DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert

[GeezerMan]

I'm helping out on a problem with a DFI SLI-DR Expert board. I can't get it to hot swap external eSATA drives. If you turn one on while in windows, you have to go to device manager and search for new hardware in order to see the drive. If you turn one off while in windows it sometimes freezes windows. In my personal MSI-7125 board, I can turn on and off my eSATA drive while in windows with no problems at all. One of the features of sata drives is they are supposed to hot swap. Could be a bios setting? The bios on this DFI board is pretty darn intense.
Thanks

 

[aka1nas]

Which SATA controller is the ESATA port hooked up to? I doubt it would work on the Silicon Image controller. If it's on the NF4 controller, do you have a SATA drive hooked up to other port on that pair? I.E., 1&2 and 3&4.

You might need to play around with drivers for the SATA controller. The regular MS drivers probably will not provide hot plug support. I'd recommend using the Nforce Remix off guru3d and nabbing the SATA driver from that.

 

[GeezerMan]

Thanks for the reply. We have 2 eSATA drives going to the sata ports 3 and 4, which are controlled by the NF4 SLI chip. Sata ports 1 and 2 are hooked up, and also on the NF4 SLI chip. Not using any raid. Not using the Silicon Image controller ports at all.

On my MSI board, I'm using the MS sata drivers, and it hot swaps. Of course, every board is different. I'll look into the other drivers.

EDIT: I'm getting forgetful here. It was my old Biostar Tforce board that I did not load the Nvidia drivers due to problems. On my MSI board, I did load the Nvidia drivers, and hot swapping works. We'll load up the nvidia drivers and see what goes.

 

[lopri]

Hot-swap isn't a by-default feature of SATA. I don't think NF4 chipset supports hot swap. (nor NCQ)

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: lopri
Hot-swap isn't a by-default feature of SATA. I don't think NF4 chipset supports hot swap. (nor NCQ)

Well, sata specs say it does support , and my MSI-7125 board, based on the NF4 Ultra chipset has been doing hot swapping just fine. I loaded the Nvidia drivers into the DFI SLI-DR Expert OS, and bingo! Hot swapping there too now.