PSU died, new PSU, bios wont recognize SATA devices, now wont turn on

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  1. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #11

    the mobo is ASROCK, not ASUS
    Asrock is a subsidiary of ASUS.(technically it's more complex than that as there is another company in the middle and they do keep the two companies separate, but in the end it's ASUS the owner)

    ASUS boards and Asrock's do share some similarities and issues, as far as I remember.

    essenbe said:
    Yes, dead hard drives can stop the whole machine, just like it is shorted out. I know from experience.
    This.

    Another thing could be that you screwed up the front panel connections, so the machine was receiving a constant "reboot" order like you were keeping pressed the hard reboot button.
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  2. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #12

    @ bobafet -- That is interesting, I didn't know ASROCK was a subsidiary of Asus. I was under the impression that Asrock had a higher reputation with MOBOs than asus.

    Anyway, the plan now is to borrow an optical drive from my friend and try to install windows onto my HDD from there. The HDD has some random files and other junk on it, but I suppose I should be able to install windows.

    Then I can see if my GPUs are acting up--if I can actually get into windows I can test them with games/benchmarks.

    In the back of my mind though I am still wondering if the MOBO didn't escape the catastrophe 100% unscathed.

    Assuming I am able to install windows, how do you all think I should procede with testing my hardware to make sure all is good?
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  3. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #13

    Update -- Well, I borrowed my friend's optical drive and have successfully installed windows on my spare HDD onto the computer. In fact, I am typing from the computer in question as we speak.

    There seem to be no problems with any components, however, I have not tested my GPU's under gaming conditions yet.

    I do, however, have a new hypothesis, one that reflects more poorly on me.
    After the initial PSU died, I bought the replacement PSU. I, being stupid, overeager, and ignorant, decided to simply use the cables from my Seasonic PSU to power my hardware and just plug them into the modular Thermaltake--save some time, right? Of course, nothing powered up, and I flicked the PSU on and off a few times, giving anything that might be connected a nice, big, jolt of electricity.

    What if this is how my SSD and my optical drive got killed? It makes sense--everyone I talk to says that a nice PSU is unlikely to wreck other hardware when it dies. Not impossible, but certianly unlikely. Maybe everything would have been fine had I just used the new cables that came with the PSU. However, my GPUs seem to be fine--maybe they were somehow not damaged by using the wrong cables.

    Do you guys think this is a plausible explanation for what happened? I am not knowledgable about electricity and power in general. Do you think that this may be the case?
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  4. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #14

    I was under the impression that Asrock had a higher reputation with MOBOs than asus.
    Yes, it can be described as "ASUS with less press coverage and more quality". It started as ASUS's cheapo mobo subsidiary, and when even its cheapo stuff was selling because it was significantly more reliable than other cheapo stuff like foxconn or random rebranded boards, they moved to do fully-fledged boards like yours as well.

    Do you think that this may be the case?
    Most computer components are designed in a very very dumb-proof way, the only way for that to happen is if a cable/connector is damaged. I really doubt it is the case, but look for burned cables or bent pins. But really, it's something very obvious that you should have noticed if your eyes were functioning correctly.
    If connector pins are bent enough to make it fail you would need a hammer to make it fit, and this should clearly indicate that there is something wrong. (actually, they won't fit well before they actually short-circuit, had to fix quite a few pins)
    The cables are usually designed in a way that even if they fail and you manage to use them anyway the current does not flow in the failed parts, not that you shovel 500 watts through the wrong pin. So at most you have stuff that remains unpowered, not that blow up.

    Really, something went boom in the PSU. It happens. Even with good ones. Actually the only things that do fail pretty often (from a tech support point of view) are spinning HDDs and PSUs.

    Testing a mobo is a very straightforward (and time consuming) affair. Run all things (USB, etherent, integrated graphics all audio ports) and do stress tests with "sacrifical" hardware (that is, components that you don't care a lot of in case the whole thing melts down). But more often than not, any damage is very apparent. All mobos that survived a PSU failure that I had in my hands didn't have any issue (like say damaged USB controllers or whatever, everything ran fine). Those that die refuse to boot or do very weird things right from the start (like what the guy above said, and also simply shutting down randomly is another all-time favorite).

