PC fails to power on following a new SATA cable installation for the secondary HDD.
PC fails to power on following a new SATA cable installation for the secondary HDD.
Last evening I had to disconnect and reconnect (my brother's HDD was faulty and he attempted to inspect it with my SATA cable) the secondary HDD cable. My boot drive resides on a separate NVME SSD. When I reinserted the HDD's SATA cable, my PC began behaving oddly.
1. The RAM EZ debug light appeared. I reinstalled the RAM and tried to start the computer, but it failed.
2. The CPU EZ debug light started as well. I have an AIO unit installed, so I’m confident the connections are correct since moving the PC shouldn’t affect them. I rechecked all PSU cables to rule out loose wires from the SATA cable movement. After that, I restarted and the PC booted partially.
3. My system started displaying blue screens with various DLL error codes, leaving me stuck. Eventually, clearing the CMOS (a last resort after trying other fixes) resolved the issue, and everything worked normally again.
This was a major relief for me. Still, I’m puzzled about what caused it all. Over the past eight years I’ve built and maintained many PCs, but this hasn’t happened before. Have others faced similar problems? Or do you have any insights on what might have triggered this?
You're certain the hard drive was in good condition before starting?
I believe I struggled to describe the situation clearly. I didn’t connect my brother’s HDD to my PC. He used his own HDD’s cable to test if it was causing the issue. When he returned, the cable was back because his HDD was damaged. After reattaching it, the problem resumed.
Ah okay now thats very strange. uhhhh the only thing that comes to mind is if that hdd cable somehow kept a electric charge but even that hypothosis is WAY out there. As that would have to be a perfect storm.
As I've discussed before, I've assembled and operated numerous PCs over the last eight years. However, I've never encountered such unusual problems. The issue has been resolved, but I'm still puzzled by its origin. This is what's causing concern right now.
No, I'm not referring to restarting the computer. What else can I help with?
I hoped this would help in my situation. The first step I took was restarting the PC repeatedly—not just once. Every time, whether it was after reinstalling RAM, re-plugging PSU cables, or something else, I would restart it multiple times. Eventually, when the PC came back online with a DLL error, I restarted it about three to four times. With each attempt, the DLL error codes changed. It’s clear why I kept mentioning restarting; I almost forgot to say that in the post. My mistake.
No sweat this is a topic space to disscuss troubleshooting ideas before we come to the inevitable worst options. IE :RMA or go to a repair shop.