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Question: How can one test whether a motherboard's SATA connections are faulty vs a PSU's SATA output?

Context: A couple days ago, I was replacing my old PSU (Corsair CXM 750W 80+ Bronze) with a new one (SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold). I unplug the power cord and all peripherals, ground myself, and carefully extract the old PSU from my tower. I kept most of the components' connections in (besides MB and CPU) so that it would be easy to insert into the new PSU. Everything is hooked up; I turn it on. Instantly, I hear an electric pop and see smoke coming from the docking station where I keep my SATA components (CD Drive, HDD, SSD). I immediately cut power. I am at a loss as to what could have caused this, as the six-pin SATA cables were properly connected and nothing was loose.

Troubleshooting: I unplug everything except 1 stick of RAM, CPU, GPU, power supply. I want to point out that all of the above is in working order. System boots and says "No bootable device is detected." This makes sense as I removed the SSD that the OS is installed on. I take a brand new SATA cable (that came with the new PSU) and use it to connect the HDD and SSD to the PSU. Still, same message. In BIOS, they don't even show up in the SATA Port info. At this point I'm concerned the SATA connections are fried. So I plug in my cheap CD drive via another new SATA cable and restart the computer. For a moment, the green LED on the drive lights up. It seemed like it had power for a moment (15-25 seconds) but then lost power and never worked again. Now frantic, I head to a local computer repair shop to see if I can get the data off my HDD/SSD. Both drives are completely fried. Their computers couldn't even recognize them.

I need to determine what exactly is wrong before risking another component failure.

Possibilities (in my mind):

  1. Motherboard's SATA-component connections are fried - anything I plug in to these ports will, as a result, short out (I'm referring to the internal ports a bit lower than the GFX card that connect to SATA-powered devices, they are not actual SATA ports). Other than that, the MB seems to be working fine with all of its other connected components.

  2. PSU's SATA output is fried - it can no longer power any SATA-related devices but can power everything else

  3. Both the PSU and motherboard are faulty, frying any SATA-related components.

I already ordered a new motherboard, SSD, and CD drive that should be arriving tomorrow, but I just wanted to check in here to see if there's anything I can do first to make sure.

Specs:

  • CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8 Core

  • CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing

  • mobo: Asus 970 PRO GAMING/AURA ATX AM3+

  • RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

  • GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB G1 Gaming

  • case: Cooler Master Storm Stryker ATX Full Tower

  • PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX

  • DVD: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD writer (fried)

  • SSD: Crucial MX100 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC (fried)

  • HDD: WD Black 4TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB cache 3.5 Inch (fried)

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  • you can use an adapter for sata power in order to discard the PSU problem just grab one of those adapters from regular HDD power to the SATA connection type, just plug the power cable to the sata, not the data one, it should power up with no smoke lol, that way you are totally eliminating the faulty SATA POWER from PSU possibility (which I doubt is a poblem), I'm really suspect of the motherboard itself.
    – arana
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 17:11
  • @arana - That's a great idea and would do the trick. I think I know what you mean, but would you be able to provide a link with an example of such an adapter? I want to make sure we're on the same page. Thanks!
    – Omnus Ruthius
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 18:57
  • This one sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/products/gallery_large/… Also if you know how to use a multimeter you can test the voltages of each of the sata cable that comes out of the PSU, but if theproblem is a power spike maybe it will test fine if you are not testint in the exact moment such spike happens but still it might show wrong measurements and explain why that is happening.
    – arana
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 19:01
  • Right, so a SATA to LP4 Power Cable Adapter. Thanks again!
    – Omnus Ruthius
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 19:11

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I know this is an old question, but the answer could be helpful to many.

See also my previous answer on the same topic: "Do SSD's die when plugged in PSU with different SATA Cable?"

Sadly, yes that is very likely to happen...

A couple days ago, I was replacing my old PSU (Corsair CXM 750W 80+ Bronze) with a new one (SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold). I unplug the power cord and all peripherals, ground myself, and carefully extract the old PSU from my tower.

I kept most of the components' connections in (besides MB and CPU) so that it would be easy to insert into the new PSU.

This was probably your mistake...

These are both modular power supplies, and it sounds like you left the cables from the PSU connected to your system... Sadly, that is not sensible, as the pinouts are absolutely not standard across manufacturers.

DO NOT re-use the looms from other power supplies, even if they fit.

Compare and contrast, images from here and here.

Corsair CXM 750W pinout

SuperNOVA G2 750W pinout

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