# A weird situation involving SSD and a HDD



## swiftshashi (Mar 17, 2014)

Case History:-
I own a DV6 6121 tx-HP Pavilion dv6-6121tx Entertainment Notebook PC | HP® Support


It has two connectors on its mobo where cable coming from Optical disk and HDD are connected. I have shown a pic of the same,if u have any confusion.



My setup- I installed a SSD in its Hard drive bay,and using a caddy,I installed the earlier 640GB@5400rpm HDD in the optical disk bay. It was working flawlessly till date.

Two days before,I had the HDD replaced by a 750GB@7200rpm drive. Again the setup was same,SSD went into HDD marked bay,while caddy had the 750GB hdd connected to the optical disk marked bay.

Now the problem arises.
Today laptop is stuck at BIOS screen,I diagnosed and interchanged the connectors,which effectively means,my SSD is now connected to ODD bay,while HDD goes into HDD marked bay.And the laptop boots normally...

My queries-
1.Why does this change occur,all of a sudden??
2.Are both the ports SATA III(6Gb/s) compatible??How can I check>>??
3.This is the message shown by Samsung's Software,which came with SSD-

4.While another software shows this-


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## whitestar_999 (Mar 17, 2014)

post pics of your bios settings.it is just my guess but 7200rpm hdd has higher power requirements than a 5400rpm drive & maybe the bios misunderstood something when it detected more than expected power load at a sata port supposed to be powering a slim dvd drive.


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## pranav0091 (Mar 17, 2014)

Try speccy. 

With different software reporting different values, there is nothing you can be sure of atm. So unless it really hurts your system performance, why do you care if its SATA 3Gbps or 6Gbps. Whats the sustained/burst rate that an SSD can take btw ? Is it over 400 MBps ?


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## swiftshashi (Mar 17, 2014)

Looks like there is some issue with the connector(wire of SSD,which connects it to the mobo....Just now the laptop got stuck at BIOS screen,whereas the cable was in its earlier working config...Had to unplug it and reinstall it....OR WAS IT MY MOBO,which is playing games??? 

Any idea if that particular cable is available in open market??


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whitestar_999 said:


> post pics of your bios settings.it is just my guess but 7200rpm hdd has higher power requirements than a 5400rpm drive & maybe the bios misunderstood something when it detected more than expected power load at a sata port supposed to be powering a slim dvd drive.



Saw the power requirements of my HDD (7200rpm ) now-Its 800mA @5V DC
The rating of ODD which it has replaced is 1.5A @ 5VDC 
So HDD is withdrawing almost half the power,which optical disk is using..Plus my earlier HDD(5400rpm) had exactly same ratings.


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## swiftshashi (Mar 17, 2014)

Guys, an important update. 
Just as I was typing my reply, the system hanged. Had to force shut down...Tried permutations with the cables, nothing happened.
Put the SSD in the caddy and tried starting...A message came that OS has corrupted due to multiple attempts. ..

- - - Updated - - -

To me, it looks like there is something wrong with the hdd connector  cable...Or, the SSD has died in merely 3 months of usage....which I fear should not be true.

Off topic-Can the OS corrupt on its own, if many unsuccessful restarts occur??


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## pranav0091 (Mar 17, 2014)

^ Happens, but rarely, but that too only after a good number of hard reboots.

Are you sure that you dont have any partition marked active in the 750 GB drive ?

Can you try booting using the SSD and HDD one-at-a-time ? That should succeed.


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## swiftshashi (Mar 17, 2014)

Yeah I had to do about 20-25 hard reboots 

I am getting what U r trying to say...I did that...My HDD doesnt has any OS, so it will not start...However, that stuck bios occurred only when SSD was plugged into, in either of the ports.
That meant that either SSD or the cable was at fault.
To eradicate this doubt, I put the SSD directly into caddy, which has its own wiring...and viola, the laptop easily went pass the bios screen...
Till now, its the cable which is at doubt.
BTW, What is that cable called?? Is it available in open market??


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## pranav0091 (Mar 17, 2014)

Good to hear its just the cable.

Its a regular sata cable at the HDD end and a custom connector at the MB end right ? Not too sure though. I think your best bet would be to give a call to the HP guys and cleanly indicate that you have a faulty cable. Will be expensive, that route though.


Might want to enquire in laptop repair shops, the local variety. I have seen those connectors in all the laptops I have opened. But not sure if the pin mapping is a constant one (say, like USB) or custom for each manufacturer. A second concern is the length, if you can actually find a spare...


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## swiftshashi (Mar 18, 2014)

This is the cable I was talking about.
It is common in all HP's,whereas Dell have a fixed mechanism.
I have complained at HP just now,but they have promised to deliver it on Friday. Hence I was trying to source it from open market.

