Is my laptop SATA-capable? (Clevo M40AE)

Hi,

I'm not sure exactly where to ask this, being new and all, but about 2-3 years ago I purchased a Raptor 406Z Reactor (which turns out to be a Clevo M40AE from the model information on the bottom - model B, I think) from Xtremenotebooks.com. I love this computer and I still use it daily, so I'm looking at purchasing a new hard drive. The laptop shipped with a PATA HDD in it, but I'd like to be able to step up to a SATA drive. According to my user's manual, both interfaces are supported, and it even has a page detailing the procedures required to replace the PATA cable with a SATA one. However, I don't have a SATA cable... I've contacted Xtremenotebooks.com, and according to them this model does not support SATA devices and they do not have a cable to sell to me.

How can I confirm whether or not my motherboard supports SATA devices? I'm having a lot of trouble finding technical information on this computer.

Thanks!

(here's other technical information that might be relevant...)

Raptor406Z Reactor
> ----------
> 15" SXGA+ 1400x1050 LCD Display
> ATI MobilityT Radeon® X700 16X PCI-E with 256MB DDR VideoRAM
> NEW! 2.0GHz Intel® Pentium® M "Sonoma" Processor with 2MB On-Die L2
Cache - 533MHz FSB
> 1024MB PC2-4200 533MHz DDR2 (2 DIMM) [$95.00]
> 60GB IDE ATA100 HDD 7200 RPM 8MB Cache
> 8X24X10X24 DVD/CDRW Combo Drive with software (8x DVD/RW available)
> WOW! 12 Cell Smart Li-Ion Battery - Approximately 3.5 Hours of Runtime!
> 110/220V 150W Auto Switching AC Adapter - Included
> Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
> Generic Integrated System Speakers - Included
> Entry Level Black Vinyl Carry Case - Included
> Windows XP Pro SP2 with Drivers and Utilities CD [$140.00]
> Intel® PROWireless 2915ABG 802.11a/b/g - Standard
> Standard 12 Month Parts and Labor Mail-In Coverage
> Internal Bluetooth Wireless Mini PCI
> 4 in 1 Flash Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO) Standard

 

Your reseller would be you main point of contact, but you haven't had much luck with them so far. Have you contacted Sager? They might be able to get the cable for you and might be able to tell you if you motherboard is able to support a SATA drive. I'm not familiar if this notebook had any motherboard revisions or not.

 

Sadly, it will only support ATA hard drives.

 

I haven't contacted Sager. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that I understand Sager's relation to Clevo laptops. Are they another reseller? Are they really going to be interested in helping me if my laptop didn't come from them?

So, if that's true, why does my manual talks about using SATA in like three different places? I thought maybe it was just a generic manual they give out for several different models, but from the specifications mentioned in the manual it would definitely have to be specific to my model. I'm not real familiar with the details of laptop manufacturing or manual documentation, though...
Also, how do you know this? I'm not challenging your creditability (I assume from your forum title that you know what you're talking about!), but do you know where I could get this sort of information for myself in the future?

 

Sorry for the double-post, but I wanted this to get bumped because I have an update. I've contacted Sager about it, and their response was...
"Hi Corey, sager model NP4881 can take SATA hard drive."
After some quick research on their website, the NP4881 is indeed listed as a Clevo M400A/AE. So who do I believe? Can this laptop use SATA HDDs or not? Where am I going to get a cable from? I did ask in my e-mail if Sager would sell me a cable, and the question was completely ignored in their reply.

 

Call them or email them again. If it is still made or if they have one in stock, Sager should be able to get you the cable.

 

Unfortunately whoever at Sager told you the NP4881 could accept SATA hard drives didn't research it first. It cannot support SATA...only ATA.

You can take that to the bank

 

You still haven't told me where you're getting this information from and why my manual specifically says otherwise in three different locations.

I called Sager and they refused to sell me any replacement parts for a laptop that didn't come from them, despite that it's the exact same manufacturer model. I'm a little turned off by that... I've put my original vendor on the job (xtremenotebooks.com) and I'm waiting to hear back from them as they contact their source or whatever to check availability and pricing of the part I requested.

I have to say, I really like Xtremenotebooks.com's phone service. Every time I've ever called them they're always well spoken, polite, and don't seem like they're just trying to run me off the phone - I didn't have such an enjoyable experience from Sager (even after having to call back twice because the person who picked up the phone told me all their technicians were busy).

