably is not failing, it could be something else. I'm going to post my PC's stats because I have NO idea what could be the cause of this.

I'm running a 700W PSU and I used a voltage calculator and was recommended about at least a 350W PSU should be used. I have disabled the 1TB SATA HDD because of the issues it's been having which is why it's not appearing in the specs. If anyone could lead me on the right path to a resolution for this issue, I'd be much appreciative. Thanks in Advance guys!

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 54 °C
Pinnacle Ridge 12nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Single-Channel Unknown @ 1197MHz (17-17-17-39)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. B450M DS3H-CF (AM4) 45 °C
Graphics
HP 25x (1920x1080@144Hz)
XenSource Citrix Indirect Display Adapter (Undefined)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (MSI) 61 °C
SLI Disabled
Storage
223GB ADATA SU635 (SATA (SSD)) 56 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

 

[faalin]

few things i noticed

1, you need to get new ram, Ryzen does better with faster ram. You're running 2400Mhz single channel where it should be around 3000 -3200 and dual channel. Not a huge deal but something i noticed

2, try plugging the sata cable at the motherboard into another port.
3, change the sleep status on the drive.....

Press the window key on your keyboard and type control panel
Click System and Security
Click Power Options
Click Change plan settings on whichever Preferred plan you have set
Under the two bars click Change Advanced Power Settings
In the list look for Hard Disk, mine shows right at the top of the list
Under Turn off Hard disk after set to 0


If that works you can go back in later and set the min for a few hours so if not in use, like over night, it will put the drive to sleep so its not always spinning.

 

[Jayvid]

few things i noticed

1, you need to get new ram, Ryzen does better with faster ram. You're running 2400Mhz single channel where it should be around 3000 -3200 and dual channel. Not a huge deal but something i noticed

2, try plugging the sata cable at the motherboard into another port.
3, change the sleep status on the drive.....

Press the window key on your keyboard and type control panel
Click System and Security
Click Power Options
Click Change plan settings on whichever Preferred plan you have set
Under the two bars click Change Advanced Power Settings
In the list look for Hard Disk, mine shows right at the top of the list
Under Turn off Hard disk after set to 0


If that works you can go back in later and set the min for a few hours so if not in use, like over night, it will put the drive to sleep so its not always spinning.

Thanks for you response faalin. I planned on switching to a 16GB (2x8) dual channel setup for my memory sticks but I didn't notice the MHz I was running for my CPU. I'm going to grab one of these from Amazon -
16GB (2x8GB) XLR8 Gaming Epic-X RGB DDR4 3200MHz Desktop Memory

Also, I initially swapped the sata cables to different ports because I originally thought I only had 2 but in the BIOS i noticed 2 other slots, checked under my graphics card and noticed a 3rd. I'm assuming this 4th is under the graphics card and inaccessible. I think I may have placed the drive back on to the port it was initially on so I saw no difference. After reading your post I decided to go back in and swap that cable to the only other open port that I could see.

Also I've went to my power options, my Turn off Hard disk setting was set to 120, just swapped to 0.
I've re-enabled my drive and I'm now testing, hopefully the issue is resolved and if it is, that would mean that the one SATA port on my MB could be bad.

 

[faalin]

Just to recap of what you have tried

unplug and replug sata cable and power
bought new sata cables
moved sata cable to new port
used a secondary drive

Have you tried another sata power cable coming from the psu
What is the make and model of the PSU

your issues only started once upgrading the GPU, while the 2070S recommends a 520w PSU and you exceed that. I might question the quality of the PSU and the rails on it.

 

[Jayvid]

Just to recap of what you have tried

unplug and replug sata cable and power
bought new sata cables
moved sata cable to new port
used a secondary drive

Have you tried another sata power cable coming from the psu
What is the make and model of the PSU

your issues only started once upgrading the GPU, while the 2070S recommends a 520w PSU and you exceed that. I might question the quality of the PSU and the rails on it.

I have tried swapping the sata power cables between the SSD and the HDD, but the issue persisted at the time. With my current testing, I have not had a drive disconnect yet. It usually only occurs when attempting to read & write. Sometimes it happens when my PC is Idle but occasionally. If the drive disconnects again I will try swapping the sata power cable once more. I noticed there are a few other sata power cables but they look a bit different ( they have an orange cable included in the mix which is different than the sata power cables attached to my disk drives, does this make a difference?) There's also a few cables that are connected to what looks like adapters, which are connected to the fan in the Bay for temp control.

 

[faalin]

try one of the cables that has the orange wire in it. while the drive might need it, it wouldnt hurt to try. the orange wire delivers 3.3v

 

[shivababbli]

Backup your data and replace the hdd if it is under warranty.... Your hdd might be dying

 

[Jayvid]

try one of the cables that has the orange wire in it. while the drive might need it, it wouldnt hurt to try. the orange wire delivers 3.3v

Hey faalin,

Thanks for your response. When I last posted I tried swapping the sata ports and the issue was resolved for about an hour, and then it happened again so I got fed up and left it alone.
Today, I decided to troubleshoot again and decided to connect one of the sata power cables with the orange wire that delivers 3.3v to the drive the constantly disconnects. The issue has not occurred yet! Hopefully this resolved the issue!

Backup your data and replace the hdd if it is under warranty.... Your hdd might be dying

Thank you for your response as well shiva. However, I don't think it is the hdd because I suffered similar symptoms from another drive that I used in the place of my alleged failing hard drive using the same exact sata data and power cables that were connected to the original drive, but the issues no longer occur once I placed the alternate drive back into it's respected PC.
But I do have a HDD on standby in my amazon cart which I'm getting anyway so this should cover two birds with one stone