PC won't work if new SSD is inserted

[Please pardon my English. I might not know the proper names of some HW things in English, sorry]

Today I got a new SSD! Yay! Twice as big as my old, 120gb SSD...

Well I wish I had my 240gb of space right away, but... I have a problem.

When I plug it in, my computer won't boot... at all. Usually, I am my friend's tech support. But since I can't afford to tinker with hardware, it's a world unknown to me.

Basic info:

Drive is for SATA3 [brand new] (Kingston Now A400, 2,5" - 240GB)
Data cable is labeled SATA III [brand new]
Power cable is labeled S-ATA 3 (that's the same thing... right? I'm not sure at this point) [found in my box in which MB came in]
I have 620w power supply. I heard it might be power problem, but I don't think so. Still worth mentioning, though. (I have GTX 960 and Intel I5 3.3 ghz processor)

Every single time I plug the drive in, the pc will not turn on at all. Not even to BIOS. I have to unplug the drive and turn off the power supply with a switch, wait a few minutes and then I can turn on the computer and boot to Windows with both of my old drives showing. (new drive is fully unplugged)

first I tried to plug the new data cable into the port on the other edge of the MB. Then I unplugged the functioning drive and plugged in the new drive (I did not unplug the power cable because I have no idea what cable plugged into power supply it is) - I did not plug the old drive into the MB.

It did not work. I tried a different connection on my power supply (I still have 2 SATA marked "holes" left), but it did not work.

I have no idea what to do right now. I'm just going to assume I'm ignorant and I overlooked something major. Please, would you be so kind and help me?

Jaroslav Nejedlý

Posted 2019-04-18T05:39:03.780

Reputation: 49

Jaroslav, I made some minor grammar corrections. BTW, to "brick" something means, to me, to permanently destroy a device (with the idea that it can only function as a building brick or as a boat anchor). – DrMoishe Pippik – 2019-04-18T06:11:40.753

Alright. I remember seeing that Anthem (I think) that "bricked" PS4 but it was reversible so that's where I heard it. But thank you ^,^ – Jaroslav Nejedlý – 2019-04-18T06:22:38.020

It could be a DoA SSD? Is it possible to try the SSD on another PC? – Lawrence – 2019-04-18T06:24:49.813

I am not sure what DoA SSD is. And I own only one PC. – Jaroslav Nejedlý – 2019-04-18T06:54:34.903

@JaroslavNejedlý, DoA means Dead on Arrival; i.e. the SSD was non-functional when it arrived with you =) – Rob – 2019-04-18T07:57:05.173

May be one possibility is that there's a short somewhere on the electronic circuitry on the SSD. As a result PSU is getting into Short circuit protection and not starting. – patkim – 2019-04-18T15:25:11.770

As it sounds like the system won't even power on, I would suggest checking for short circuit issues in the power connector (e.g: metal pins touching). If that looks fine, then I'd suggest that the SSD is faulty. Please also confirm if the PC will boot with the new SSD connected via SATA but with power disconnected. – Attie – 2019-04-18T15:50:45.900

Answers

The solution (TL;DR): Used a different power cable

The story: I brought it into my school and sked the teacher if I could test the drive in one of school machines. He agreed and we tested the drive using his cables. Everything worked. Then we used my data cable and it also worked. Then he told me that the power cablem ight be the issue because some PSU has some pins swapped and that renders them incompatible with other PSUs. Well I was digging in my boxes until I found a cable that looked the same as all of the other cables in my system and that worked.

I did not know that these cables work that way so I just assumed if it fits it's good enough lol. I changed PSU to a different one after a year or so, so I had the cables mixed up and when I tried a different cable, it was still from the old PSU.

I'd like to thank all of those people who tried to help me. I really appreciate that.

Jaroslav Nejedlý

Posted 2019-04-18T05:39:03.780

Reputation: 49

-1

If you add a new hardware component and the PC will not boot afterwards, but it is able to boot again when you remove the new component, that is a sign of a PSU that isn't powerful enough to accommodate the new component. Plug the new SSD back in, both power and data, and completely unplug your old hard drives, both the power and data cables, and try it again. If you still cant boot then unplug the power cable(s) to your video card as well. If you still can't boot then something else is at work that im unfamiliar with.

BrainRenticus

Posted 2019-04-18T05:39:03.780

Reputation: 152

As I said, I unplugged the old drive and left it unplugged while I was using just 2 SSDs HDD uses more power than SSD, right? – Jaroslav Nejedlý – 2019-04-18T16:29:12.930

In both the original post and the above comment, it sounds to me like you're saying you have another drive also plugged in while the new one is plugged in. You want no other drives, SSD or HDD, plugged in except for the new one. SSD's do generally use less power than HDD's but it's best to remove them as well for this test. If you have only your new drive plugged in and it still wont boot then try unplugging the power cable from your video card. If it still wont boot then your PSU not being powerful enough definitely isn't the problem. – BrainRenticus – 2019-04-18T16:58:02.670

1@BrainRenticus, SSD's use very little power compared to the CPU or GPU, and the difference in consumption between 120 GB and 240 GB is negligible. That's a red herring. – DrMoishe Pippik – 2019-04-18T17:52:21.347