1645 eSATA Problem

I've been searching this and other forums for discussions regarding problems with the eSATA port on XPS 16's and I'm not finding much (found some with the XPS 13, which I don't have).

The drives that I'm plugging into the eSATA port are locking up or running reeeeeeally slowly. I first tried a WD DVR Expander. I was unable to get it to work at all on the 1645. But it worked fine attached to my desktop XPS 420's built-in eSATA. So I returned the drive.

Now I'm trying a LaCie Rugged All-Terrain 500GB eSATA/USB2.0 hard drive (model 301905) and it's doing the same thing. I also picked up an ExpressCard 2-port eSATA adapter (Sil3132), and the drive works fine attached to that.

My 1645 is dual boot: Win 7 Pro, 64-bit and Win XP Pro, 32-bit. I have the same problems booting either OS.

I booted to the diagnostic partition with the LaCie drive attached and ran diagnostics on the eSATA drive. It ran for many hours with zero errors. (I didn't know the 1645 could get so hot -- especially the frame!) So it doesn't appear to be a hardware issue.

I suspect it's an issue with the BIOS (I have A11) or with Intel's RST driver (I'm using the latest version: 9.6.0.1014, but the problem also happened with the previous version, 8.9.0.1023).

I chatted with Dell Support and they observed the problem remotely and scheduled to have the motherboard replaced. I told them I didn't think that was going to fix it, since the diagnostics found no problems with the hardware, but I'm willing to try anything. So the motherboard was replaced today and now, as suspected, the problem is still occurring.

I did read something somewhere (can't find it now) talking about how SATA I devices were working, but SATA II devices were having problems. But I can't find this now and I'm not sure which computer was being discussed. I don't have any SATA I devices to test the theory with.

Since I'm not finding any discussions from others with the problem, I don't know what to make of this. Can anyone confirm that their eSATA port works great (or doesn't) with various hard drives? And how should I pursue this with Dell Support?

Thank you very much!

 

I use my eSATA with a 1TB external drive, no problems (with BIOS A09 and A11). For you, it might actually be a bad motherboard, you'll never know unless you let them try to fix it.

 

Well they did replace the motherboard yesterday. I tested the port again with the technician still there and the problem is not fixed.

But thanks for letting me know you're not having the problem. That's good to know (although I still don't know what the problem is).

Can I ask why brand and model of eSATA drive you're using?

Thanks!

 

It's an acomdata brand external with a 1TB Samsung HD103 HDD inside. I used it to transfer data from my old laptop, 250GB worth of stuff transferred in just minutes with eSATA, much faster than using USB.