Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Reply to this thread

Forum question

Started by PHPTim | | 3 answers
Sata 3gb/s HDD with a sata 6gb/s cable/port?
Hey.

A while back I bought a cheap gateway computer with an AMD 5600 2GHZ processor while on vacation in Florida, in hopes it would run some low end games. Not living up to my expectations, I've recently upgraded the motherboard with an ASUS B85M - E/CSM motherboard(a great buy for <$100, btw), an Intel core i5-4460 processor and an ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti graphics card. I'm more than impressed with the performance of the system compared to the stock gateway system but I've had numerous problems along the way.

Upon first installing the components I ran into some boot issues. The system would boot up and then imediately turn right back off, continuing this cycle until I held the power button or killed the power source completely. I realized after reading the manual for the motherboard, about 15 times, I had removed a cap from a couple of pins which serves as a memory reset cap or some B.S. After replacing the tiny white cap about the size of the end of a friggin toothpick, I got the system to boot. Next came the BSOD, my main problem. I would boot up the system and play around for about 20-30 minutes, then BAM! BSOD. Something about SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION or BOOT_HEADER_FAILURE or IRQL_SOMETHING_OR_OTHER or maybe it was MEMORY_MANAGEMENT there were so many errors I can't remeber them all. I tried literally everything I could to stop the errors to no avail. I refreshed Windows, I reset Windows, I updated Windows, I reset Windows again, I installed Windows 8.1, I reset Windows.. once again. It seemed like I was going to be stuck in an endless loop of Windows BSOD :( . it was almost as if I had called microsoft and pressed the wrong number.. "the number you have dialed is currently unavailable, please reset Windows, and try again... this is a recording.". Finally, after two weeks of moving cables around, changing RAM, trying different motherboards(I have a couple computers in my house, lol), trying different hard drives, it hit me. The motherboard I had purchased came with two SATA 6GB/S cables. All the cables I had previously tried were a of a lower speed/quality, but were plugged into two of the SATA 6GB/s ports on my motherboard(my graphics card covers the SATA 3GB/s ports). TAAADAAAAAAA!!!! No more BSOD!!

Such a long explanation for such a short question, lol. Does it matter that I only have a 3GB/s HDD and it's plugged into a 6GB/s port with a 6GB/s cable? I haven't had any problems in the past couple days so I'm assuming nothing will happen, just curious.
  • By posting on this site, I confirm I am over 13 years of age and agree to abide by the site’s rules.

October 12, 2014 2:30:30 PM

PHPTim said:
Any idea why I would have been receiving all the errors I was before I switched out the cables?


Just a guess, but possibly bad cable(s) or not seated all the way (I know you reseated several times, but computers are weird sometimes). Here's an interesting article on SATA cables, worth the few minutes to read. Might save you some money.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/your_sata_cab...
October 12, 2014 11:28:31 AM

Any idea why I would have been receiving all the errors I was before I switched out the cables?
October 9, 2014 1:15:01 PM

To answer the question: No, SATA III/6GB/sec is backward compatable as are the cables.You should be fine. I just did this with a friends PC and a Samsung SSD and it is humming along at a rather rapid rate with no glitches.

See all answers