Video card interference with SATA connectors?

[xxaaqq]

Last night I went from a stable setup of... (full computer configuration in signature)

Gigabyte GA-K8N-Pro SLI
Corsair HX620
Geforce 7800GT CO
4 sata connectors with DVD, Raptor, WD 250 and Maxtor 250.

The 250GB drives were in a mirrored configuration.

I went to install a Geforce 8800GTS and the card runs right into the SATA connectors of the motherboard, specifically blocking the connector the Maxtor was using, and a capacitor is pressed up against the WD.

I unplugged the Maxtor from the motherboard but left the WD plugged in.

The system crashed with device driver issues, etc. I tried to uninstall and reinstall drivers. I tried putting the 7800GT OC back in but the system was still unstable. (I did not plug the Maxtor back in). I tried to do a windows repair, but this failed. So I formatted and reinstalled Windows. This worked OK for a little but was still showing signs of instability. I tried removing the WD as well - this seemed to improve but not entirely ensure stability. I re-enabled RAID on the WD (which seems to have been disabled automatically when booting with the Maxtor unplugged). Then I manually broke down the mirrored array and manually disabled RAID again. This again seemed to work OK for a short while but signs of instability returned - specifically odd permission/read-only errors on files on the data drive, and frequent Exporer crashes. IE even crashes, followed by an attempt of an error report... which also crashes (as "DrWatson.exe").

Of course when I'm back home I will try putting the video card back in to see if I can somehow clear this up. I believe I may have to completely omit the data drives and format the OS drive and see if that leaves me with only stable hardware.

Any other ideas or input on what kind of interference might be caused by the proximity of the video card capacitors to the SATA connectors? The OS connector is actually above the card but still pretty close. Could it be affected as well (since I had crashes even with both data drives unplugged from the motherboard)?

 

[Ockie]

Video card drivers may have corrupted, not sure, kinda a far fetch suggestion.

Drive may not be making proper contact with the interface due to the video card pushing on it.

Drive may have damaged the capacitor.

 

[xxaaqq]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess the main question is - could the video card be affecting the OS SATA connection even though it's not physically in contact?

I may have better questions once I've tried some more things.

The drive itself didn't touch the capacitor, but the SATA cable (the black connector part) does come in contact with it, right as it connects to the motherboard.

 

[Ockie]

Well take your drives out of your machine and try to boot from them... make sure nothing is touching ANYTHING and then come back and let us know Sounds like a cheap sata cable causing your problems.

 

[xxaaqq]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean - boot from the hard drives how?

Again the drives aren't close to the video card... just the SATA connectors on the motherboard. So no matter where the hard drives are... the SATA connection at the motherboard is still right up against the video card. Of course I will be doing some more testing with the 7800GT back in there, probably with just the OS drive and again a fresh format to remove any doubts about drivers.

 

[xxaaqq]

I should've seen this coming. Because of the video card being new, and the changes in hard drive configuration plus the video card running into the hard drive connector area... I was trying to fix everything BUT memory... but in the end, one of my memory sticks up and died when I put the new video card in. When I cut down to one of my two chips - BSOD within seconds of entering Windows setup. Then I put the other chip in alone, and everything has been absolutely rock solid - even with the video card kind of pressed up against the hard drive connector, though it seems to just barely touch now. As a precaution though, I pulled out one of the older SATA cables and put a newer one in. Anyway, again thanks for your suggestions!