Installed new drives and they went up in smoke 1

[gio99]

I have a Systemax RAID server with a 460 watts power supply. I currently have one 80GB SATA drive connected to the motherboard and two additional SATA drives (300GB each)connected to a raid card running raid 1. I was installing two additional (SATA 750GB each). I installed the two drives and when I tried to power on the system it did not power up. I then disconnected one of the new drives and just had only one new drive connected, as soon as I turned the power on the new drive sparked and went up in smoke. Turned the power off ASAP and pulled the dead drive out. What might have been the cause of
1. When both new drives were connected machine would not power up
2. When only one new drive was connected and I power up the system it went up in smoke.

Global Computing is sending me two new replacement drive, but I am scared that the same issue might happen again.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[funkytunaa]

I have burnt out 2 drives before on the same power connection from the power supply.

How this happened was that, from the manufacturer, the case fan has a short power connector that has a female and a male plug that is connected in between the HDD and the power supply connector. That little cable had the 12 and 5 volt lines switched, so that the HDD that I plugged into it was getting 5 volts for the Motor and the 12 volt line was going to the board, Hense....The board fried!!!

not to good when it is an upgrade and you were using the customers old drive.

So just check and make sure the power is connected to the right spot. Even to this day it is one of the first things I check if I am building a new machine.

Hope this helps.

 

[stduc]

Further to the above - to be on the safe side, use a multimeter to check the voltages on the power connectors you plan to use to power the drives. It is just possible that there is something wrong with the PSU.

 

[attrofy]

Thats good info to know funkytunaa, you get a star. I was baffled how such a thing could happen, but your explanation makes perfect sense. And since I use those little fan supplied connector plugs on a regular basis - it is definately something I will watch out for on all future builds (and fan replacements).

 

[gio99]

Just received the new hard drives will follow your advice and test the connector before installing the drives. I will let you know in the next day or two what the results where. Smoke or no smoke.

 

[stduc]

Be VERY careful with the multimeter probes - I have blown a PSU by accidentally letting the probes touch each other when pushed them into the socket on the connector (he embarrasingly admits)

Nice BANG though! LOL

 

[gio99]

Thank you. I even looked up how to use a the probes just in case. (

http://www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt2.html)

I do have an electrical engineering degree but I've had my fair share of mistakes. And I definately do not want to learn the hard way on this project, to much valuable data.

 

[stduc]

confucius he say:-

You can never have too many backups!

 

[paparazi]

A blown power supply (even without knowing anything happened) can also damage the hard drives PCB power circuitry putting it to ground with the characteristic puff of smoke, users assume it's a bad hard drive until they re-connect another HDD with the same results.

Be careful with that power supply!!!

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[gio99]

Well it took me about 3 weeks to get the guts to try to install the new drives. I got new harddrive power connectors, test the PSU to make sure it was giving out the right voltage and installed the new drives. They worked like a charm. No sparks or smoke this time. I suspect I might have had bad power connectors. Thanks everyone for the help. This story has a happy ending at least for the present time. See how the drives are six months from now. Hopefully still working with no problems...