PC Wont start?

I still feel like i'm being misunderstood... First problem.. I took good components, stuck them in a bad case and a front panel SATA cable melted.. which undoubtedly (in hind sight) killed the first motherboard. I did not realize that was what happened and assumed it was a faulty PSU, so I bought a new one. When that didn't work, I then ordered a new motherboard also and while I was at it, ordered a new air cooling unit simply b/c I didn't like mine. This is the point at which I believe I got cables mixed up. I was in the process of 2 upgrades and had stuff out everywhere... At this point I started going back and testing things. When the PSU failed to start anything, I not only had to turn the power switch off, but also had to unplug the main cable for a while in order to keep going. Otherwise items that tested OK earlier seemed to not be working... The frustrating part. Once I saw that my PSU cables didn't match I thought hmmmm.. And then made them match. Then things fired right up.

Okay, I see what you mean now. A picture is worth a thousand words. Would have been helpful understanding the issue if you had given us these earlier. Never seen anything like this. This is a Corsair RM850i PSU? That should be a quality unit. How old is it? PSUs generally have long warranties. I would RMA it. Was this an open box or a refurb?

Twiggz said:

I still feel like i'm being misunderstood... First problem.. I took good components, stuck them in a bad case and a front panel SATA cable melted.. which undoubtedly (in hind sight) killed the first motherboard. I did not realize that was what happened and assumed it was a faulty PSU, so I bought a new one. When that didn't work, I then ordered a new motherboard also and while I was at it, ordered a new air cooling unit simply b/c I didn't like mine. This is the point at which I believe I got cables mixed up. I was in the process of 2 upgrades and had stuff out everywhere... At this point I started going back and testing things. When the PSU failed to start anything, I not only had to turn the power switch off, but also had to unplug the main cable for a while in order to keep going. Otherwise items that tested OK earlier seemed to not be working... The frustrating part. Once I saw that my PSU cables didn't match I thought hmmmm.. And then made them match. Then things fired right up.

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What do you mean by "a bad case?" I don't see how the case could cause a problem with the SATA cables. The case is just a house for the guts.

What do you mean you got the cables mixed up? They should all be the same and interchangeable if they are designed for SATA drives. If the aren't then something went wrong at the factory or the refurb/return center.

trents said:

What do you mean by "a bad case?" I don't see how the case could cause a problem with the SATA cables. The case is just a house for the guts.

What do you mean you got the cables mixed up? They should all be the same and interchangeable if they are designed for SATA drives. If the aren't then something went wrong at the factory or the refurb/return center.

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I meant bad case because this case has some sort of SATA Drive connection on the front panel, So it had a SATA cable hookup that you plugged into the motherboard as you would a Hard Drive. That connection melted on my board from that cable, it didn't like it for some reason.

As far as the cables go.. maybe i'm not using the right terms. It was the power cables that were wrong, once I made them all match up to the far most left cable in the picture, everything started working.

I feel like if I had bought a case that didn't offer that SATA connection, I would never have had this any issues at all. Also, I never needed a new PSU, just a new motherboard but I didn't realize it. When I came home with the new PSU, I ended up tinkering around so much I got cables confused. All I needed to do was just swap out motherboards, because I had already clipped off that melted SATA cable from the case front panel.

I swear this stuff only happens to me...

Edit: Also, one more thing the desktop signature line works great. That upgrade was flawless it was the stuff I posted in the "What did you get today" thread. Couldn't be happier. The parts in question were from the Media Server line as I was just switching cases.

Did all the power cables in the picture come with the PSU or did you get some SATA Power cables from the "bad case" mixed up with the ones that came with the PSU?

I have never heard of a case that came with front panel SATA power cables. What is the make and model of that case?

sounds like a sata hotswap bay. i have them in my air 540. they are basically sata extenders.

First issue (See inserted Picture). When I powered on the computer for the first time after case swapping a regular SATA cable that went to the front panel of the case melted where it meets the motherboard.. Melted at the connection. That is why I said bad case, or bad case choice. You tell me why that happened. It ruined the motherboard.

Second issue.. the actual power cables supplied with modular PSU's that I showed a pic of 3 different ones.. Those were MY fault, I screwed those up mismatching them, I had them mixed up together. While mix matched my computer still would not start even with a new Motherboard. Once I put them straight, the computer did start backup, BUT 2 of my drives would not recognize in BIOS (the Crucial M4 SSD and 1 of the HGST drive). Im guessing that since I had PSU cables to the Hard Drives wrong that 2 of them ended up fried. You tell me if that could happen I don't know.

I went ahead and did an RMA on the HGST yesterday, because I never got to use it, could have been DOA or something I did. I don't know. The M4 is just sitting here... the new motherboard I got is a ASRock z97x Killer, it has an M.2 slot and i'm thinking about just putting a cheap M.2 in there.

I have a m.2 slot im not using, saving it for a nvme drive when i can find a reason to go faster than 560 megs a second. lol

Yeah, so it was a hot swap plugin. I raised that issue earlier in the thread. That is a legitimate technology. I'm guessing some 5v pins got 12v somehow and that melted the connector.

Where did the extra SATA cables come from? The ones you mixed in with the right ones (the ones that came with the PSU, I presume)? I'm trying to figure out how that happened.

trents said:

Yeah, so it was a hot swap plugin. I raised that issue earlier in the thread. That is a legitimate technology. I'm guessing some 5v pins got 12v somehow and that melted the connector.

Where did the extra SATA cables come from? The ones you mixed in with the right ones (the ones that came with the PSU, I presume)? I'm trying to figure out how that happened.

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Yea, me too. I guess I was careless. Why I said this stuff only happens to me. One unlucky problem led me to causing another.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-
^that is the drive I picked out for the M.2