Question My SSDs & HDDs keep on disconnecting

[dan99t]

Hi,

I have an old Dell T7500 workstation that I have been using since 2012.

It has 4 drive bays & I used to run 2 x 500GB SSds and 2 x 3TB totaling 4 drives.

But now I can barely run 1 SSD & 1 HDD & that too if I used power from molex connector. Regular SATA port won't handle more than 1 SSD 0r HDD.

If I use regular SATA-3 connectors, one of HDDs or SSDs would disconnect any time especially when I am writing data to large 3 TB HDDs.

I had replaced replaced the 1100W PSU in 2018 when original failed.

I have also replaced SATA cables many times.

(1) Is it safe to run SSDs or HDDs using molex power ?

(2) Is this a PSU problem ? If so how does 4 or 5 Watt power that SSD or HDD uses would impact an 1100W PSU ?

(3) Is there something else that affects this disconnections ?

Thanks

 

[Ralston18]

Make and model PSU?

Now 6 years old - correct?

Very likely that the PSU (especially if heavily used for gaming) is nearing or at its' designed in EOL (End of Life).

The problem may be the total amount of power being demanded at any given time or some sudden spike or peak in demand.

Not that some individual component requires only 4 or 5 watts.

Think in terms of thresholds: a total demand of X watts works fine but the PSU may be degrading and providing X + 1 watts becomes problematic.

Likewise for being able to handle sudden spikes in power demand. A sudden X % increase was once viable. Now not so much....

 

[dan99t]

Make and model PSU?

Dell PSU Original - Bought from Dell 6 Yrs ago.

Never Gaming at all.

0G821T H1100EF-01

DP/N 0G821T

P/N : S1K 1E001L
CN – 0G821T – 47890 – 13Q – 1698 – A01

Made in China

 

[Ralston18]

Even without gaming the PSU remains a likely suspect.

Gaming, video editing, bit-mining impose heavy loads on a PSU and the PSU will degrade accordingly. Cheaper PSUs all the faster.

= = = =

Take a look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

For the most part you may see any number of error codes, warnings, and informational events. Windows may have handled most of them.

What you are looking for are increasing numbers of errors and varying errors. May be a rapid change or not really all that noticeable until you see the bigger picture.

= = = =

And do be sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations away from the system and/or drives in question.

Verify that the data is recoverable and readable.

 

[rolli59]

I would suspect a 12 year old motherboard as well.
Instead of throwing money at it a more modern system would be in order.