Re: Sata cabling

Paul

The computer is a desktop with a Gigabyte 915/910 Series motherboard. The
two drives are a Seagate and a Maxtor. The cable connectors do not match any
illustrated in your links. Both ends are identical and push vertically down
onto the motherboard. On one side of each end of the cable is a spring
loaded metal plate but I would not say it locks. The cable stays in place.


--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Paul wrote:
Gerry wrote:
I have had a disk connection problem which seems to relate to
failing sata cables. The BIOS has failed intermittently to detect
one or both hard drives. The problem was more obvious with the
master drive so I replaced the cable 14 days ago and there was no
further problem until this morning. The problem this morning was the
slave drive so I have replaced the cable for that drive. It has now
been working for a bit over two hour. The problem first became apparent a
month ago when I found the
system would freeze after it had been running some time. Resetting
sometimes worked and sometimes resulted in a failed boot. Eventually
the system would boot but the problem would happen again some hours
later or the next day. Sometimes there have been Event Viewer
reports -mainly ID: 11 referring to the Controller. Often the
problem is unreported. This is probably because the Error is
occurring before Event Viewer starts. From a friend I got these comments.

"In my view, the SATA 'Connector' is an engineering blunder. A
sort-of flat sleeve slides over a notched part on the edge of the
board whereupon sit some exposed/un-insulated traces. Flat
conductors encased within a plastic bit are slid into contact with
them. There is no mechanism but friction to keep the 'connector' in
place. Entirely inadequate. It is not designed for repeated
make/break insertion/removal. If subjected even to a low number of
such operations (design spec is 50), it will fail. (5 000 for an
eSATA connector). If I have to repeatedly disconnect-connect a drive
during testing, I replace the cable as a matter of routine." I am
interested in knowing whether others have encountered this
problem and how common place it is?

TIA


The SATA connector design was centered around "server backplane"
applications, making it easy to "plug" a drive into a backplane, for
a cable free installation. The usage of the connectors for desktops,
was an afterthought. (The SATA committee has done a few things,
showing a lack of judgment, like their naming conventions.)

In a backplane application, the drive goes "straight down" onto the
connector, avoiding wiggling and breaking of the wafer. Mechanical
guidance of the drive insertion, helps prevent problems.
Motherboard/desktop applications, on the other hand, have less
protection from that (depending on the connector brand). I've even
heard of some users, managing to pull the connector right off the
motherboard (Asrock).

The initial connector design had no positive retention features. Later
connectors fixed that. (But for the locking latch type, both the
motherboard connector and the cable must be compatible. A locking
latch cable with a non locking motherboard, won't help.) My current
computer uses no
locking latch, but they did manage to incorporate retention into the
design.
The cable won't fall off if I wiggle it. It has a moderate insertion force
to install it (spring loaded dimple ?).

SATA connectors incorporate keying, in the form of the L shaped
plastic.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/SATA_Data_Cable.jpg/150px-SATA_Data_Cable.jpg

Western Digital SecureConnect, was something that shipped before
cables had lock latches. They used mechanical features present on their
brand of hard drive, to guide the connector into the drive. So that
solves the problem at the hard drive end. Notice that at this point in
time, the drive
was still using "Molex" power. AFAIK, other drive brands would not
have the square holes, to fit this cable. The square holes help guide
the connector during insertion.

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2579-001075.pdf

All of this means, people will have seen a variety of user
experiences. All the way from "no problems here", to "my cable
keeps falling off, so I glued it on" :-)

Paul


.

Relevant Pages

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