eSata and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L

[techiedork]

Hey Everyone,
I just recently built my system using a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. Everything is great except for the fact that I cannot get eSata to seem to work.

Sata is working fine, and if I connect the drive that I am trying to use externally to an onboard Sata controller, it works. If I put in in a case and connect it via USB2.0, it works fine. When I put it in a Sata case and try to connect it via an eSata connection, I get nothing.

Do I need to enable eSata on this mobo? I can't find anything that would allow me to do that. Any help you be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

-David

 

[driftwood07]

this may be a stupid assumption , but are you using a power source for the hdd when using e-sata?

 

[techiedork]

haha...no problem. Yeah, I am using a power source. When I am trying to run it eSata, it is in a powered case.

 

[techiedork]

Hmmmm....ok, so BIOS is seeing the eSata drive. I can boot the system up with it connected and turned on and it works, but I cannot hot-swap this drive. Any ideas why this might be?

Thanks,
David

 

[edcarman]

Are you saying you can see and access the drive in your OS, but don't get on option to 'Safely Remove Hardware'?

If so, it might have something to do with your write caching setting for the drive.

In XP, go to the drive properties and go to the 'Hardware' tab.
Select the drive and click 'Properties'.
Go to the 'Policies' tab. There will be two options: 'Optimize for quick removal' and 'Optimize for performance'. Change this setting and see if anything happens.

 

[techiedork]

Hi edcardman...
Thanks for the reply. It is really strange. I can see and access the drive in Vista only if I boot up with it connected and turned on. If I turn it on after Vista has booted, I don't see it.

So, granted it is turned on and connected when I boot, I can see and access it, but I don't get the 'Safely Remove Hardware' option in my systray.

Also, when I go into properties, the Optimize for quick removal and Optimize for performance radio buttons are greyed out, so I cannot change them.

I guess this is an OS problem and not hardware? Any ideas why Vista is doing this?

Thanks for the help!

-David

 

[Old Hippie]

Because you don't have AHCI enabled, you won't have the hotswap for eSATA. If you're running Vista, it should have loaded the AHCI drivers.

If that's the case, there should be a place in the BIOS to enable AHCI or some kinda SATA mode. I'm not familiar with your board's BIOS options enough to walk you thru it.

The other way to enable eSATA, is to buy a cheapo PCI eSATA controller card.

Good Luck!

 

[jcmuse]

im pretty sure the ds3l doesnt have ahci.. i have the same issue.

 

[techiedork]

So I reinstalled Vista with AHCI enabled...it worked for a little bit...sort of...until it updated the AHCI driver...then it stopped working again.

What a pain!!!

If I throw an eSata controller card in there, should I leave AHCI enabled on the mobo, or will it do better with it disabled?

Thanks!

-David

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: jcmuse
im pretty sure the ds3l doesnt have ahci.. i have the same issue.

I think you may be right.

I was laying in bed last night, and wondered if I gave techiedork the correct advice. With Gigabyte's "Alphabet Soup" board numbering system, it's easy to get an old guy, like me, confused.

Let's keep this simple, like me.

The Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L incorporates the Intel ICH9 Chipset. The Intel ICH9R is the one that supports AHCI. I've read articles like this one that, I think, are explaining how to enable it on the ICH9 chipset.

But, we promised to keep this simple!:laugh:

If I throw an eSata controller card in there, should I leave AHCI enabled on the mobo, or will it do better with it disabled

Here's the simple part. I've used two different El cheapo PCI eSATA controller cards in my old Asus 939 board and my new IP35 Pro. Both worked fine for hot swap feature when in IDE mode. Because they are PCI and not PCIe, they are rated as SATA1 and didn't advertise hot swap, but worked just fine. If you wanna be uber sure it'll hot swap, get the PCIe model, or a place with a good return policy.

Mine are both taking up closet space, and if you were around the corner, I'd sell ya one!

Simple route, put your machine back to IDE, and buy a card. :thumbsup:

I'm sorry if I screwed ya up TechieD.

 

[techiedork]

HAHA....thanks Rick...I appreciate the help.

I ordered a cheap (well, a total of $6 for shipping...the card is free after rebate) eSATA PCIe card...I will throw it in the system when it arrives and hopefully call it a day!

So I will put it back to IDE...in order to get it to AHCI, I had to reinstall Vista...will I need to do the same to go the other direction, or should I just disable AHCI, uninstall the SATA drivers and have it reinstall at boot?

ALSO, will there be much of a performance difference between running a SATA drive through an eSATA connector routed directly to the mobo compared to running it through a PCIe eSATA card?

Thanks again for all the help! I am looking forward to putting this one to bed and finally get my case closed back up and tucked into it's corner!!!


-David

 

[Old Hippie]

I don't think you'll have to uninstall anything. In the BIOS, just set it to IDE/IDE emulation, or what ever you have in the BIOS. They all seem to have different options. Check your manual.

