Acer 6930G USB/eSATA Port question.

Quick question about the Acer 6930G's USB/eSATA Port.

Is this port actually able to be used as a USB without any problems(such as for a USB mouse)? Now for the stupid part of the question, once its used for a USB device will I have any trouble using it for an eSATA device later on? Basically wanted to make sure using it as one doesn't lock it into being one specific type of port permanently.

Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been answered before, I searched and couldn't find an answer.

 

1) Yes it can be used as a normal USB port

2) No, theres no lock or such, that would be silly.

 

is there a trick to get the e-sata working?

for some reason i cannot get it to detect any sata device..

thanks.

 

such ?? unformatted HDD ?

 

i have tried the following.

120gb hdd formated and working via e-sata on my desktop
i have tried unformated drives hoping windows would detect and reqest a format. i have also tried a few dvd/cd drives and i get nothing at all.

does the e-sata port show as a seperate device in device manager?

thanks for the help.

 

Try plugging it in, powering the drive and restarting the computer.

 

I believe thats the spot , that our friend probably miss out .

eSATA is unable to power up the devices ..
External small PSUs are used for such tasks .

 

already tried it,

and of course i had the drive powered im not thick lol.
the drives all work perfect on my desktop using the esata so i know the problem lies with the laptop somewhere.

looks likt the port must be faulty. well unless anybody got anytoher ideas i guess im taking it back again..

 

Well if you have try everything , the last thing that I would check , would be any power saving restrictions .

By the same way that ACER emporium power manager , controls with soft power on , WiFi - BT - my PCMCIA slot - Lan port ... could possibly yours, to controls eSATA Port too .

 

ill give it a try. i dont have the acer oem stuff installed i have a fresh install of vista ultimate on it, but i will check the power saving stuff. if no luck then i will restore the oem install and try again,

thanks for the ideas guys.

 

hi..

ok i have tried all the suggestions but still cannot get anything to detect on the esata port.

i cannot find any specific drivers for the esata or any specific devices in device manager.

i have tried both the oem install and a fresh install with drivers from acer site.

everything else works fine. the usb side of the port is working too just not the esata

i tried powering the drive then rebooting and no difference.


all out of ideas now.

 

ok guys..

Problem solved.

it seemes the problem was the rubber protection on the esata cable.
when it was inserted i noticed it was hitting the side of the laptop so i cut it back as far as i could, it then went in much further that it could before.

attached the hdd and did a device scan and nothing.
rebooted and windows found and installed new hardware.. YAY..

disconnected the hdd and connected up another drive and device scanned..
found and installed... SORTED>.

gonna reboot now with no hdd attached and see if it will still find the hdd once booted, i dont think it will.

my theroy is because its a dual use port they disable the esata port unless a device is detected on boot.

but even if this is the case its not a problem.

thanks guys.


ok confirmed.
with no device attached at boot you get no access to the port.
device attached at bootup and you have full hot plug&play access to the port.


thanks again guys.

 

Take care .. nice find .