Question Why did my new PC build damage my SSDs?

Dec 29, 2022
5
0
10
Hi, really hope someone can help me with some of this.

About a week ago I tried a new build of my son's PC, incorporating a new CPU, Chassis/case, and Motherboard. Now he was pretty happy with the old setup, but I thought I would splash out on a new CPU and motherboard for Crimbo, and he tells me occasionally he would get a greyscreen of death. I felt that could be linked to the very old case. So we went from this old setup:
  • Case: VERY OLD (10+ year) Fractal case, can't even find or remember exact model
  • Mobo: Asus z170-a
  • CPU: i7 6900k
  • PSU: XFX Pro 850w
  • GPU: Radeon Rstrix Vega
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4
  • HDD/SSD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB, Samsung 860 Evo 500GB, Kingston SV300S37A 120GB
To the very same, only with new:
  • Case: Corsair Obsidian
  • Mobo: Asus PRIME Z790-P WIFI D4 ATX LGA1700
  • CPU: I9-12900K s1700
... and I have had significant problems, including absolutely smoking my son's SSDs, since then. So now the timeline, as best as I can describe:

  1. I press the power button on new setup for the first time. It powers on, and fans spins briefly for half a second, before the whole thing shuts down.
  2. I play around with switching old SATA cables for fresh ones, and taking each drive completely out of the mix. The Kingston SSD allows me to boot up, whereas the other drives do not. I remove it from its daisy chained power cable with the other drives. It's now on a separate power cable. I boot up successfully, I get past the Bios and onto my windows desktop all fine.
  3. Unfortunately here is a point where my memory (braineological) gets fuzzy. I am sure that I restart again, this time with all drives connected with fresh cables, and I look and see that in file explorer, no other drives are recognised. Another restart and entry into bios confirms the drives are not recognised here either. I don't know why it would boot in the first place with these drives connected, as it would not before, but regarldess something is off.
  4. More switching around and playing with cables, to see if the other drives can be recognised. Here is likely where I messed up, and again, more apologies for me not being able to give specifics on what cables changed and where - but I attempt to boot up and I get the half-second of boot again. Note: I am having to turn off the PSU switch after these instances and wait for a bit, to be able to attempt rebooting again.
  5. Okay, so now I try the Kingston on its own again, and it is now acting the same as the other Drives - inert / shorted / whatever. At no point since this have I been able to get to the BIOS with a drive plugged in, but can get there fine without one in.
  6. I notice one of the pins (power socket) on the samsung SSD is a little bent. I haven't been particularly rough with it, and I kinda assume this must have just been how it was in the old setup, I bend it into place and move on.
  7. I test the drives in the old case, with the old mobo, and old cpu, and a different PSU (corsair 850w) from a previous build. I get the same results of a half-second boot then failure. I notice a little puff of smoke from my son's Kingston SSD :(
  8. I read online about people saving their SSDs by plugging in only the power, and leaving for ~30 mins. I do this with the Samsung EVO in the old case-mob-cpu setup. No issues, the pin movement seems to have done nothing out of the ordinary. I then plug in the SATA for the Samsung, and the thing starts smoking REALLY BADLY: I see the sata cable melting from inside-out and the wires glowing orange inside. I power the thing off, but not before getting a minor headache from the fumes and stress, guilt, etc.
I highly doubt its the new cpu and mobo that are the problem, but if anyone has any insight here, I would really really appreciate it, thanks.
 
Dec 29, 2022
5
0
10
Did you make sure all needed motherboard stand-offs were installed in the correct location?

I don't believe the case came with any standoffs, however, part of the mobo is a bit too free-floating for my liking, now that I think of it, which leads me to believe possibly the case is not meant for this mobo... is this a possibility even though I screwed it in just fine?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Unfortunately, I have likely mixed and matched cables
Then that was almost certainly the cause of this:
"I then plug in the SATA for the Samsung, and the thing starts smoking REALLY BADLY: I see the sata cable melting from inside-out and the wires glowing orange inside. "

Modular PSU cables are NOT universal or interchangeable.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
I fully agree with USAFRet above. But I'll add to the matter of stand-offs since you changed cases.

Virtually all cases DO come with stand-offs, and many come with them pre-installed in the case back plate. However, there are several "standard" layouts for stand-offs. So in that mounting back plate there are many OTHER pre-drilled and empty holes for possible stand-off placement. YOU need to examine the holes in the mobo and the places where stand-offs are pre-installed, and make sure they match. If any is in the wrong place it MUST be moved. Ideally there should be a stand-off under every mobo mounting hole for support - you say you feel there are weak spots in that. But MOST IMPORTANTLY there must NEVER be a stand-off under the mobo where there is NO matching mounting hole in the board. Such a misplaced stand-off may contact a trace on the mobo bottom side to create a short sircuit to Ground. So remove the mobo from the case and verify EVERY stand-off position, changing any that need it. Do NOT leave any "spare" ones out of position. Re-position the mobo in the case and CHECK again that there is a stand-off under every mobo hole and nowhere else. THEN screw it down.
 
Dec 29, 2022
5
0
10
I fully agree with USAFRet above. But I'll add to the matter of stand-offs since you changed cases.

Virtually all cases DO come with stand-offs, and many come with them pre-installed in the case back plate. However, there are several "standard" layouts for stand-offs. So in that mounting back plate there are many OTHER pre-drilled and empty holes for possible stand-off placement. YOU need to examine the holes in the mobo and the places where stand-offs are pre-installed, and make sure they match. If any is in the wrong place it MUST be moved. Ideally there should be a stand-off under every mobo mounting hole for support - you say you feel there are weak spots in that. But MOST IMPORTANTLY there must NEVER be a stand-off under the mobo where there is NO matching mounting hole in the board. Such a misplaced stand-off may contact a trace on the mobo bottom side to create a short sircuit to Ground. So remove the mobo from the case and verify EVERY stand-off position, changing any that need it. Do NOT leave any "spare" ones out of position. Re-position the mobo in the case and CHECK again that there is a stand-off under every mobo hole and nowhere else. THEN screw it down.
Got it, thanks
 

Latest posts