Different cables for different PSU

[InspectahACE]

Hey guys,

I ran into an issue..Before I start, I wanna say that It wasn't mentioned to me until AFTER the issue started so it's known that it wasn't my idea(or fault) in the first place...

Anyhow, I was plugging up a hard drive to my father's PC when it wouldn't even let the PC power up(a millisecond of power then complete shut down)...Then I tried another hard drive, same PSU cable, same problem. Then it was brought to my attention that there is a very good chance that a SIlverstone PSU cable was used to plug power from his modular ThermalTake PSU to the hard drives. Now, I already know that's not a good idea to do, but would doing something like that actually cause a short, or an even bigger problem?

I saw a spark near the PSU switch when my father flipped the switch on the back of the PSU, which in my mind is a very bad thing. Unfortunately, the drives weren't the only casualties, I think it fried his motherboard or even possibly his 980x CPU. Because there is now NO boot or post now whatsoever without any hard drives connected.

Again, I know plugging a SilverStone PSU cable into a ThermalTake PSU is not a good idea, but I just want to know (from anyone with experience or knowledge) if doing that would cause issues. One would think that a guy with 25+ years of experience(my father) this wouldn't happen but it did.

[skier]

i don't think i understand what he did, was he running dual power supplies? or just using like a molex-sata connector?

[InspectahACE]

i don't think i understand what he did, was he running dual power supplies? or just using like a molex-sata connector?

No on both questions....He took a cable that belongs to his Silverstone PSU, and plugged it into his Thermaltake PSU

[skier]

i don't think i understand what he did, was he running dual power supplies? or just using like a molex-sata connector?

No on both questions....He took a cable that belongs to his Silverstone PSU, and plugged it into his Thermaltake PSU

modular?

[InspectahACE]

i don't think i understand what he did, was he running dual power supplies? or just using like a molex-sata connector?

No on both questions....He took a cable that belongs to his Silverstone PSU, and plugged it into his Thermaltake PSU

modular?

Yes

[skier]

a SIlverstone PSU cable was used to plug power from his modular ThermalTake PSU to the hard drives.

woops. at any rate its a possibility, but unlikely that it damage parts, as i've shorted out several things by using the wrong pinouts and normally the only thing that happens is the cable itself flames up because the COM or POS wire melts (often melting the connector with it)

the only way to tell if it could have shorted is looking at the thermaltake's normal cabling (Not necessarily for SATA, just one of the molex/sata/aux plugs) and comparing where the cables come from to the silverstone cable

it is unlikely to affect the motherboard or other parts unless they too got shorted by some other reason, as i've plugged a HDAUDIO header into the pinout for god knows what on my X38 board and it toasted up the connector and fried the audio ports (i think) to the card reader but the board still worked fine (it died later because of a surface scratch)

so compare the pinout coming from the PSU and the silverstone cable used,

[InspectahACE]

yea, we compared the cables and saw some differences. So I'm leaning towards that. Either way, I saw a spark when he flipped the switch. So I'm betting half the rig was totaled. He still can't get it to post.

[skier]

yea, we compared the cables and saw some differences. So I'm leaning towards that. Either way, I saw a spark when he flipped the switch. So I'm betting half the rig was totaled. He still can't get it to post.

use a different PSU yet?

[InspectahACE]

Not yet. I'm about to go back up there with a tester and probably an unimportant PSU to see if it posts.