Computer Hardware: Did my SSD fry my SATA port?

[vger]

It's an old motherboard. I knew something would go haywire with it sooner or later, but this was the last thing I expected to happen. Suddenly windows was booting up 50x slower than yesterday. Then I noticed using the C drive for ANYTHING was much slower, including just copying files. I disconnected all my other drives and it didn't improve. I swapped out the cables connected to my SSD (Drive C) and it also didn't improve. I plugged it into port 1 instead of 0, and it ran smoothly again.

I'm debating whether or not to take the MB in to see if it can be refurbished, but I'm wondering now... the MB is much older than the SSD. Is it possible that the speed of the SSD was over-stressing the port and that's what killed it? I would assume not, since that port has always hosted the C drive, but I wanted to make sure before I start spending. It's my first SSD and it's only about 1.5 years old.

[Guest]

I don't know. It could be the motherboard, that's what it sounds like from you post, but it could just be a bad port, dust or bad pin or something. Do you have any other pc's to test on? My dad's pc does crazy stuff like this. Some ports will not recognize my external drive, some will. His drive works on all of them. I bring my drive home, it works fine. I'd probably want to test the drive some more on another pc just to make double sure it's ok. Is the port really needed? Is buying another motherboard gonna break the bank? Or even maybe a refurbished pc? Yeah, this kind of stuff drives me nuts. Also, I really don't have a clue. I didn't even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express. I just feel your pain, and hope you get it fixed.

[vger]

99% certain it's the port. Slow as molasses on port 0. Plugged it into port 1 and it behaved normal. Moved it back to 0, sluggish again. Moved it to 1 again and it's fine.

Depending on the cost, refurb might be the better option. This girl is so old that getting a duplicate of the MB still in the box isn't even possible. All I can find is some used ones on Ebay and who knows if they tested everything sufficiently. If I upgrade, I may end up having to upgrade everything, which means I'm practically building a new computer. It's kind of sad if I can't get it fixed though because in spite of its age (I assembled this in early 2008) I built this to precise specs and nine years later its still done everything I required of it without any trouble. Only things I've ever had to replace are HDD's and the video card (which were both older than the MB). Rock-solid gaming PC and media workstation this whole time.

[Camacha]

2 hours ago, vger said:

I'm debating whether or not to take the MB in to see if it can be refurbished, but I'm wondering now... the MB is much older than the SSD. Is it possible that the speed of the SSD was over-stressing the port and that's what killed it? I would assume not, since that port has always hosted the C drive, but I wanted to make sure before I start spending. It's my first SSD and it's only about 1.5 years old.

No, that is not possible. The SSD will work at lower speeds if the supported protocol is a bit older, but it will not fry you SATA port if that was working fine otherwise.

You need to investigate more before you can draw any useful conclusion. Swap the SSD back to the first port? Does the behaviour return? What happens if you use that port with other drives? Check the SMART values to see if anything is showing up there. Sluggish behaviours often means lots of errors under the hood.

Some problems can be rather elusive and confusing. I have heard stories about cable breaks that caused a disk to work fine at times and seemingly randomly throw errors at others. It really is a pain to figure out it is not the replugging or changing parts that is the difference, but the position of a specific cable.

2 minutes ago, vger said:

Depending on the cost, refurb might be the better option. This girl is so old that getting a duplicate of the MB still in the box isn't even possible. All I can find is some used ones on Ebay and who knows if they tested everything sufficiently. If I upgrade, I may end up having to upgrade everything, which means I'm practically building a new computer. It's kind of sad if I can't get it fixed though because in spite of its age (I assembled this in early 2008) I built this to precise specs and nine years later its still done everything I required of it without any trouble. Only things I've ever had to replace are HDD's and the video card (which were both older than the MB). Rock-solid gaming PC and media workstation this whole time.

Unless there is damage to the soldering, there is not much that can be done. It will probably be too expensive to make it worthwhile too. If it turns out it actually is that port, it is not a big problem. You really can use any native port for your SSD, so using another one is not an issue. The one thing you need to ensure, though, is that the broken port is the cause of your woes and not a symptom of another underlying problem that will wreak havoc down the line.

If you did not make any proper backups yet, this would be the time to do so.

[Guest]

"Did my SSD fry my SATA port"

Why yes, sir, yes it did. Just yesterday I had it cook me some tasty fried SATA ports. Didn't know they were yours. Sorry.

^{I know I probably shouldn't have made this but that's what came into my mind when I read the title so sorry, OP.}

Edited June 13, 2016 by Guest

[Nuke]

you know sata connectors and cables have given me a lot of grief over the years ever since they were introduced. use connectors with metal clips and a tight fit for best results. if you start having problems change your cables.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Nuke

[vger]

5 hours ago, Aperture Science said:

Why yes, sir, yes it did. Just yesterday I had it cook me some tasty fried SATA ports. Didn't know they were yours. Sorry.

Well next time ask first. I had some nicely aged ones that would've tasted a lot better.

 

3 hours ago, Nuke said:

you know sata connectors and cables have given me a lot of grief over the years ever since they were introduced. use connectors with metal clips and a tight fit for best results. if you start having problems change your cables.

Heh, yep, I ended up buying those a while back for the same reason. The cables were almost brand new too.

 

6 hours ago, Camacha said:

Unless there is damage to the soldering, there is not much that can be done. It will probably be too expensive to make it worthwhile too. If it turns out it actually is that port, it is not a big problem. You really can use any native port for your SSD, so using another one is not an issue. The one thing you need to ensure, though, is that the broken port is the cause of your woes and not a symptom of another underlying problem that will wreak havoc down the line.

If you did not make any proper backups yet, this would be the time to do so.

Unfortunately I do a lot of media work, so I need everything. I have 4 SATA and 2 PATA drives in this beast.

Multiple port swaps have shown consistent bad behavior with port 0 and no problem on the others. And I did it with a brand new cable just to be sure. If it's not the port, there's a ghost in the machine intentionally trying to fool me.

Anyway, I found an upgrade from the same series of MB's that should support all of my hardware just fine, enable me to add a lot more RAM so I can mod KSP up the wazoo, and the price is a total steal, so all is well now.

Edited June 13, 2016 by vger