I custom built a PC but hard drive isn't being detected (after white smoke+burning smell!)

socialj

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Feb 8, 2014
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10,510
i purchased and gathered a bunch of parts for building a pc... most parts were new except the hard drive, which i pulled off my Apple iMac (1TB HDD). so basically, i built everything and i was so positive to have everything connected right. after completing, i connected it to my living room plasma tv, powered it up for the first time, and then i hear a gas releasing-like (not a fart sound but more like leaking air from a bicycle tire) followed by white smoke arising above the cd drive/hard drive bays. at first i was confused to what it was, and then 4-5 seconds later another gas releasing-like sound followed by a bit more smoke. then i smelled it, a burning smell not too hard but bad enough to know something was burning. i immediately shut off the computer. i waited 5 minutes for the smell to clear, checked all the connections again, and rebooted it. no gas sound, no white smoke, no smell this time.
i thought to myself darn, what happened? i proceeded to continue the computer build by installing windows 7 and then at the installation screen, it's showing i have no hard drive connected to the PC. was the white smoke from my hard drive? i removed the hard drive and put in a different hard drive (backup laptop hdd i had in storage) and it still doesn't detect. i tried replacing the SATA connections to the motherboard to all the different ones but it appears my PC just doesn't detect any of my hard drives. did i damage my motherboard somewhere? or are my hard drives just no longer good? it's hard to believe two drives went bad from this build. i've been trying to figure this out for a while, it's been a good 40 to 50 reboots to no avail.

here is my parts list:

PSU: CORSAIR CX600
RAM: CORSAIR 8GB 1600MHZ (1-STICK)
MOBO: ASUS P8Z77-V PRO 1155
CPU: INTEL I5 3570K
GPU: 2 x ASUS HD7850 (WAS ABOUT TO CROSSFIRE)
CD DRIVE: STANDARD LG CD DRIVE
HARD DRIVE: 1TB TOSHIBA HDD (+BACKUP LAPTOP DRIVE FOR 2ND ATTEMPT)

issue is driving me nuts because i can't figure out for myself. looking forward to you guys helping. thanks in advance...
 
Solution
smell the HDDs, do they have a bad smell to them? Take them out and put them to your nose. They don't always smell when their bad, just sometimes when they burn out, which sounds like it did. Check everything with attention to detail, look for anything they have burnt out like an electric burn anywhere.

Immaculate

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Mar 26, 2013
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smell the HDDs, do they have a bad smell to them? Take them out and put them to your nose. They don't always smell when their bad, just sometimes when they burn out, which sounds like it did. Check everything with attention to detail, look for anything they have burnt out like an electric burn anywhere.
 
Solution

chrisso

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Nov 17, 2013
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Hell, I dont know where to start. If you had a short out on a hard drive bad enough to issue forth smoke it is unlikely it hasnt damaged the mother board.The motherboard SHOULD detect issues this bad and refuse to post anyway. Personally, I would re package the whole lot and send it back for RMA as dead on arrival, then try to find out what happened.I dont know if apple hard drive specks use lower volts than pc, but it seems unlikely. My best uneducated guess would be a fault in the motherboard voltage regulators. At least, thats what I would say to myself as I sent the lot back to Amazon.
That whole equipment package is beyond trust now Dude, its just gotta go.
 

socialj

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Feb 8, 2014
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Amazing... They both smell. The laptop not so much but they're both dead drives. What luck... I borrowed another drive from work, stuck it in, and it works like a charm now. Thank you so much...