Apire TC-390 UA91 - SATA power cable replacement

ijon11
ijon11 Member Posts: 6

Tinkerer

I have Aspire TC-390 UA91 and a want to add 3.5" disk drive  to it. On the board there is spare SATA port, but power cable has only one plug for optical drive.  As I understand, i need to replace current power cable with cable 50.VQXD1.007. Where can I buy it in US? Is there any online store who sell this cable?

Answers

  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @ijon11

    At these days, I always suggest people to use 2.5" SATA3 SSD (~550 MB/s) instead of the old style 3.5" spinning HDD (~115 MB/s), unless they are just after storage capacity and don't care about speed.

    Also, people use optical drives less and less because of the 4.7 GB limit and slower speed. That is why many PCs sold now , particularly laptops, do not have a optical drive.

    Have you pulled out the optical drive SATA power connector to see is it the narrow type ( I believe it is 7-pin) or the regular 15-pin type?
    You can get a SATA Y-cable adapter to power two devices with just one connector from Newegg or Amazon, pay attention not to make mistake getting the wrong type for female or male connection.
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Why not use a 3.5 External Floppy Drive.. $20 or so. 
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Excuse my reply as I was thinking 3.5 Floppy Drive. I'm sorry but I'm old. :(
  • ijon11
    ijon11 Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    I have spare 3.5" hard drives and i need one on that computer for storage.
    Unfortunately Acer provided power cable with only one 6 pin slimline connector for optical drive.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @ijon11
    Maybe you can find a 6-pin to to 15-pin SATA power connector ( if they have Y-connector , that will be the best).

    Have you tried to find it ?
  • ijon11
    ijon11 Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    Such adapter will work only with 2.5" hard drives. 6-pin SATA provide only 5V voltage.
    15-pin SATA power connector provides also 3.3V and 12V . 3.5" hard drives need 12V.


  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @ijon11

    Maybe changing the power supply will solve your problem. Good luck !
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer
    There are two different cables Acer provides for these, the 50.VQXD1.006 and 50.VQXD1.007 part numbers. The 006 only have a connector for the ODD, the 007 has both the ODD connector and a HDD connector. So, you have the right info and the part number for the correct part. A Google search shows several vendors that supply the cables, in several different countries. In the US the one I find is IPC-Computer. You might also have luck with Aliexpress or other non-US sites.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • ijon11
    ijon11 Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    It's looks like this cable is almost impossible to get. Is there any service manual for this computer or for the mainboard itself that I can get? Maybe there is a way to find out a pinout and connector type for this? Knowing pinout I would be easy to build similar cable 
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer
    Try a search on "Acer Cable SATA Power", there are a lot of different ones, but the primary difference is the length and where they have one of the smaller ODD connectors on it. Here's the pinout of the motherboard connector, use a meter to verify:

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • ijon11
    ijon11 Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    Great. Thank you.

    In the meantime I found a seller in US who has cable 50.VGND3.001
    I already have it and it works. It doesn't have 6-pin slimline connector for optical drive but instead it has two regular 15-pin sata power connectors for hard drives. If I decided to not remove optical drive, 15-pin to 6 pin sata power adapter is much easier to get.






  • RONCARIOCA
    RONCARIOCA Member Posts: 42 Troubleshooter
    How come ACER support has no knowledge of the existence of those cables ? Talking to support  did not help me all as to how to install a HDD in my TC-390 which only has a measley 512 G SSD.  Is there anyone I can write to there to escalate this issue ? They leave it to the buyer to back engineer info about pin out voltages etc.  ACER never again.
  • ijon11
    ijon11 Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    When I asked Acer support for cable in US, they pointed me to Capital Data USA as spare parts reseller.

    However I never contacted them because I found that cheapest (~10$) and fastest way is to buy similar cable on eBay. It was what i did at the end.
    Just search eBay for:  Acer power hdd odd cable

    If someone is looking for other options. If you have empty PCIe slot, PCIe-M2 NVMe adapter works just fine. It is expensive option, but you can add additional m2 nvme drive. System (Windows, Linux) boots from drive in adapter without any problem.
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Newegg should have anything that you need. 
    https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=sata+cables
  • GonzoX450
    GonzoX450 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    The cable part number is: 50.VQXD1.007

    You will not find it at newgg. Capitaldatausa may have it but they refused to return my voicemail so they will never get my money. And why I will never buy an Acer again.

    You can get the cable where I got it for $25.11 at SourceIT Store and it will ship to you from Canada.

  • GonzoX450
    GonzoX450 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
    edited July 2023

    "Excuse my reply as I was thinking 3.5 Floppy Drive. I'm sorry but I'm old"

    I bet Ebay would have that.

  • GonzoX450
    GonzoX450 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    You can NOT use a standard PSU in these machines. Seems only Acer and Dell use these type of PSUs.

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    There are several manufacturers that use the ATX12VO power supplies, they are required for Intel's EVO branding IIRC. There are a couple of different way they can connect to the the motherboard though. In addition to the 6 pin and 4 pin Acer uses some have a single 10 pin connector.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.