Crispy fried SATA power adapter - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 01:16:22 am
content: Had some HDs to look at so I opened a PC I keep in the lab for troubleshooting HDs and some of my lab gear today. Low and behold there is some charred crap and carbon trails in the bottom. Thinking that's pretty odd where the hell did this come from?Find this bull crap cable totally fried up crispy style. Not sure when it happened, even more surprised the little piss ant (little media center style case/supply/mobo) power supply happily ran on and nothing in the system seems effected.Can't for the life of me figure out how this shorted out. It was disconnected laying in the bottom of the case and the cover has been on since I last opened it.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 01:29:46 am
content: Quote from: orion242 on July 31, 2015, 01:16:22 amMurphy is always watching for opportunites to do your head in.Cable ties are cheap.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 01:34:28 am
content: Quote from: tautech on July 31, 2015, 01:29:46 amTo fuel the fire? Had that been strapped to my sata cable, not so sure things would have been so happy. The whole idea is easy access so I can quickly connect a sick drive.Looks like it shorted within the connector not on the end like it somehow grounded at the tip.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 01:40:40 am
content: Yea. There was nothing in the area this happened that could have shorted this out. It was the one hung lo connector somehow developing a short internally.This *&@#$ thing was on fire burning in the case.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 05:03:37 pm
content: Sad to say pretty common, I had one in a PC that failed, and this was not the cause, rather the usual dozen failed motherboard caps, and the power supply caps are rather suspect, the legs on some are rather far off the board and suspiciously stepped as well. Cooked the power connector on an otherwise perfectly working DVD drive. Not sure if the drive still worked, as it had been used probably 5 times just to do the initial XP install and the CD for the network drivers ( annoying quirk of some RT chipsets is they did not work until you installed a driver, and you had to use the DVD that came with the motherboard to install an old driver to get it to connect to the internet so it could get a working one) and probably one disc in the interim.

author: continuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 05:39:19 pm
content: That shiny mess on the black connector, is that hotsnot?

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 06:05:44 pm
content: Cooked plastic, they turn into a sort of black carbon foam as they burn.

author: continuo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 06:21:01 pm
content: Yeah, but look at the yellow wire, it's transparent and clear...My first thought was someone bodged something together and somehow it then all went up in magic smoke. And the lazy bum just left it sitting there, as a free gift for orion242

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 06:32:29 pm
content: That's quite a cookfest you have there.I had a temperamental PC start making a buzzing noise. Opened the case to check it out and suddenly a capacitor exploded. The cap's casing flew up into the air a few feet followed by magic smoke. Spectacularly scary.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 06:34:35 pm
content: Yellow colouring in plastic tends to fade when it gets hot, as it breaks down easily, leaving the white/translucent base plastic. Look inside and you can see the green corroded copper, which was the likely cause as it corroded from humidity, and the reaction products, with the 12V applied, made a resistive film to ground. Then the heat accelerated this till it melted the plastic and this then carbonised till the contacts either short out or melt apart.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 31, 2015, 08:38:20 pm
content: So there might be something to the gold plated connectors for 4x the normal price.Must of been what happened, nothing else makes much sense.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 19, 2015, 11:57:20 pm
content: Well got a call from SHMBO today telling me her PC locked up and she smelled burning plastic...Unplug everything and I'll look at it when I get home.Sure as $hit its another one of these one hung lo SATA power adapters!! This one was connected to a drive at the time.I get some time, this little bastard might get autopsy.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 12:56:11 am
content: I remember when I worked at a computer repair shop as a kid, people would bring in their machines which had weird intermittent lock-up problems. Fairly frequently the moment I connected the (live) IEC power lead a huge pop and sparks shot out from the back of the power supply right next to my hand. Never copped a shock or injury from it but it was bloody scary especially as a young fellow.My theory is that the issues customers were having were due to dodgy/failing power supplies and it wasn't until they unplugged them, let things cool down then finally re-energised them where the PSU just gave up. Quite often the failed ones were chock full of dust so perhaps heat and/or humidity built up played a significant role in their demise.I know it's nothing to do with the OP's crispy fried SATA plug, but it's one of those childhood memories I'll always remember.

author: encryptededdy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 03:03:25 am
content: I've seen way too many of these, especially on /r/techsupportgore. They seem to all short at the SATA end.https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/3hy8ep/this_is_why_molex_to_sata_cables_are_bad/https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/3td3xb/dont_buy_cheap_molex_to_sata_cables/https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/2fgjon/every_other_month_someone_tries_to_claim_our_ssd/?ref=search_postshttps://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/uuh27/spontaneous_combustion_of_sata_power_cables/https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/2zfzoo/sata_power_cable_and_possibly_the_hard_drive_is/https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgore/comments/1qw70b/sata_power_connector_for_the_drive_containing_the/

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 03:38:37 am
content: Never would have thought this is that common, but two within a year....all those cases...its got to be a crap supplier. Mine looks identical to some of these other pictures. It seems to happen all at the same spot between the 12v rail in the middle of the connector.I'm going to have an Easter egg hunt checking all the other machines in my house for these and replacing them. Will have to tear into one and see WTF is going on. Sure I bought a dozen of them from monoprice, amazon, who knows. Wonder if the wire is frayed at the crimp just looking for a reason to short out.

author: Tim F
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 03:40:22 am
content: Tin whiskers perhaps?

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 04:05:43 am
content: Seems like its fairly well made. Everything is encapsulated in some sort of hot glue. Has to be in the metal contacts, need to find one that hasn't self-destructed. Damaged wire insulation happened getting the bastard open.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 05:12:34 am
content: Looks like the result of a 12V to ground short. It looks like a pretty widespread problem (according to Google, there'sover 80000pictures of these things melting/burningand someonefrom heremade an x-ray of one:That looks like a 5V-ground short, but what is really odd is that foreign material in the middle.... where did it come from?IMHO the SATA power connector is a stupid design - it's more fragile, expensive, difficult to repair (can you even buy the contacts and crimp tool separately?) and has a lower current capacity compared to the old Molex - 4.5A per rail for SATA vs~10Afor the Molex.

author: SteveyG
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 09:05:28 am
content: These look like high resistance connections rather than short circuits, hence why the PC still runs.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 03:02:40 pm
content: Quote from: amyk on November 20, 2015, 05:12:34 amThat sure seems to be the spot where all this happened on both I had, on the 12v rail at least. It would be really hard if not impossible to get something in the connector in that spot after manufacture, it has to be some defect with these. I would agree the whole connector seems like a stupid design. Seems with the amount of power available, you would want a bit more clearance between + & - terminals.Cost of one hung lo sata adapter <$1, cost of the xray machine to make sure they won't burn your house down $10k.

author: orion242
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2015, 03:06:50 pm
content: Quote from: SteveyG on November 20, 2015, 09:05:28 amAre you thinking maybe the hot snot its sealed in is conductive or something else?