    The current goes from PSU to mobo and then to GPU/CPU/RAM, so if the mobo is fine, nothing on the mobo received damage.

    If you notice, stuff that failed was all connected directly to PSU. If your cards weren't connected directly to PSU (some do have such additional power connectors), they should be fine.
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  5. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #15

    Hmm, both of my cards WERE connected to the PSU by 8 pin connectors. The thing is that I played an hour of Starcraft 2 with SLI enabled and they honestly seem fine. I'm still waiting for BF3 to download so I can put them under some real stress, but temps, usage, voltage, fan speed, all seem great on my graphics cards--just as they were before the accident.

    Maybe the voltage spike was enough for the MOBO and GPUs to handle but too much for the SATA drives.

    There is no obvious damage to my mobo. No blown capacitors or burn marks on ANY of my hardware, including the devices that got fried or the cables that fried them. I may have gotten off with just a couple of dead SATA devices :)

    Well, now begins the process of RMA for the SSD. Should I just say "it stopped working"? It's not technically a lie, right?
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  6. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #16

    Good to hear.

    stay evasive on what happened to the SSD and it should end well.
    They rarely take the time to actually figure out what is wrong with stuff you RMA as it's cheaper to send a replacement (hours of a technician to determine who's the fault and lots of times it's hard if impossible to tell for sure). They won't miss 200$, as the SSD failure rate is ridicolously low.

    If you feel funny you can try to RMA the DVD drive as well.

    Btw, if you want to stress test the CPU, we have a tutorial (read the disclaimer therein).

    In case you want to really stress test the GPUs, FurMark can help you do so (forcing them to render tons of 3D fur and thus use 100% of their power, something I doubt BF3 will do). Be warned though, if your GPU has any defects, it will fail and force a computer shudown, and possibly suffer permanent damage (they included pics of an overclocked card that FurMark killed). The flip side is that if it does not fail then you are 100% sure it's fine, and that the mobo is fine as well.

    I tend to go full-nazi on used hardware I want to resell, and it must endure a full night of CPU and GPU stress test, but you may not need to be so harsh.
    Last edited by bobafetthotmail; 22 Oct 2012 at 11:43.
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  7. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #17

    I've been gaming on the GPUs and I'm convinced they are fine.

    Another thing I noticed just now -- I used to have horrible coil whine coming from my case but I assumed it was just the GPU. Now that the old PSU is gone however, no coil whine at all--I guess it was coming from the PSU all along. I wonder if that was a sign that it was dying, it was getting progressively worse and worse.

    Yeah I'm going to RMA that SanDisk and the dvd. In retrospect I'm kind of bummed I didn't get the Samsung 830 series 256 gig SSD instead of my SanDisk extreme 240 gig. The Samsung is cheaper and bigger, and I think just as fast.

    I am hoping that they won't take the time to test the SSD. If they screw me with the RMA though I'm dropping SanDisk immediately and going over to Samsung.

    Boy was I spoiled by those fast load times from the SSD. It seems to take forever for anything to load using this old fashioned HDD now.
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  8. Posts : 25,847
    Windows 10 Pro. 64/ version 1709 Windows 7 Pro/64
       #18

    I have been watching this thread for a few days. I think you found the problem in the power supply harness. To be sure of things I would double check the routing of the new harness and make sure they are not in a bind or rubbing on anything. Sometimes when a harness is in a bind it will put undo stress on a connection.
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  9. Posts : 1,711
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit 7601
       #19

    hm, usually coil whine happens when a PSU rail in a multi-rail is at near max capacity, if it was single-rail PSU (what does single-rail mean?), the whole PSU was at near-max capacity. Which is a clear indication that it had issues as the nominal power is pretty above your needs. What Ladyback Bear says is also possible, cables doing very tight turns could increase a lot the resistence on that connection, requiring more power than usual.

    Keep fingers crossed, because if your SSD is no more in stock (if it's older than 2 years it can be the case) they will offer a newer model (usually better) for replacement.

    Pestering SeaSonic and ask for a refund or something because they killed some of your hardware is another thing that should have been tried.
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