Weird PSU SATA PCIe Controller Issue

**Gussie** · 02-22-2018

Been running a Windows 10 PC with an ASRock N3150-ITX motherboard and a Syba SI-PEX40064 SATA PCI-e x1 Controller Card for some time (3-4 months) without issues. I'm using the PCI-e controller to give me extra storage, the OS sits on an SSD using the internal motherboard controller.

A few weeks ago I powered up the PC and noticed it froze during POST, switched it off and tried powering on again.
This time the PSU kept repeatedly starting and immediately powering off - power led was just flicking on and off all the time.

I could get the PC to power on normally if I removed the SATA PCI-e card - so I guessed the card was faulty.
Amazon replaced the card, but with the replacement card the same fault reoccurred.

So I swap out the XFX PRO 450W PSU for an old Powercool PCPC450AUBA 450W PSU I had lying around (Purchased in 2010).
And guess what - the PC boots with the SATA card in-situ.
Great I thought - a faulty PSU must be the culprit.

So I order a brand new Corsair VS450 PSU, not wanting to use the old Powercool PSU.

Plugged in the Corsair PSU and noticed two things - a very noisy fan and a very pronounced flicker on the power led when it powered on,
but it did power on with the SATA card in-situ. Being not happy with the noisy fan and the flickering power led, I got Amazon to replace it with a Seasonic S12-II 620W PSU.

Plugging in the Seasonic, I was amazed to see the old fault back - with the SATA card, repeated starting and immediate powering off - without the SATA card, no issues.

In desperation I try a different SATA card, two other motherboards and PSUs!

So in summary, this is what I have now ...

N3150-ITX Motherboard
N3700-ITX Motherboard
N3150B-ITX Motherboard

Syba SI-PEX40064 (Marvell 88SE9215) 4 port SATA PCI-e Controller Card
Hommie (ASM1061) 2 port SATA PCI-e Controller Card

Powercool PCPC450AUBA 450W PSU (Purchased 2010)
SilverStone SST-ST40F-ES 400W PSU (Purchased 2011)
XFX PRO 450W Core Edition PSU (Purchased 2013)
Seasonic S12-II 620W PSU (Brand New)

With all three motherboards, if I use the XFX, or Seasonic PSUs, I get the power cycle fault condition if either SATA card is present - normal operation if not. The SATA cards are installed with no cables or devices attached. The power cycling is immediate, POST is not even started, the PSU switches repeatedly off and then on again with the cycle repeating endlessly.

Take the SATA cards out and everything is back to normal.

If I use my old Powercool or SilverStone PSUs, I get normal operation with either of the SATA cards installed.

The brand new Corsair VS450 PSU has been returned to Amazon due to a very noisy fan. Although it did boot the N3150-ITX and N3700-ITX systems with the Syba SATA card in-situ, there was a pronounced flicker on the green system power led as it started up.

Why would the brand new Corsair and Seasonic PSUs not work with the SATA cards and yet the two old PSUs work fine ?

Which components are actually faulty ? I am totally confused !

Any Gurus out there care to comment.
Thanks

FYI Googling around, I see others have had boot loop issues using PCIe cards ...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...s-network-card
https://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyt...e-x4-slot.html
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...-xonar#3256729
https://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyt...e-x4-slot.html

**Gussie** · 03-08-2018

Hi,
I had an weird issue with my home built system when it started to power cycle - switching on and off repeatedly before the POST or OS had the chance to start.

Initially all was well until I added a PCIe SATA controller card to give me access to more data discs.

My system comprises an ASRock N3150-ITX with a 128GB SSD running Windows 10 connected to an onboard SATA port, two case cooling fans, PCIe SATA Controller card and a 4 bay SATA rack with a dedicated cooling fan. See pictures.

Now, all is well IF I have the SATA rack powered on, BUT if the SATA rack is powered off, my system power cycles immediately.

I quickly established that it I remove the PCIe card, my system behaves normally again. There followed two weeks of wasted effort - swapping PCIe cards, PSUs and even trying a different motherboard (ASRock N3700-ITX) - everything gave the same result ...

The presence of a PCIe card caused my system to power cycle until I powered up at least one of my data drives - in fact all I needed to do was just power up my empty SATA rack and have its dedicated fan spinning.

The cause was simply that I was not pulling enough juice on the 5V/12V rails with the PCIe card present - even though I had a N3150-ITX motherboard, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and two no name case fans running, the PSU would become unstable and power cycle until I switched on some extra disk drives, or just connected two more cooling fans , or as I have now done, connect a 25W 47 Ohm resistor to the 12V line. That's the gold thing you see at the bottom of my case - now my system behaves no matter if I have my data drives On or Off.

You might say I have a duff PSU, well here's the thing ...
The issue seems to only affect newer more recent PSUs.

These two older PSUs, I tried, did not need the extra 5V/12V loading ...

Powercool PCPC450AUBA 450W PSU (Purchased 2010)
SilverStone SST-ST40F-ES 400W PSU (Purchased 2011)
These PSUs DID NEED extra 5V/12V loading ..

XFX PRO 450W Core Edition PSU (Purchased 2013)
Seasonic S12-II 620W PSU (Brand New)
Corsair VS450 PSU (Brand New)

Furthermore Seasonic support admitted to me that some of their PSUs would require extra loading in certain circumstances because of their "magnetic amplify on secondary side instead of DC to DC circuit" designs.

So be careful if you are using low power systems , corner cases like mine may prove problematic!

**Jon Gerow** · 03-08-2018