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    7805u Esata

    Discussion in 'Gateway and eMachines' started by SirCheese, Apr 21, 2009.

  1. SirCheese

    SirCheese Newbie

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    I am trying to use a Thermaltake Black Widow which has a ESATA and USB connection, the USB works fine but I can't seem to get the ESATA working, I checked the BIOS but I see nothing regarding this in there? Any ideas of what might be wrong? If you need anything, please let me know! I am trying to recover the data off the drive and while the USB works, I hope it will be faster using ESATA

    Thanks in advance! :)
     
    SirCheese, Apr 21, 2009
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  2. DonDerham

    DonDerham Notebook Enthusiast

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    As far as I know the ESATA connection doesn't provide power or at least not much. What's the purpose of the "Black Widow"?
     
    DonDerham, Apr 21, 2009
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  3. Tybalt39

    Tybalt39 Notebook Evangelist

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    OK, I'm confused...

    On the ThermalTake website the Black Widow is an ATX power supply. Is this what you have? If so, how does this relate to the laptop?
     
    Tybalt39, Apr 21, 2009
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  4. hydra

    hydra Breaks Laptops

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    He's talking about the 3.5/2.5 sata drive dock which is used for bare drives, no case needed..great if you switch several drives or trouble shoot.

    The dock also allows full esata speeds, unlike my three interface cases.

    Cheese, make sure your cable fully engages the laptop port, mine was defective..too short; but Thermaltake quickly replaced cable.
     
    hydra, Apr 21, 2009
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  5. JohnWhoTwo

    JohnWhoTwo Notebook Deity

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    So, if it is a drive "dock" then it has it's own power supply?
     
    JohnWhoTwo, Apr 21, 2009
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  6. DonDerham

    DonDerham Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm using an ESATA device that require power from USB. The manufacturer explicity stated that when hot-plugging the device to plug it in on the ESATA side first and then the USB side. Otherwise the laptop recognize it as a USB device.
     
    DonDerham, Apr 21, 2009
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  7. SirCheese

    SirCheese Newbie

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    Yes, it has a power cord, and the light and all does come on, just never seems to pick up that's connected, the USB works fine though.
     
    SirCheese, Apr 21, 2009
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  8. SirCheese

    SirCheese Newbie

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    I will most certainly check into the cable issue, the thing is a few days old so I can always return it if needed and swap it out. I will see if I can test it on another computer as well just to make sure :)

    Also, on the cable thing, I do notice it doesn't make a solid connection, it's pretty lose
     
    SirCheese, Apr 21, 2009
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  9. JohnWhoTwo

    JohnWhoTwo Notebook Deity

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    I've not used an eSATA drive, but shouldn't it be plugged in prior to turning on the PC? (Not like a USB drive which can be "hot swapped")
     
    JohnWhoTwo, Apr 21, 2009
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  10. SirCheese

    SirCheese Newbie

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    Tried that too, didn't help. So it's either, the cable or the port at this point :mad:
     
    SirCheese, Apr 21, 2009
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  11. JohnWhoTwo

    JohnWhoTwo Notebook Deity

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    Is it showing up in BIOS when you do it this way?
     
    JohnWhoTwo, Apr 21, 2009
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  12. Tybalt39

    Tybalt39 Notebook Evangelist

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    I recall various folks mentioning that some eSATA cables don't fit "all the way in" the Gateway connector. As you mentioned the connection is loose, could the connector not be fully engaged?
     
    Tybalt39, Apr 21, 2009
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  13. Tybalt39

    Tybalt39 Notebook Evangelist

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    I recall another conversation along these lines... :D
     
    Tybalt39, Apr 21, 2009
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  14. JohnWhoTwo

    JohnWhoTwo Notebook Deity

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    It would help if he tried the eSATA drive on another PC, too.

    Then we'd know whether it is the Notebook or the drive bay.

    I bought an HD enclosure with USB/eSATA and only the USB side worked. Replacing the electronics resolved the issue.
     
    JohnWhoTwo, Apr 21, 2009
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  15. SirCheese

    SirCheese Newbie

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    I am going to see about getting an ESATA pcmcia type of card, to see if that works, will do that by the weekend hopefully
     
    SirCheese, Apr 22, 2009
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  16. pmassey31545

    pmassey31545 Whats the mission sir?

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    I've got an e-SATA port(obviously) and have had no issues with mine. Got an ext drive that Does require ext power to operate. Both the power and the e-SATA have to be plugged in, but you said you did that. But I made a cable to run it off USB power and it works fine. My drive has three plugs-power, mini-USB and e-SATA. Is yours the same? Intel Matrix picks it up every time. Hope you figure it out.
     
    pmassey31545, Apr 22, 2009
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  17. SirCheese

    SirCheese Newbie

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    Just USB and ESATA, but as someone said, it may be that the cable is just not making a good connection to the port, hopefully that's all it is :)
     
    SirCheese, Apr 22, 2009
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  18. Big Mike

    Big Mike Notebook Deity

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    I'd bet Tybalt's correct, frequent problem with this laptop is that many ESATA cables don't seat all the way (laptops fault not the cables really, the port is recessed too far into the laptop). You can fix it by trimming the cable, though you might not want to do that if you aren't positive the dock works correctly since you wouldn't be able to return it then. I've seen pictures of where people were able to trim some of the plastic on the connector to get it to seat in all the way. The cable that came with my external enclosure fit without modification so there are cables out there that will work. Just depends on how much of a shoulder the cable has.
     
    Big Mike, Apr 22, 2009
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  19. SirCheese

    SirCheese Newbie

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    Now, that's another question I did have, what am I looking for specifically in the BIOS? Aint much going on there :mad:
     
    SirCheese, Apr 22, 2009
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  20. lt_wentoncha

    lt_wentoncha Newbie

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    lt_wentoncha, Apr 28, 2009
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  21. JohnWhoTwo

    JohnWhoTwo Notebook Deity

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    It should, lt_wentoncha.

    Let us know once you get it, OK?
     
    JohnWhoTwo, Apr 28, 2009
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  22. lt_wentoncha

    lt_wentoncha Newbie

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    Hmm, does anyone know if the SATA controller supports hotswapping?

    TYIA
     
    lt_wentoncha, Apr 29, 2009
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  23. JohnWhoTwo

    JohnWhoTwo Notebook Deity

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    I don't believe it does because SATA/eSATA is recognized early by the BIOS.
     
    JohnWhoTwo, Apr 29, 2009
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  24. Big Mike

    Big Mike Notebook Deity

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    It supports plugging in a drive while running, but I haven't found a way to "safely remove" the drive once its plugged in. I heard there was a work around for this in Vista but I didn't bother tracking it down. It sounded like it was sort of kludge anyways.
     
    Big Mike, Apr 30, 2009
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