PCI SATA Adapter Issues

[bevills1]

Around 2 months ago I added the SYBA SD-SATA-4P PCI SATA Card that I got from http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...3e3e9f9ba34a3b to my AMD 2600 Athlon system and connected 2 SATA hard drives and 1 SATA DVD burner to it and installed latest drivers after removing existing IDE drives. All drives and cables are new. It worked for about 10 days after which 1 or more drives were not recognized. Disconnecting and reconnecting SATA cables on the adapter and drives fixed the problem until this morning when the same thing happened, i.e. second hard drive not recognized but disconnecting and reconnecting cables fixed the problem again for now.

Has anybody here experienced these problems with SATA add on cards or know a fix for these problems?

[aedipuss]

not with add-in card themselves but i've had more than a few problems with sata cables. either falling part way out or just going bad. i only buy them with metal clasps now from brands i know.

[jman98]

I had a weird problem a couple of years ago where one of my two 2 TB internal SATA drives would disappear at random times and which drive disappeared was also random, causing all sorts of nasty problems in my PC. It turns out that my cables were to blame. I went to Fry's and bought some SATA cables that have bent connectors that look like a capital L and those give me solid connections and my problems vanished. I was using some SATA connectors that were straight instead of L shaped and they were not able to give me stable connections within my PC.

[hello_hello]

I also recommend replacing the SATA cables before looking for a alternative cause. Some SATA connectors seem to lock-in or connect more firmly than others.
Thinking it was dying, I recently I replaced a DVD drive in this PC with one from another PC. A few weeks later, the second drive started disappearing and re-appearing too. Replacing the SATA cable fixed it. Fortunately I hadn't throw the old drive away. Oddly, the SATA cable in question would be at least four years old and never given me a problem until recently, but it's definitely not the first time I've had to replace a SATA cable.

[turk690]

Whoever designed these blasted SATA connectors should be tied up and their feet tickled until they pass out...
Okay, seriously now; one problem with SATA connectors is that they can be nudged sideways and end up at an angle to the drive. There are no mechanical grips that force them to squarely stay mated like the old PATA IDE connectors. After connecting the drives to SATA, over time, whatever natural tension the cable has will slowly force the connector in that direction, if not outright dislodge it. That's why SATA connectors with locking clasps or L-shaped ones have been a boon, especially in situations where there are several SATA drives installed in a PC enclosure. IMHO even more cause for concern should be SATA power connectors; imagine a 4TB drive spinning away then its power connector slowly but oh so surely decides to unplug. High current can be passing through the wretched connector at the time: how catastrophic can it be??

[hello_hello]

That's why SATA connectors with locking clasps or L-shaped ones have been a boon, especially in situations where there are several SATA drives installed in a PC enclosure.

When I'm ruler of the world I'll make manufacturing non-locking SATA cables punishable by death. Mind you I've got quite a few non-locking cables which must come from 2 different manufacturers. The only visible difference is the length of the SATA connector itself. The longer ones don't fit very tightly and are easily unplugged. The shorter ones are a very firm fit and almost feel like they lock. It takes a bit of effort to unplug them.

Ironically (at least in relation to this thread) I recently had a problem with a SATA drive sitting on my desk running via an eSATA to SATA cable. It started dropping in and out. The cause of the problem was the last place I looked. It was the molex side of the molex to SATA power cable. I could hold the molex connectors and cause the drive to start and stop spinning by pressing on it the right way. Even the pins in those old molex power connectors don't always make reliable contact. Fortunately that was a month ago and the drive is reliably running 24/7 again, so it didn't seem to hurt it.

[fritzi93]

Whoever designed these blasted SATA connectors should be tied up and their feet tickled until they pass out...

I too have had drives randomly disappear. So I open up the case and disconnect/reconnect all hard drives. Which fixes it...until the next time. I thought replacing my cables with the ones with locking clasps would solve it. Nope.

I think I'll take jman's suggestion to get some with angled connectors.

[bevills1]

The cables to the 2 hard drives have angled connectors, and the cable to the DVD drive have locking clasps, From the various experiences reported in this thread it appears a hit or miss, trial and error process to find cables that work as they should. Too bad they couldn't be made as reliable as IDE cable connectors.

[jman98]

I think I'll take jman's suggestion to get some with angled connectors.

I recommend doing so. It did completely and permanently fix my problem. I actually got the advice to try that here at VideoHelp. In some thread about SATA disk drives I mentioned my problem. I had searched for help on the internet and found various suggestions that insisted that updating drivers was the solution, but that proved useless. In the end it was simply that the SATA cables that I owned that didn't have angled connectors could not get a solid connection and I could remove the cables at will from the hard disks by simply tugging at them slightly. I bought some angled connector cables at Fry's, installed them, tugged and had nothing come lose and my problem went away permanently once I powered up my PC.