ALSO, will there be much of a performance difference between running a SATA drive through an eSATA connector routed directly to the mobo compared to running it through a PCIe eSATA card?

My speed tests said "no".

I ordered a cheap (well, a total of $6 for shipping...the card is free after rebate) eSATA PCIe card...

You did good! Mind posting the link for others in your situation?

HAHA....thanks Rick...I appreciate the help.

Even a blind squirrel find a nut once in a while! :laugh:

 

[techiedork]

Hey Rick....

On my BIOS, I have an AHCI Enable/disable. Would turning that off put me back into the IDE mode you are suggesting? That is the only change I made in BIOS.

For anyone interested, here is the card from Newegg with the rebate....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...32010&Tpk=esata%2bcard

Only has 2 ratings, and it doesn't seem stellar....but what do you expect for free! If it lets me connect and remove a hot-swappable drive and reads it, I will be THRILLED!!!! :-D

Thanks again for the help!!!

-David

 

[Old Hippie]

On my BIOS, I have an AHCI Enable/disable. Would turning that off put me back into the IDE mode you are suggesting?

I'd say that's a winner!

Thanks for the link!

 

[techiedork]

Hey Rick....
I got this message from the tech at Gigabyte:

"hello, P35-DS3L using Intel ICH9 chipset it is not hot swap capable support , hot swap support need ICH9R chipset. ICH9 not support hot swapping , advantage of AHCI in Vista is transferate will function as SATA mode.""

So, does this mean I should keep AHCI enabled for a faster transfer rate, or disable it and run the eSATA from the card?

Thanks!

-David

 

[Old Hippie]

hello, P35-DS3L using Intel ICH9 chipset it is not hot swap capable support , hot swap support need ICH9R chipset. ICH9 not support hot swapping , advantage of AHCI in Vista is transferate will function as SATA mode.""

I knew there'd be trouble! :laugh:

Ok Dave, are you ready for a little simple learnin'?

Read about AHCI here. Notice the first line that states.......

The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a hardware mechanism that allows software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices such as host bus adapters which are designed to offer features not offered by Parallel ATA (PATA) controllers besides higher speeds, such as hot-plugging and native command queuing.

I've never heard of enabling 1/2 of an AHCI mode as Gigabyte is suggesting.

If you can figure a way to leave AHCI enabled, more power to ya. Somewhere in your BIOS to switch from IDE emulation to SATA mode? Write them back and ask how to do it? Maybe someone here has more knowledge? Look in your manual?

Second question was about the SATA transfer rates. Read about SATA here.
SATA comes in two flavors. SATAI (1.5Gb/s) and SATAII (3.0GB/s). Our newest super duper fast drives, barely go fast enough to meet our old standard (PATA, 133MB/s), much less a new one. Running in SATA mode (AHCI enabled) does allow the drive's "burst transfer rate" to increase....but you'll never know the difference.

So there ya have it in a simple nutshell.

 

[Modelworks]

I have ahci enabled on this board and it works fine in both linux and vista.
I don't do the external drive thing so I can't speak to that.
The main reason I have it enabled is because NCQ is only supported with ahci.

With it enabled on boot, you should see the regualr bios messages then it should switch to a screen with Intel xxx ahci , and then it should detect the sata drives.
If you look at them in the bios after it finishes the intel screen, they are listed as scsi devices.

I'm not sure whats going on with the intel site saying this boards chipset doesn't support ahci, because the bios, vista, linux, say it does.
In device manager it shows as:
Intel(R) ICH9 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 2923

 

[Old Hippie]

Modelworks, we hafta be getting balled-up on our definations somewhere.

Notice the quote above from Wikipedia where it says .......

The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a hardware mechanism

We're not taking parts in and out of the controller, but we are enabling some modes of an ACHI controller.

Maybe we are enabling/disabling features of a AHCI controller, without actualling having a hardware AHCI? This scenario would fit with Gigabyte's response.


This is getting a little beyond the simple stuff that I promised Dave. :laugh:



BTW Dave, I posted your eSATA controller find in Hot Deals. :thumbsup:

 

[Modelworks]

After reading the ich9 docs , the basic ICH9 does indeed have hardware AHCI.

Under AHCI its listed as No, Note 4.

Notes:
4. ICH9 Base provides hardware support for AHCI functionality when enabled by appropriate system configuration and software driver


It doesn't support some features of the specification and because of that, Intel marked it as not compliant.

Really the only things I see that it doesn't support is Hot Plug.

So instead of completely disabling AHCI in the chipset, gigabyte enabled AHCI and lets the driver decide what to support for the os installed. Its still run in hardware, so its not emulated in any way.

 

[Old Hippie]

Then....maybe the "R" is for RAID?

I dunno. I gotta go clean the fish tank before they croak Nitrate exposure. :laugh:

But, I'lllllll be back!