Will it hurt to leave a SATA cable plugged into the motherboard but not attached to a device inside the PC?

JohnJSal

Active Member
I just replaced my HDD with an SSD, so I needed a different SATA port than the one being used (SATA 3 instead of SATA 2), but since I might put the HDD back in as extra storage, I just used a different cable for the SSD and left the original cable plugged into the motherboard and the other end lying in the case.

Does this matter? Could it hurt anything to have one end plugged in and the other not?

Thanks!
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
The only 'risk' per-se would be something coming into contact and bridging a couple of the pins. It's reduced significantly since the connectors are inside of the plastic housing. Otherwise it's not really any different than an empty SATA port sitting there, as none of the circuits are completed it's just open/disconnected without a drive connected to it.

If you're extra paranoid you could close the connector with some scotch tape or something, but that's generally unnecessary.
 

JohnJSal

Active Member
The only 'risk' per-se would be something coming into contact and bridging a couple of the pins. It's reduced significantly since the connectors are inside of the plastic housing. Otherwise it's not really any different than an empty SATA port sitting there, as none of the circuits are completed it's just open/disconnected without a drive connected to it.

If you're extra paranoid you could close the connector with some scotch tape or something, but that's generally unnecessary.
Thank you! Good way to look at it!

Just out of curiosity, what would happen if the pins were bridged? Not that I'm actually worried, because the end of the cable is just lying on the bottom of the case.
 

porterjw

Spaminator
Staff member
Thank you! Good way to look at it!

Just out of curiosity, what would happen if the pins were bridged? Not that I'm actually worried, because the end of the cable is just lying on the bottom of the case.

It would create a short. Exactly what damage it would cause could vary, but in general shorts aren't good. A short to ground would probably just cause the system to shut down with no damage once the shirt was eliminated, while a short between components could damage/destroy one or several items.

Really though, given this situation you don't have anything to worry about. I've had test systems with SATA and Molex connectors exposed for days/months on end and never once thought about it. Unless you keep a lot of small conductive items unsecured in your case and constantly move it around and roll it over or shake it, it's 100% a non-issue.

And if you *do* in fact do the above, please elplain why;):cool:
 

JohnJSal

Active Member
It would create a short. Exactly what damage it would cause could vary, but in general shorts aren't good. A short to ground would probably just cause the system to shut down with no damage once the shirt was eliminated, while a short between components could damage/destroy one or several items.

Really though, given this situation you don't have anything to worry about. I've had test systems with SATA and Molex connectors exposed for days/months on end and never once thought about it. Unless you keep a lot of small conductive items unsecured in your case and constantly move it around and roll it over or shake it, it's 100% a non-issue.

And if you *do* in fact do the above, please elplain why;):cool:
Thank you!
 
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