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Weird SATA Controller Issue |
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Gussie 
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 Topic: Weird SATA Controller IssuePosted: 20 Feb 2018 at 3:55am |
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Been running a Windows 10 PC with an ASRock N3150-ITX motherboard and a Syba/IOCrest SI-PEX40064 SATA PCI-e x1 Controller Card for some time (3-4 months) without issues.
A few weeks ago I powered up the PC and noticed it froze during POST, switched it off and tried powering on again. This time the PSU kept repeatedly starting and immediately powering off - power led was just flicking on and off all the time. I could get the PC to power on normally if I removed the SATA PCI-e card - so I guessed the card was faulty. Amazon replaced the card, but with the replacement card the same fault reoccurred. So I swap out the PSU for an old Powercool PCPC450AUBA 450W PSU I had lying around (Purchased in 2010). And guess what - the PC boots with the SATA card in-situ. Great I thought - a faulty PSU was the culprit. So I order a brand new Corsair VS450 PSU, not wanting to use the old Powercool PSU. Plugged in the Corsair PSU and noticed two things - a very noisy fan and a pronounced flicker on the power led when it powered on, it did power on with the SATA card in-situ. Being not happy with the operation of this PSU, I got Amazon to replace it with a Seasonic S12-II 620W PSU. Plugging in the Seasonic, I was amazed to see the old fault back - with the SATA card, repeated starting and immediate powering off - without the SATA card, no issues. Finally in desperation I try another motherbard - an ASRock N3700-ITX. Using the new Seasonic PSU and the new replacement SATA card, exactly the same fault occurs - with the SATA card no POST - without the SATA card everything is OK. Both motherboards were reflashed with the latest BIOS and then cleared to default settings. So what do I have? A second faulty SATA controller? Two faulty PSUs? Two faulty motherboards? Why does everything work with a seven year old PSU designed when Pentium P4s were still around? Please someone explain all this to me. |
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ppv
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Joined: 20 Feb 2018 Location: Poland Status: Offline Points: 8 |
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Posted: 20 Feb 2018 at 9:31am |
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I would focus on this.
Try different card if you need it, maybe your sata device does not work well with this card. |
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Gussie
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Posted: 20 Feb 2018 at 4:31pm |
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Thanks for your advice. Yes I've already ordered a different SATA Controller card to see if that will work.
This whole thing is a complete mystery to me. |
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Gussie
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Posted: 22 Feb 2018 at 4:59am |
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So I have received another different SATA Controller card today and incredibly I still have the same issue.
In summary this is the kit I have used ... ASRock N3150-ITX Motherboard (Purchased 2017) ASRock N3700-ITX Motherboard (Purchased 2017) Both Motherboards have had their CMOS cleared and the latest BIOS re-flashed. Powercool PCPC450AUBA 450W PSU (Purchased 2010) XFX PRO 450W Core Edition PSU (Purchased 2013) Corsair VS450 PSU (Brand New) Seasonic S12-II 620W PSU (Brand New) Syba SI-PEX40064 (Marvell 88SE9215) 4 port SATA PCI-e Controller Card (2 samples) (Brand New) Hommie (ASM1061) 2 port SATA PCI-e Controller Card (Brand New) I have tried all permutations of the above kit and have concluded that only my old Powercool PSU will allow the motherboards to power up normally with any of the three the SATA cards installed. ALL other permutations result in the PSU repeatedly trying to start up and then stopping immediately, I don't think the system even enters POST. I only see the Power LEDs flickering on and then off straight away and so on. Unplug the SATA card and everthing works as expected. Insert any of the SATA cards and use my old Powercool PSU, everything works as expected and the SATA card software drivers install correctly. Both motherboards cannot be faulty. All three new SATA cards cannot be faulty. Both the new PSUs and my old XFX PSU cannot be faulty. Why would my old Powercool PSU make everything work? And why did my initial N3150-ITX system with the XFX PRO 450W PSU and my first Syba SI-PEX40064 Controller card work for several months and then fail suddenly as described in my OP? I think I must be missing something obvious here - but I cannot see it! |
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ppv
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Posted: 22 Feb 2018 at 7:29am |
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try to use different/new sata cables, connectors and internal wires in the connectors are fragile, do not bent cable near the connectors. however less probable, because you said old psu works. try to attach disk drive one by one, maybe something wrong with the hard drives, mechanical drives consumes most of power during spin up, do not use any power splitter cables, try to connect every drive to different power cable from psu, you can try to plug power to the drive when BIOS screen is active, sata drive should be detected in windows later on, if not, rescan devices in device manager. everything becomes obvious when you know / found it :) Edited by ppv - 22 Feb 2018 at 7:35am |
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ppv
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Posted: 22 Feb 2018 at 7:51am |
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there are still some other things you can try, maybe there is something with the mainboards, both are very similar, same generation, same brand... try to downgrade bios to the one you had at the beginning.
