PCI-Express card receiving no power on Dell Precision T1600


Recommended Posts

I have a Dell Precision T1600 (2012 model) running the latest A16 BIOS (2013), which I use it as a Windows 10-based Plex server.

 

I bought a Dynamode USB-4PCI-3.0, which is a 4-Port USB 3.0 PCI-Express card.

 

I can't get Windows to detect it, and connected devices do nothing when plugged into it.

 

I've tried the USB 3.0 card in all four PCI slots (which I know work).

 

It appears it's getting no power.

 

There is a molex female connector on the back of the card but the box states: "Integral ‘Molex’ Power Boost adapter for increased length", so I don't think it's needed for the device to work?

 

The power supply doesn't seem to have any male molex connectors coming from it.

 

I'm using all four of the power supply's SATA male connectors and all four of the motherboard's female SATA connectors with the four drives that are in the machine.

 

Any ideas?

Sounds like the molex is needed. Easiest would be to get a sata power duplicator and then get a sata power to molex power converter and plug it in. If you have a spare floppy power cable then you could get a converter for that to molex.

8 minutes ago, n_K said:

Sounds like the molex is needed. Easiest would be to get a sata power duplicator and then get a sata power to molex power converter and plug it in. If you have a spare floppy power cable then you could get a converter for that to molex.

All that comes from the power supply is 4x SATA power male and the 2x connectors for motherboard (24-pin and 4-pin, I believe).

 

I'm struggling to find a SATA power splitter. At the moment, all that comes from the PSU is a SATA power male, so the splitter would be to be male to 2x male. Do you think you could help?

 

The server has a 265W PSU in it. With 3x HDD, 1x SDD and a basic GPU, do you think adding this card and it powering 2x external 2.5" hard drives will strain it a bit?

13 minutes ago, Jason S. said:

i dont have an answer for you, but i also think the molex connector is needed.

I believe you are correct.

 

Probably easier to buy a new PSU.

 

As it's a Dell workstation, I presume there may be restrictions on the type of PSU that can be installed?

1 hour ago, Elliot B. said:

I believe you are correct.

 

Probably easier to buy a new PSU.

 

As it's a Dell workstation, I presume there may be restrictions on the type of PSU that can be installed?

maybe or maybe not. you'll have to see what it's using currently. Dell might be using some non-standard form factor. Otherwise, a standard PSU should work just fine.

Surely it doesn't use that much power? You could probably just get a SATA --> 2x SATA power adapter (for your drives) which would leave one SATA power free for a SATA --> Molex adapter.  

 

Unless you just want to replace the PSU ... Which I believe (in this model) is just a standard ATX.  You should be able to tell by looking at it.

40 minutes ago, Jim K said:

Surely it doesn't use that much power? You could probably just get a SATA --> 2x SATA power adapter (for your drives) which would leave one SATA power free for a SATA --> Molex adapter.  

 

Unless you just want to replace the PSU ... Which I believe (in this model) is just a standard ATX.  You should be able to tell by looking at it.

I'm struggling to find said 2x SATA power adapter.

It would need to be 1x female (to plug into one of the existing males) to 2x male, I guess.

21 minutes ago, Elliot B. said:

I'm struggling to find said 2x SATA power adapter.

It would need to be 1x female (to plug into one of the existing males) to 2x male, I guess.

UK has NewEgg right? Amazon? Just search for SATA to 2x SATA and you should get some hits.

 

Something like this would work...

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16812119914

 

Course, with all the adapters ... you might be able to just buy a cheap Corsair PSU for a few bucks more.

30 minutes ago, Elliot B. said:

I'm struggling to find said 2x SATA power adapter.

It would need to be 1x female (to plug into one of the existing males) to 2x male, I guess.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/15cm-scan-88rb-415-4-pin-molex-to-2x-sata-power-connectors-males-to-female-18-awg-for-hdd-ssd

8 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Scan, Newegg, Amazon etc. all charge delivery on something that only cost £2, so I'm better off with eBay.

 

The SATA splitter I think I need: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172709481192 (£2.09 with free delivery)

 

So that would leave me with a spare male SATA power.

 

Now I'm just looking for a SATA female to Molex adapter on eBay UK.

 

I think this would do it? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172573933402 (£2 with free delivery)

9 minutes ago, Elliot B. said:

Scan, Newegg, Amazon etc. all charge delivery on something that only cost £2, so I'm better off with eBay.

 

The SATA splitter I think I need: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172709481192 (£2.09 with free delivery)

 

So that would leave me with a spare male SATA power.

 

Now I'm just looking for a SATA female to Molex adapter on eBay UK.

 

I think this would do it? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172573933402 (£2 with free delivery)

I do not see any issue with those selections. 