 

The Pentium M chipset only supported IDE/ATA drives (different names, same type).

You can also tell because you currently have an ATA drive. Since SATA and IDE/ATA use different physical connections, you already have the proof you need...it will not work.

 

If a SATA drive won't work, then it won't work, and I'll accept that. However, I still would really like this cleared up:
http://www.bellsouthpwp.net/C/o/Correction/M40AE_0.jpg
http://www.bellsouthpwp.net/C/o/Correction/M40AE_1.jpg
http://www.bellsouthpwp.net/C/o/Correction/M40AE_2.jpg

What is all of that doing there if what you say is true? I'm sorry if I come across as hard-headed, but I simply don't know who to believe because it seems like I get different answers from everybody I ask.

 

SATA/150 is actually supposed to be backwards compatible with PATA, at least on the software side, according to the following Wiki article and some of the sources cited therein: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA . See, e.g., http://www.sata-io.org/docs/serialata10a.zip (unzip and extract the pdf of the sata 1.0a specifications).

So, at least on the software end, your PATA motherboard should (no guarantees, however) be able to deal with a SATA/150 device; provided you can get the right connectors!

The connectors appear to be the primary problem. In the SATA specifications, notebook hdds can only be configured to take SATA-only connections and cannot be configured to have legacy connections. Instead, you may have to try and shoe-horn in some sort of a SATA-to-PATA bridge, such as the one listed here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=222115&&source=14&doy=19m12

Unless you've got a lot of extra room in your laptop, it's unlikely that the bridge will fit so, it's more likely than not that the SATA compatibility of your M40AE laptop is more theoretical than practical (sort of like the MXM-compatibility issues the D901C is having ).

 

So it's simply there because SATA is designed with backwards compatibility, not actually because my board supports SATA devices? How lame is that?

Oh, well, I've already ordered a pretty nice ATA-6 drive. Thanks for all of your help and input!

 

More likely than not that's the case; however, if you're going to open it up anyway, take a look at the connecting cable and the connector on the motherboard itself to see if it only takes PATA connectors or if it has the ability to take a SATA connector as well. Perhaps if you have a chance, take some good close-in pix of the motherboard connector and post them so the rest of us can give you our (moot) opinions on the topic.

 

I've already taken a look at it. There's only one connector... you can see from the pictures in the manual that both cables look like IDE ribbons, which was a large contributor to my confusion!

 

Who ever said this laptop can't use a SATA hard drives does not know what he's talking about. YES, it can. I have a Sager 4881-V (Clevo M40AE) and a Hitachi SATA 200GB 7200rpm 16MB cache is installed. All I did was buy a SATA cable from Sager. Took five mins. to swap connectors on motherboard.

 

Do you know the part number of the SATA cable?
Or you have just written an e-mail to Sager that you need that cable?
Is the SATA drive much quicker?

 

I would think that since the hard disk controller on the board is designed for PATA hard drives that it would not utilize the SATA disk's advanced features, it'd just be running in a backwards compatibility mode. So there wouldn't be a reason you couldn't use a SATA disk, if you found the right convertor cable, but it may act just like a regular PATA drive of the same specs. That could explain the mixed messages about it working or not working. The laptop isn't designed for SATA drives, but you can connect them with an adapter. Doing so, though, may see little or no benefit. I am just reasoning this out, as I don't have personal experience with this, other than knowing some Clevo models did offer the option of using a convertor cable to get the drive to connect. If Rick says he got it working and he sees the performance difference of having a SATA over a PATA drive, I may just be talking out of turn.

 

In the BIOS there is PATA and SATA available.
So I think it has to support it somehow.
But I've disassambled the back of the notebook and I do not have a clue where to connect a SATA connector.
And I have also written e-mails to Sager that I'm searching for such a connector for the 4881-V but the reply was: it only supports PATA. ((

Rick7620!

Can you please write the part number of the connector???

 

After searching for this cable for more than one year finally I have it.
For all the M400A/M40AE based notebooks there are 2 kind of IDE cable
available:
PATA: 43-M40AI-011
SATA: 43-M40AI-020
See cables.jpg
After changing the cable I was able to install the new Fujitsu 160GB SATA
drive as you can see in bios.jpg