The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    W860cu internal SATA port ( SATA3 and 4 )

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by bekkra, Oct 1, 2010.

  1. bekkra

    bekkra Guest

    Reputations:
    8
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I was thinking about adding an SSD drive to the internal, unmounted, connector J _SATA1, which the W870CU uses for its internal second hard drive and optical drive.

    The power connections (GND, 3.3 V and 5 V ) worked just all right, but I failed on making the computer detect the SSD. At least that was how it appeared, since when I booted from an external drive and only the extra SSD connected, Linux saw only the boot drive.

    I wonder if anybody has information about how the unused SATA ports can be used. I certainly hope that I failed because of my own shortcomings, rather than because this is not possible in the way I expected it.

    Anyone ?

    //
     
    bekkra, Oct 1, 2010
    #1
  2. 5482741

    5482741 5482741

    Reputations:
    712
    Messages:
    1,530
    Likes Received:
    17
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Could it be that the BIOS doesn't recognize the port?

    I've heard the W870CU's BIOS can be used on the W860CU. Perhaps that would allow it to be recognized.
     
    5482741, Oct 1, 2010
    #2
  3. bekkra

    bekkra Guest

    Reputations:
    8
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    The SATA port listing in the BIOS has four entries.
    W870cu uses the port J_SATA1 for two devices; a hard drive and the optical drive. I guess that the port that the W860cu uses for its optical drive is not used in the W870.

    Yet, my W860cu, which is loaded with W870CU firmware, detects and uses the W860CU ODD port. For this reason, and because the BIOS setup lists four SATA ports, I expected the drive to be present.

    The most obvious source of error would be wrong SATA wiring of course. All I could do was to read the schematics in the technical manual and add cables at the critical points. But I still wonder - is there some other catch with this idea ?

    //
     
    bekkra, Oct 3, 2010
    #3
  4. bekkra

    bekkra Guest

    Reputations:
    8
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Embarrassing ...

    I forgot to read about the nature of connecting SATA devices. It seems that, just like many other serial connections with direct host-to-host configuration, the devices connect to each other's ports in complementary mode. This is very logical, yet I failed to realize it, despite who knows how many ol' terminal cables I have wired and used over the years.

    So:
    Device A Rx -> Device B Tx, and
    Device A Tx -> Device B Rx

    The sad thing is that I won't have the time to rip my computer apart again for the next week or so.

    I will return to tell about this application of rocket science: connect wire to pin X, and solder it to pin Y. Repeat 10 times.

    I'm still blushing...

    //
     
    bekkra, Oct 5, 2010
    #4