10 minutes ago, Jim K said:

That would be Molex to SATA power ...

 

So something like...

 

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/6-xclio-sata-power-y-splitter-cable-adapter

(SATA --> 2x SATA)

 

and...

 

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/10cm-akasa-ak-cbpw03-15-15-pin-sata-to-4-pin-molex-adapter-cable

(SATA --> Molex)

 

Should get the job done.

Oh, wrong way, sorry...

4 hours ago, Elliot B. said:

All that comes from the power supply is 4x SATA power male and the 2x connectors for motherboard (24-pin and 4-pin, I believe).

 

I'm struggling to find a SATA power splitter. At the moment, all that comes from the PSU is a SATA power male, so the splitter would be to be male to 2x male. Do you think you could help?

 

The server has a 265W PSU in it. With 3x HDD, 1x SDD and a basic GPU, do you think adding this card and it powering 2x external 2.5" hard drives will strain it a bit?

265w sounds a bit low, ideally a power supply should use up to 80% of it's maximum output (this is to reduce heating/strain and so that as components get older and lose tolerance, the 'lesser' power supply does not overstrain itself). Personally I would change the PSU for another one, and get one that has enough SATA ports with a spare one for the USB card.

I have a random seagate HDD here and it uses 0.72A at 5v and 0.52A at 12v which is 0.72*5 + 0.52*12 = 3.6 + 6.24 = ~10w, so for 5 HDDs that would be about 50w (this ignores that the 5v and 12v rails are separate and have different current limits on the PSU). 80% of your PSU is 212w so your system, GPU and SSD should not be using more than 162w.

1 hour ago, n_K said:

265w sounds a bit low, ideally a power supply should use up to 80% of it's maximum output (this is to reduce heating/strain and so that as components get older and lose tolerance, the 'lesser' power supply does not overstrain itself). Personally I would change the PSU for another one, and get one that has enough SATA ports with a spare one for the USB card.

I have a random seagate HDD here and it uses 0.72A at 5v and 0.52A at 12v which is 0.72*5 + 0.52*12 = 3.6 + 6.24 = ~10w, so for 5 HDDs that would be about 50w (this ignores that the 5v and 12v rails are separate and have different current limits on the PSU). 80% of your PSU is 212w so your system, GPU and SSD should not be using more than 162w.

These guys say a regular PSU should work fine in the T1600.

 

I don't want to spend a lot on the system as it's only a basic Plex server (hardly even transcodes). No more than £50.

 

Here's my initial research:

 

eb_srvrpsus-2.thumb.png.8cd71ea68c93f4becb2f32f31c2879c6.png

 

 

I'll bulk it out over the next day or two.

1 hour ago, Elliot B. said:

These guys say a regular PSU should work fine in the T1600.

 

I don't want to spend a lot on the system as it's only a basic Plex server (hardly even transcodes). No more than £50.

 

Here's my initial research:

 

eb_srvrpsus-2.thumb.png.8cd71ea68c93f4becb2f32f31c2879c6.png

 

 

I'll bulk it out over the next day or two.

If you want to stick to well-known brands is up to you. I have a corsair, not sure if it's the £35 cp-9020095-uk one on your list but it's similar styled and can recommend that. It has white 80+ certification so it's roughly 80% efficient compared to the 65% one you have now. It has 4 SATA power plugs and 1 floppy, so you will need a floppy power cable to molex, should be pretty easy and cheap to find.

34 minutes ago, n_K said:

If you want to stick to well-known brands is up to you. I have a corsair, not sure if it's the £35 cp-9020095-uk one on your list but it's similar styled and can recommend that. It has white 80+ certification so it's roughly 80% efficient compared to the 65% one you have now.

Thank you for your advice 🙂

 

Updated table:

 

eb_srvrpsus-6.thumb.png.011f54ee95018fe5cda274b31297edc8.png

Edited by Elliot B.

Probably just the cheapest Corsair (the 450w on Amazon for weird-symbol 35)

 

Though I still think you'd do fine with what you have....especially if you're not wanting to spend a lot of money.  The add on card isn't really using that much more power ... probably just drawing 10w off the motherboard (if at all) and using the molex to sip another few watts off of (or being powered solely from the molex).  USB 3.0 2.5 HDD drives use what... 2.5-5watts or somewhere around there.

 

Anyway...I doubt that card ... fully maxed out with 4 2.5 HDDs ... would use more than 15 watts (I couldn't find technical specifications on this card to confirm).

