How to Correct Poor Hard Drive Power Connector Contacts?

Have a Hard Drive (HD) that makes a very loose contact with the power connector. At first thought it was dead but changed PCs and it is OK. Also some other Good HDs have start up problems with this PCs power connector.

Normally when the HD does not show in the BIOS on startup I shut down the PC, then I move the power connector and restarted the PC and the HD starts OK.

Am wondering if can wiggle the power connector while the PC is going or can this damage either the HD or power supply?

Am also wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what was done to solve it?

Should mention that the PC with this problem is inexpensive so am wondering if the contacts are corroded so the resistance is increased or if the contacts have just become loose from changing HDs? Maybe both?

Thanks

Ken

Reply to
ken
Loading thread data ...

Those kind of connectors will suffer from frequent use. I would try to crimp the contacts in the plug so they fit tighter around the pins in the drive jack.

Reply to
Meat Plow

Meat Plow inscribed thus:

Actually this problem so common that I turned a brass rod with a tapered bore that I can push over the pin to compress and/or remove it. The other problem that occurs is that the retaining tabs get bent or broken, so the the pin becomes offset and pushed back.

--
Best Regards:
                      Baron.
Reply to
Baron

Yes that's another problem, the pin tabs. Not really designed for heavy usage.

Reply to
Meat Plow

Use a contact extractor such as # W-HT-2054 STD For .093 Pins to remove the problem contact. Then use pliers to "tighten up" the socket contact.

The reason the contacts are loose is because of their mediocre quality. The original AMP contacts did not exhibit this problem.

Reply to
Andy

Everyone,

Thanks for the comments. Sounds like this is a common problem which gets worse with age.

Art thanks for the suggestion "attach a known good connector to the existing wires," I think will be able to do this.

As a result, would be interested to find out what are considered the best power connectors for the std PC HardDrives.

Thanks

Ken

Reply to
ken

It's easy enough to fit new contacts if you have the right tools. That's much easier.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

I have experienced various 'Asian equivalents' of genuine Amp/Molex etc parts and the quality (especially contact pressure) leaves a lot to be desired.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

ken inscribed thus:

AS someone else said the original Amp connectors were the best, but even those suffer from repeated connect/dis-connect use. Maplin do keep the male & female pins and housings! But you really need the proper crimp tools to make best use of them.

If you are into salvage old dead PSU get thrown away daily, they are a good source of connectors. A bit of three way terminal strip and you are good to go.

--
Best Regards:
                      Baron.
Reply to
Baron

Baron,

Thanks for the tip "If you are into salvage old dead PSU get thrown away daily, they are a good source of connectors."

All the "dead PSUs" I have seen are "cheap" ones so wouldn't they have cheap connectors?

Ken

Reply to
ken

The point is that those connectors are hardly in constant use. I was doing a lot of plugging and unplugging with one computer recently, but I was moving drives to it to transfer their content to the main drive. I've had this Pentium I'm writing on for four years, and the only time I've unplugged the power connectors was when I put in a bigger drive, and switched the two CD drives.

Chances are good that some random connector taken of some scrap power supply is still in good shape.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

Everyone,

After reading your comments did some searching on Molex site and found this "The pins come in either the standard (2.13mm) .084" or (2.096mm) .0825" diameter."

Maybe the problem is the HDs with poor electrical contacts have the smaller pins?

Here is the link for the Molex 8981 power connectors

formatting link
|%20Overview

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions!

Ken

Reply to
ken

ken inscribed thus:

I don't think 1.5 thou is going to make a lot of difference to a connector with 20+ thou of compliance.

If you look closely the male pin has a taper along its length.

The issue is that the female part gets expanded with use. Simple misalignment of the pins as they are mated and detached. They do float slightly but nowhere near enough to compensate.

If you remove a female pin from the housing and try it on a male one you will see what I mean.

formatting link

--
Best Regards:
                      Baron.
Reply to
Baron

Baron,

"The issue is that the female part gets expanded with use. Simple misalignment of the pins as they are mated and detached. They do float slightly but nowhere near enough to compensate.

If you remove a female pin from the housing and try it on a male one you will see what I mean.

Here is the link for the Molex 8981 power connectors

formatting link

Thanks for the link! Was able to locate a few from a friend so will give it a try.

Ken

Reply to
ken

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.