Question SATA Power Plug melted

[mateusk_10]

Hello all, I was swapping some hard drive cables because of odd behaviors (the hard drive disks would keep stopping and spinning again at random), and at some point when I turned on my computer, I saw smoke coming out of the SATA power port on one of the hard drives. Immediately I switched off the PSU, and I found that the power plug had melted on that hard drive.
Maybe the cable was badly placed? The PSU is good, I think.
Can the drive still be used?
Can it be recovered, fixed in some way?

Picture of the burnt port:

 

[DSzymborski]

If you have any Thermaltake 600W 80 Plus Standard, the PSU is garbage and is the likely cause of the issue. It was never appropriate to have this PSU in a rig with a GPU.

The drive is done unless you're highly skilled with a soldering iron and you got lucky that the only thing damaged was the connector. Your best bet will be replacing the drive and restoring the data from one of your backups.

 

[mateusk_10]

If you have any Thermaltake 600W 80 Plus Standard, the PSU is garbage and is the likely cause of the issue. It was never appropriate to have this PSU in a rig with a GPU.

The drive is done unless you're highly skilled with a soldering iron and you got lucky that the only thing damaged was the connector. Your best bet will be replacing the drive and restoring the data from one of your backups.

damn, I had no idea Thermaltakes were trash, especially a 600 W one. Looks like branding can be deceiving :/
do you have recommendations of better PSUs?

 

[stonecarver]

If your willing to try like mentioned solder a permanent sata pigtail wire off the leads going into the daughter board just behind damaged area. You have to remove the crispy mess, so all that is there are the leads to build off of. but at the same time leave in tact the Data input to Hard Drive. Or get a doner Hard Drive with exact FIRMWARE and borrow the board off doner card. Just giving a little direction to think about as a tool. But I will say this now the drive might just well be dead so 50/50

 

[mateusk_10]

If your willing to try like mentioned solder a permanent sata pigtail wire off the leads going into the daughter board just behind damaged area. You have to remove the crispy mess, so all that is there are the leads to build off of. but at the same time leave in tact the Data input to Hard Drive. Or get a doner Hard Drive with exact FIRMWARE and borrow the board off doner card. Just giving a little direction to think about as a tool. But I will say this now the drive might just well be dead so 50/50

I do happen to have another identical hard drive, I'm just not sure if it has the same firmware, as they are 2 years apart. I could try swapping their boards just to get back some data, but if it requires soldering, then I'm not sure about my skills, wouldn't want to risk losing another drive

 

[stonecarver]

Firmware match is a 100% must. Don't take apart your other drive. GET A DONER or take the loss as is and call it a day. This is the way I look at it you use your second drive and you mess up now you have nothing. With a doner Drive you if all goes well get your data, and still have two working drives.

 

[mateusk_10]

Firmware match is a 100% must. Don't take apart your other drive. GET A DONER or take the loss as is and call it a day. This is the way I look at it you use your second drive and you mess up now you have nothing. With a doner Drive you if all goes well get your data, and still have two working drives.

understood. will do.
also, I take it I shouldn't pair this RX 580 with more components until I change my PSU, right?

 

[sonofjesse]

Always check the PSU tier list for good power supplies.

 

[stonecarver]

I would IF this was my components, Not use that rig until a new power supply is installed. The fried Hard Drive " melted" would be enough to not risk what is still working. I know money is tight but a full loss will cost a lot more. If this was on my bench than I could figure out why things went wrong but, trust the guys on here who know the good and bad power supply's. Move forward with caution if your still going to use power supply.

 

[mateusk_10]

Always check the PSU tier list for good power supplies.

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network

is it ths one?

 

[Randi Poling]

Honestly, if using a GPU, always look for something thats atleast "Gold". As for the HDD, if you can find a dead hard drive online with the same board/firmware, you can take out the screws, remove the board and put the replacement on it. It jsut sits on a set of contacts.

 

[DSzymborski]

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network

is it ths one?

Yeah, we have an older version in the Power Supplies forum.

Basically, Thermaltake sells a lot of junk-tier PSUs and their unrated/80 Plus only ones are particularly bad. Pretty much anything they have in PSUs that's worth buying has Toughpower in the name. This is not an area they're particularly strong at and Smart series PSUs are some of the worst junk sold by a large company; they're basically rebrands of garbagey Sirfa PSUs that are 20 years out of date design-wise.

 

[Misgar]

I think you need to transfer a small servo calibration chip over from the failed board to the donor board, otherwise you won't be able to read back data. It's a good thing you have all the data backed up isn't it? You do have a backup don't you?

 

[fzabkar]

I think you need to transfer a small servo calibration chip over from the failed board to the donor board, otherwise you won't be able to read back data. It's a good thing you have all the data backed up isn't it? You do have a backup don't you?

Yes, this is right. There is zero chance of finding a "a doner Hard Drive with exact FIRMWARE".

"Adaptives" -- why PCB swaps don't work in modern HDDs:
https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?p=19090#p19090

There is a possibility that the PCB can be repaired, but we would need to see the other side.

https://s.turbifycdn.com/aah/yhst-14437584971410/918062903-1.gif

TVS Diode FAQ:
http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=86

 

[USAFRet]

I was swapping some hard drive cables because of

Using only the cables that came with the (janky) PSU?
Or some other cables as well?

 

[mateusk_10]

I think you need to transfer a small servo calibration chip over from the failed board to the donor board, otherwise you won't be able to read back data. It's a good thing you have all the data backed up isn't it? You do have a backup don't you?

nah, it was the games drive, but I'm still curious if I put something mildly important there. won't be the end of the world if I lose it though

 

[mateusk_10]

Using only the cables that came with the (janky) PSU?
Or some other cables as well?

yeah only these cables, no adapters or something