NAS won't boot when I connect the hdd cage to the PSU

[Arsenal Gear]

I've just finished building my second computer and first NAS, but I've run into some trouble. I've managed to isolate it to an extent, but I'm not sure how to proceed. I'll include my build at the end.

Once I'd put everything together, I tried to power it on, but all I got was the briefest reaction and then nothing. I decided to rebuild it, and during this process I tried to boot with just the bare minimum of components connected, and this was successful. After completing the build again, I once again couldn't get it to boot.

After a bit of hunting I found out that by removing the HDD cage's 4-pin peripheral power cable from the PSU, I could achieve a boot with no problem. I'm not sure what to do from here though.

I've tried removing the hdds from the cage, and swapping the power cable to another slot on the PSU, but no luck. I could try to dig out another cable. I'm fairly certain that my 450W PSU is supplying more than enough power. I'm going to try skipping the HDD cage and directly connecting an HDD to the mobo and PSU. Assuming this works, is there anything I might be doing wrong with the HDD cage, or should I just ask for a replacement? It has two 4-pin peripheral power connections and 6 sata connections. The case is pretty rammed full of cables, but the cage is quite firmly installed. I only have 3 HDDs in there at the moment. I don't want to wait for a replacement only to find out that I still have the same problem.

My Build:

Case: Silverstone CS01-HS
Mobo: ASRock Rack C236 WSI
CPU: i3-6300T
RAM: Crucial DDR4 ECC 8GB x2
Storage: 8GB USB Flash Memory (for FreeNAS)
Western Digital 120GB SSD x2
Toshiba 3TB 5400rpm 2.5 inch HDD x4
PSU: Corsair SF450
CPU Fan: Noctua NH-L9x65
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A-FLX

 

[hang-the-9]

If the system is working fine with all the hard drives connected to the power supply SATA power plugs directly, there is something wrong with the drive cage.

 

[Arsenal Gear]

I also figured that the drive cage must be the culprit, so I sent it back (had to replace the whole case) and got a new one today. I eagerly completed the build for the third time, and... no change! The drive cage still prevents the system from starting at all when connected to the PSU. It seems that the PSU is shutting down due to over-voltage or over-current protection. Could I have a faulty PSU?

 

[hang-the-9]

I also figured that the drive cage must be the culprit, so I sent it back (had to replace the whole case) and got a new one today. I eagerly completed the build for the third time, and... no change! The drive cage still prevents the system from starting at all when connected to the PSU. It seems that the PSU is shutting down due to over-voltage or over-current protection. Could I have a faulty PSU?

The PSU you have is not bad, and the fact that it powers things up without issues without the cage leads more to an issue with how the drive cage is constructed. It won't hurt to get a better PSU, at worst it won't help the drive bays but you will have a better quality PSU. Your issue is that you are using a case that needs an SFX size power supply which limits you to about 3 brands that made good quality units in that form.

Did you check with Silverstone support see if they have any ideas?

 

[Arsenal Gear]

The saga of my struggling NAS is still not over.

Having replaced the HDD cage (I should really be calling it a hotswap backplane) to no effect, I decided to try a new PSU. I ordered a Silverstone ST45SF, which is listed on the product page for my case as a recommended PSU. I figured that if there was some sort of compatibility issue I couldn't see, then this PSU might solve it. The PSU arrived and I installed it, then crossed my fingers and pressed the power button and.... nothing. I pulled out the 4-pin power cable and sure enough, it started up as normal.

I had sent a message to Silverstone previously, and the morning after this latest failure, I finally got a response, which read as follows:

"The backplane that comes with the CS01-HS has quite a number of capacitors that will require large temporary draw from your power supply’s minor rail (+3.3V & +5V) on boot up regardless of drives installed. So if you can, please find another power supply with larger capacity on the minor rail to see if you can boot up successfully. In the unlikely event that your CS01-HS won’t boot up even with more powerful PSU, then please let us know."

So finally I have a specific cause that I can attempt to tackle. Given that I'm using the PSU that Silverstone recommend for the case, I can only assume that some of my other base components are also drawing heavily on the minor rail on startup, and the combined draw is defeating both of the PSUs I've tried.

Looking at the specs for SFX PSUs from Corsair and Silverstone, I seemed to have only one choice that might survive that minor rail draw.

Silverstone:
ST45SF (450W SFX) Minor Rail Combined: 110W
SX600G (600W SFX) Minor Rail Combined: 90W

Corsair:
SF450 (450W SFX) Minor Rail Combined: 100W
SF600 (600W SFX) Minor Rail Combined: 120W

I quickly ordered the Corsair SF600 so that I could hopefully complete the build over the weekend, but I'm starting to think I might have wasted my time. The ST45SF I currently have installed is a version 2.0, rather than the latest 3.0. The 2.0 apparently has a combined minor rail rating of 120W. If this doesn't get me through the boot, the SF600 probably won't either. 120W seems to be the biggest number I can find on an SFX PSU. I guess the best I can do is hope that the SF600 solves the problem for reasons that me the novice can't figure out. If it doesn't, I may have to just scrap this build and look at a different case.

Edit: Nevermind, the Silverstone PSU I have is not 120W - it's 90. There may be hope yet...

 

[Arsenal Gear]

The SF600 didn't work 🙁

The fans twitched, then gave up. This build appears doomed.