[SOLVED] WD Blue 1TB - dead on arrival, or is my system killing drives?

[tuxedoandex]

My younger brother has an Asus G11CD prebuilt system with a Toshiba 240GB SSD installed. I bought him a WD Blue 1TB HDD for his birthday, but after connecting it to SATA/power, it wouldn't show up in diskmgmt or BIOS, and I couldn't hear or feel the drive spinning. Now I would assume the drive is DOA and send for an RMA - but this is the 3rd drive that this has happened two. My brother ordered a Seagate drive once before, arrived dead, and got an RMA for it, which also arrived dead. Knowing this, I'm concerned that the PSU or motherboard is frying drives before they have a chance to initialize, and I want to cover all my bases before I order a replacement. How would I find out whether the rest of the setup is somehow killing drives?

 

[mdd1963]

You'd need to confirm that both SATA power and data cables are connected; if necessary, can this drive be tested in another PC? As the scenario you mentioned is possible, you might want to test the next one in a different PC ahead of time....or, swap SATA cables, double check that there are no SATA port conflicts (some SATA ports on some boards are disabled when/if using NVME drives or SATA drives in M.2 ports)

(If using any modular PSU cables, make sure they are NOT cables from another PSU, as modular cables are very rarely interchangeable.; trying it to be sure will usually fry the drive instantly..)

 

[SkyNetRising]

How would I find out whether the rest of the setup is somehow killing drives?

It is possible to kill HDD, when using non-original cables with modular PSU.
What model PSU are you using? Is it modular? Are you using original PSU cables?

 

[tuxedoandex]

What model PSU are you using? Is it modular? Are you using original PSU cables?

The PSU is the stock that comes with the ASUS G11CD - it's entirely nonmodular, so I'm just using the power cables running from the PSU and the SATA cables that came with the tower. I'm not sure what else could be causing issues since I've pretty much ruled that out.

 

[tuxedoandex]

You'd need to confirm that both SATA power and data cables are connected; if necessary, can this drive be tested in another PC? As the scenario you mentioned is possible, you might want to test the next one in a different PC ahead of time....or, swap SATA cables, double check that there are no SATA port conflicts (some SATA ports on some boards are disabled when/if using NVME drives or SATA drives in M.2 ports)

The SATA power looks good to me - the other drive in the computer is connected using the same cable set and works without any issues. The drive is a 2.5" Toshiba SSD connected to SATA - would this cause any conflicts with the SATA controller or the HDD? I tested the HDD both alone and alongside the SSD and it didn't appear to spin up either time.

 

[fzabkar]

Break out a multimeter and start measuring the voltages before you damage more drives.

 

[tuxedoandex]

Break out a multimeter and start measuring the voltages before you damage more drives.

I've never used a multimeter to test a drive - should I test the SATA ports and PSU cables as well to triangulate the issue?

 

[fzabkar]

https://pinoutguide.com/Power/sata-power_pinout.shtml

 

[tuxedoandex]

https://pinoutguide.com/Power/sata-power_pinout.shtml

Thanks for the guide. 3.3V and 5V rails are reading fine, but the yellow 12V rail is reading ~1.5-2.5V. I am assuming this means the PSU may be bad and should be RMA'd, but the BIOS is showing +12V at 12.192 V. How can I verify my own reading to make sure I'm not screwing it up somehow?

 

[tuxedoandex]

https://pinoutguide.com/Power/sata-power_pinout.shtml

Never mind! I had success after swapping the PSU for a spare I had in an older build. Drive spun up with no problems so I'm going to go ahead and replace the power supply. Thanks guys for the help!