 

Granted ... with the age of the system ... it probably wouldn't hurt anyway to get a new PSU if you can budget for it.  Just my opinion.  🙂 

26 minutes ago, Jim K said:

Probably just the cheapest Corsair (the 450w on Amazon for weird-symbol 35)

 

Though I still think you'd do fine with what you have....especially if you're not wanting to spend a lot of money.  The add on card isn't really using that much more power ... probably just drawing 10w off the motherboard (if at all) and using the molex to sip another few watts off of (or being powered solely from the molex).  USB 3.0 2.5 HDD drives use what... 2.5-5watts or somewhere around there.

 

Anyway...I doubt that card ... fully maxed out with 4 2.5 HDDs ... would use more than 15 watts (I couldn't find technical specifications on this card to confirm).

 

Granted ... with the age of the system ... it probably wouldn't hurt anyway to get a new PSU if you can budget for it.  Just my opinion.  🙂 

Well, in the US, at least, Amazon isn't shipping computer stuff. Unsure about the UK, though.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Google reportedly limited Meta's Gemini access over limited AI compute by Karthik Mudaliar Google is reportedly limiting Meta's use of its Gemini AI models after Meta tried buying more computing capacity than even Google could supply. According to the Financial Times, Google told Meta in March that it could not provide the full Gemini capacity that Meta had requested. This shortfall even disrupted and delayed some of Meta's internal projects. Due to this, Meta even told its employees internally to use AI tokens more efficiently. Meta wasn't the only one to get hit by this sudden refusal by Google; even other customers were affected. But Meta was hit harder because of its unusually high demand for Google's models. The move from Google makes it evident that companies all over are in limited supply of both infrastructure and compute. Alphabet said in April that Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year-over-year to $20 billion in the first quarter, helped by enterprise AI infrastructure and AI solutions. In pursuit of more compute, Meta had earlier signed a multi-billion-dollar AWS agreement as well as a large AMD GPU deal for AI data centers. But the crunch would be short-lived as both Meta and Google have also ramped up infrastructure investments heavily. Meta said in November that it was committing more than $600 billion in the U.S. by 2028 for AI technology, infrastructure, and workforce expansion. In the first quarter of this year, Meta also raised its expected capital expenditure for 2026 to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, citing higher component pricing and additional data center costs for future capacity. However, this doesn't make the company immune to the current dependence on outside suppliers. Meta has also spent many years promoting Llama as an open-weight alternative to closed models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. But if the reported reliance on Google's Gemini models is severe enough for internal work to get impacted, then it looks like even frontier labs and Big Tech aren't fully self-sufficient. Source: Financial Times
    • I like to reminisce about the good old days, way back in autumn 2025 when building a gaming machine was fun and the drives were about $150 when you caught a deal. Yes duh, back in the day we had it gone. Then baby Skynet came along, hiding in AI datacenters demanding more processing power until it reached singularity. End of a not totally fictional story.
    • My experience in the past with older Windows 11 builds was not great on unsupported machines but I recently used Rufus to put the latest build on a older 5th Gen Core Thinkpad T that we upgraded with a SATA SSD and 8GB of RAM four years ago when hardware was reasonable and it seemed pretty fast and solid. Customer is very happy with the performance and will probably get four more years out of that venerable laptop that he loves so much. Another customer just retired his Dell Studio laptop from 2009 running Windows 10. It got an SSD over 10 years ago and did everything he needed it to for 17 years but he also retired last year and is happy doing everything on his iPad now.
    • Apple's newest AirTag 2 gets first big discount by Taras Buria In late January 2026, Apple introduced its second-generation AirTag trackers, bringing a refresh to the old model that has been on the market for half a decade. Now, you can get these new trackers at an all-time low price, thanks to the first big discount that brought the price down by 17% on Amazon. While the second-generation AirTag looks identical to its predecessor, it packs meaningful upgrades inside. The second-gen ultrawideband chip works 50% farther than the original AirTag, allowing you to detect lost items in a wider range. In addition, the second-generation AirTag features an upgraded Bluetooth chip for extended range and a significantly louder speaker (up to 50%) so that you can hear it better when locating a lost item. Note that the second-gen AirTag only works with iPhones and iPads that run iOS/iPadOS 26 and newer, so you need a compatible device to use the tracker. Like the original AirTag, the AirTag 2 is available in two packs: one and four pieces. Both are now available at a notable discount on Amazon, and you can purchase them using the links below. Apple AirTag 2 tracker - $24 | 17% off on Amazon Apple AirTag 2 tracker (four-pack) - $89 | 10% off on Amazon Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S.- specific and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • I've been on Deezer for over a decade, but glad that Tidal joined them in fighting AI slop. Can't stand such takes as Spotify's: "Spotify's CEO recently pushed back against listeners who call AI music "slop," urging people to stop using the term and instead embrace the creative potential of AI music."
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      536
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      267
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!