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This section is dedicated to YOU, the ones who use these eMachines day in and day out, who go and find the latest drivers, look for the latest upgrades, who try to make their machine perform at its best. The following posts are comments, from end users, on what you have found out that has worked for you. Since these posts are end user contributions, use the info contained here at your own risk.

07.28.2008

SATA II Help

Problem:

Second Generation Western Digital Serial ATA (SATA II) hard drive not detected by First Generation Serial ATA (SATA I) controller or motherboard.

Solution:

Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives are not detected when connected to a VIA or SIS Serial ATA controller. These First Generation Serial ATA controllers include the following chipsets:

  • VT8237
  • VT8237R
  • VT6420
  • VT6421L
  • SIS760
  • SIS964


Cause:
Western Digital's Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives use autospeed negotiation. This enables our Second Generation Serial ATA hard drives to automatically detect the motherboard data transfer rate, making it backward compatible with First Generation Serial ATA data transfer rates. However, because this technology is so new, some older First Generation Serial ATA controllers are unable to support autospeed negotiation and cannot recognize the drive. This “drive not detected” condition occurs when a chipset is incapable of correctly negotiating the data transfer speed with a Second Generation Serial ATA hard drive.

Resolution:

  • You can purchase and install a third party PCI or PCI-Express Second Generation Serial ATA controller card for your Serial ATA hard drive(s).
  • To lock the drive at 150 MB/s data transfer rate, install a jumper shunt on pins OPT1, shown in the picture below.

OPT1 Enabled:

 

navelgaze

 

 

 

 

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