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OffTopic 
@ PRanav0091
Do you have any idea about the lifetime of SSD's??
Samsung Magician Software shows TBW(Total Bytes Written),and mine has reached 1.40TB in 3.5 months of usage...Is it normal??


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## pranav0091 (Mar 18, 2014)

1.5TB is almost nothing. TR reports drives going strong upto 200 TB and more _easily_.

Here:
The SSD Endurance Experiment: Data retention after 600TB - The Tech Report - Page 1


BTW, Windows 7 is NOT good for SSDs. Win8 has certain load balancing tricks that make life easier for the SSDs.


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## swiftshashi (Mar 18, 2014)

Thanks a lot for the tip....
However I find it easier to game in Win 7..........With Win 8 and above,there are a lot of compatibility issues,either with my drivers,or with the games themselves...
Anyways,thanks a ton bro,for the support....Am pretty helpless now,will have to wait till tomorrow for the shops to open.
Will keep you all updated .........................


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## whitestar_999 (Mar 18, 2014)

for future use crystaldisk info(portable version as installer version comes with opencandy adware) & check ultraDMA CRC error count value for sign of faulty sata/hdd cable.


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## swiftshashi (Mar 18, 2014)

whitestar_999 said:


> for future use crystaldisk info(portable version as installer version comes with opencandy adware) & check ultraDMA CRC error count value for sign of faulty sata/hdd cable.


Thanks,will keep u informed....Since cable is faulty.I am unable to install OS.....Will sort out things by this evening and report back.

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*Help,what is this??*

I know my SSD is SATA III compatible,what does the two things mean.......???


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## pranav0091 (Mar 18, 2014)

Maybe the laptop only has SATA 3gbps even though your SSD is SATA 6gbps ?


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## swiftshashi (Mar 19, 2014)

[MENTION=221001]Pranav[/MENTION]

Then bro WTH is this????  



Conclusion

These all softwares ARE NEVER 100% correct!!!
I am now at peace,because the benchmarks of my SSD is matching with those online(which have tested in SATA III config)....So it proves,I have 2 SATA III ports 

Currently awaiting the cable to come from HP.....I am now 99% sure that the cable was the culprit,as it has now become completely dead!!!

Will keep U all updated,

Regards,
Shashi Shekher


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## dashing.sujay (Mar 19, 2014)

Even though readings by these softwares should always be taken with a pinch of salt, the way an OEM does the hardware implementation, also matters.

What I mean is that, they bind the hardware in such manner that these softwares are not able to read all the info or get wrong info.

The best example I found is in my vaio. Many stat readings, parameters are not readable which are possible in most systems by default. No custom driver, nothing.


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## swiftshashi (Mar 19, 2014)

+1 to that ...........


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## swiftshashi (Mar 22, 2014)

Update:-
Had ordered cable from HP,however it took a bit long for them to arrange it.
However,the local service centre went out of way and helped me.They had an Accidental DV6.it was a new piece,but got damaged in a water involving incident.
The manager exchanged my cable and gave me that laptop's cable.
My laptop is fine now and is running smoothly like before.

Thanks to one and all,who came to my rescue.


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## d3b (Mar 24, 2014)

swiftshashi said:


> Case History:-
> My queries-
> 1.Why does this change occur,all of a sudden??
> 2.Are both the ports SATA III(6Gb/s) compatible??How can I check>>??
> ...



Perhaps you might find some help here in my post.
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/laptops-netbooks/140870-hp-dv6-6017tx-6121tx-6140tx-dv6-6165tx-thread-126.html#post2087849


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## swiftshashi (Mar 25, 2014)

d3b said:


> Perhaps you might find some help here in my post.
> *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/laptops-netbooks/140870-hp-dv6-6017tx-6121tx-6140tx-dv6-6165tx-thread-126.html#post2087849




Thanks a lot,cleared each and every doubt of mine.


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## swiftshashi (Mar 26, 2014)

Guys,a bit of trouble here-While Playing videos(which is on my HDD BTW with the replaced cable,SATA 3.0Gbps port),I encounter a sound creaking sort of sound accompanied with video freezing for a millisecond.
It is only with my HDD,when I copy it to my SSD,no issue is there.


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## swiftshashi (Apr 6, 2014)

Guys,another issue.
Just to recap,I have a dual SSD-HDD setup.Got a new cable and HDD for it as it was making some clicking noises.
The HDD was a new one,manufactured in Nov 13.
Everything was fine untill yesterday.
I noticed Reallocated Sectors count value today.How come its the same value which my previous HDD had got??Is it because I used it in train last night??However only value has come,no freezing or clicks whatsoever. What might be the reason behind this??


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