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Gussie
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Posted: 22 Feb 2018 at 7:03pm |
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Thanks for your further advice.
The question of any connected SATA cables or drives is irrelevant, since I get the fault condition with nothing connected to any of the three controller cards - not even SATA cables. I now have access to yet another system, an N3150B-ITX running with a SilverStone SST-ST40F-ES 400W PSU. We'll see what gives when I start plugging in my collection of PCIe SATA controller cards - stay tuned ... |
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Gussie
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Posted: 23 Feb 2018 at 12:53am |
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So I now have access to a N3150B-ITX system with a SilverStone SST-ST40F-ES 400W PSU.
Plugging in either the Syba or the Hommie PCIe SATA cards presents no issues - they work fine and the SATA software drivers install OK. Using the SilverStone PSU with my other N3150-ITX and N3700-ITX systems also presents no issues with either SATA card. Using my older XFX and brand new Seasonic PSUs with the N3150B-ITX system still causes power cycle loops if either SATA card is present. I also reverted the BIOS on my N3150-ITX back to the earliest V1.30 version - made no difference! I do not think it is a BIOS issue - the power cycling is almost instant before any POST process starts. I can only conclude that there seems to be a hardware compatibility issue with the PCIe slots on these ASRock motherboards and the PSU unit being used. Only the two older PSUs - the Powercool and the SilverStone units allow the systems to work with the SATA controllers. The XFX and the two brand new Corsair and Seasonic units cause endless power cycle loops if either SATA controller is present. Googling around, I see others have had issues using PCIe cards ... http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/297540-30-computer-reboots-installing-pcie-wireless-network-card https://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/55634-h77m-d3h-wont-boot-sata-card-pcie-x4-slot.html http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/353664-28-gigabyte-h77m-asus-xonar#3256729 https://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/55634-h77m-d3h-wont-boot-sata-card-pcie-x4-slot.html I'm still confused - with no answers ! |
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Gussie
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Posted: 09 Mar 2018 at 2:07am |
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Hi,
The cause of my issue was simply that I was not pulling enough juice on the 5V/12V rails with the PCIe card present - even though I had a N3150-ITX motherboard, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and two no name case fans running, the PSU would become unstable and power cycle until I switched on some extra disk drives, or just connected two more cooling fans , or as I have now done, connect a 25W 47 Ohm resistor to the 12V line. Now my system behaves no matter if I have my data drives On or Off. You might say I have a duff PSU, well here's the thing ... The issue seems to only affect newer more recent PSUs. These two older PSUs, I tried, did not need the extra 5V/12V loading ... Powercool PCPC450AUBA 450W PSU (Purchased 2010) SilverStone SST-ST40F-ES 400W PSU (Purchased 2011) These PSUs DID NEED extra 5V/12V loading .. XFX PRO 450W Core Edition PSU (Purchased 2013) Seasonic S12-II 620W PSU (Brand New) Corsair VS450 PSU (Brand New) Furthermore Seasonic support admitted to me that some of their PSUs would require extra loading in certain circumstances because of their "magnetic amplify on secondary side instead of DC to DC circuit" designs. So be careful if you are using low power systems , corner cases like mine may prove problematic! |
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ppv
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Posted: 13 Mar 2018 at 1:30am |
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I was suspecting PSU at first and not enough power, but when you mentioned strong units from brands like Corsair, and Seasonic, i gave up this thought, unbelievable that such units are unstable at low loads.
Most PSU have best performance and efficiency at their 50% designed load, and should work rock solid stable at 20% load. Maybe more advanced ones are more stable at low loads? such as corsair CS series with 80 gold certification. So when when you did not use any hard disks connected to the sata controller, maybe problem would solve just connecting them :) Great that you solved issue and shared the info.
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Gussie wrote: