Help request - 2mSATA drives in P157SM issue

I just received my P157SM tonight and tried to install 2 Plextor 240GB mSATA drives in it like the specs show it can be done. I have had the 2nd drive (under the door below the main hard drive) drop off/not be recognized about 50% of the time I have worked on setting this system up. I know it is that bay because I have moved the mSATA drives back and forth and it is always the one under that door. It will recognize it without an issue, I shut it down to put the screws into the cover to secure it and it will drop off or be on until I try to install Windows and then will then drop off. Is there something I am missing? Is there a BIOS update that fixes this issue or is it one of those "I am sorry, we no longer support 2 mSATA drives on this system and you are SOL on doing that?"

I have emailed my reseller to get their take on it but just wanted to see if anyone else has had this develop upon them and have been able to resolve the issue. This system was ordered about 2 weeks ago and arrived today.

 

That stinks. I plan on using the same mSATA drives in my P151SM1. There was a known issue with early motherboard revisions. I was one of the first few that bought the Clevo P151SM1 (Sager NP8230) so I had probably the earliest possible motherboard revision. I sent mine in for RMA for some other problems as well and asked for a motherboard swap/fix. Should be coming tomorrow afternoon. But I'm not sure if the issue you have is the same. I would figure if you ordered within the last few weeks that you'd have gotten a more recent motherboard revision that fixed this problem.

 

There were some issues with the second mSATA slot dropping connection on the original designs but the newer ones have this fixed. It was a hardware change that fixed it so updating the BIOS wont help. You may want to ask your reseller if they have the original ones or the revised ones.

 

Yeah Clevo has had some main board revisions, so chances are you need the newer system board.

 

The system shipped directly from Sager and their tech support said it might be a compatibility issue (they recommend Crucial and Intel). Other than that, no help.

I cannot go without this laptop right now so I am going to put it in RAID 1 instead of my desired RAID 0 and just live with it in an unhappy manner.

 

I had the exact same problem. If you remove your ram you will see a sticker. On it will say the revision number of the mother board. Anything below version 3.5a has the msata problem. Mine was a 3.1a sui needed replacing. Clevo are well aware of the problem.


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What motherboard revision do you have? There's a sticker on the motherboard next to one of the heatsinks IIRC.

I had the 3.1A motherboard revision as well on my P151SM1 (NP8230). I ordered mine some time in June. I sent it in for an RMA to Sager and requested a motherboard swap. It says 3.5A on mine now. I haven't tested the second mSATA port yet though cause the 2nd Plextor 256gb I ordered isn't coming till next week.

 

Mine is a V3.5A. I just looked.

 

When it rains it pours....I just started to get SMART errors on the 1tb hgst drive I had in as a data drive. When it rains, it pours....

 

Okay, it is definitely time to RMA. I put in yet another brand new hard drive and it almost immediately started SMART errors too. Something is really weird with this one.

 

Did you upgrade the RAM, or anything else? Might want to test as stock before doing the RMA. You will need to remove any extra hardware anyway.