eSata and m860tu

Hi,

I am about to buy an external harddrive and wanted to hear about peoples experiences regarding use of the eSata interface on the Clevo m860tu.

I have read about several problems around the internet and would like to hear if anyone has suceeded in using the eSata interface.

If so, I would like to hear what external harddrive was used and at which transfer rate mb/s it reached on the m860tu.

If any special driver/bios updates were used, please mention them in your replies.

 

It works fine on mine, but disconnection always gives me event log errors (even though nothing's in use/no handles attached to the drive, disconnected properly, set for quick removal, etc), which may be an issue with the XP and esata. The external eSata drive also pauses my system about 5 seconds while it connects (pause on the internal hard drive) which is probably XP's drivers (not that I found anything better) or the nature of eSata using the same controller. It could also be the eSATA chip on the external, but I haven't run into any enclosures that don't use the JMicron chipset (although mine was listed as another chipset, it turned out to be JMicron).

I'm using an AMS esata external, WD 1TB green drive. 33-36C temps, 82-91MB/s max (55-60MB/s min).

 

Just remember that Esata does not supply power to the drive like USB does and you will have to plug in a seperate power cable.

 

I haven't tried it in a while but I have a Seagate 750GB external with usb and esata options and when I last tried it on Esata, it was very unresponsive and not practical at all.

I will try again sometime soon and see how it goes. Maybe its just the hard drive.

 

I'm currently using my eSata port as a regular USB 2.0 port and it has no problems in supplying power to my 2.5" external hard drive. What's with it supplying power to the devices connected to it? Or will it not supply power to eSata devices only?

 

Isnt the Esata Port a little different thatn USB, I didnt know you could plug a USB into it?

USB2 provides power to devices, but its on a seriel setup (shared power). You plug another USB2 power device in and it will cut the power to the other by a percent. You do not want that to happen with HDDs when working with them. Thats why it you plug in your HDD array or whatever to external power when hooked to e sata.

 

You could plug a USB device to an eSata.

Regarding shared power, I don't think it's like that, I know for a fact that the USB is a serial interface but what is shared is the BUS itself which means many devices connected will decrease the speed of each USB port but the power still remains the same for the ports in the laptop. Set as an example my M860TU which has three USB ports and one eSata port, I could connect 4 2.5" external HDDs with all of them working at the same time.

This is not the case with USB hubs since that is where shared power comes in.

 

Yea, I think eSATA devices require more power, hence they have to be connected to an outlet.

Yes, the eSATA port on the M860TU serves as a USB port as well.

Yea, I think that's right, kevin. You can plug multiple USB devices into one USB port but the power draw through the port will be higher. The voltage across each USB device should be the same (5V I think).

To the OP: I read somewhere that the eSATA on the M860TU works better on Vista; better drivers maybe?

Duane

 

Ok, I just used the Esata cable and my Freeagent Pro hard drive on another laptop we recently got that has an Esata plug. Never before have I been able to test it on another system.

This thing is a budget Toshiba, 14" and like $800 at Best Buy. When I tried the Esata on it (it has Windows Vista as well as my m860tu) and did a HD Tune speed check on it, it ran as fast and even more consistently than the internal hard drive on the laptop itself (which was a 5400rpm).

Now you have me with the m860tu, 7200 rpm hard drive, Windows Vista 64 and 32, and when I put in the Esata cable, unresponsive and highest speed is about 0.1

C'mon! The USB speed for this drive is about 4 times slower than my internal hard drive and I need to suffer because for some reason my m860tu is not accepting the Esata and making it as slow as hell.

Does anyone have a direct contact for Clevo? Perhaps this could be something that could be fixed in the next BIOS revision, instead of just making revisions to support more graphics cards.

 

Update: Apparently it was the M860TU's (Intel's) motherboard drivers that causes glitches/freezes/bad disconnects with my esata drive. New Intel Matrix Storage drivers (3/13/09) fixed it all!

So: 1) Update the motherboard/sata drivers, 2) make sure you're in AHCI/SATA mode (if running XP, Vista supports this off the bat)

And yeah, my WD Green drive runs about 50% faster than the internal 5400rpm (this HDD's rated in between a 5400 and 7200rpm, but much cooler/less energy used).

 

Anytime I install anything to do with Intel Matrix Storage my system gets a BSOD on Vista startup. It tells me, 'the RAID has not been properly configured' or something like that (in the Intel Matrix Storage program). I initially was thinking it was the turbo memory I have but I'm thinking there might be more to it than that now. I don't even deal up RAIDs and those sort of things so I wouldn't know the first place to start with that.

 

That's pretty odd; are you running in Vista/AHCI mode? (Bios settings)

 

Yes, I am. I checked and its on Vista and AHCI mode. Here is a picture of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager when I open it, then if I were to restart the computer, that's it, BSOD on the Vista Loading screen and then system restart to fast for me to see anything in an infinite loop. Could I see a picture of what you see as well so I can show my suppliers and see if it could actually be something up with my system.

 

@Deathwinger

We have the same EDGE laptop, I just updated my Intel Matrix Manager a couple of minutes ago without any issues, just fyi

 

Hmmm, I'll be calling PCMW tomorrow and see if can assist me in this problem.

Kevin, would you mind taking a picture of what your Intel Matrix Storage Console looks like once you first open it so that I have a comparison?

If they cannot help me, then I guess I'll be making good on my Diamond Customer Policy. (Hmm, maybe I should wait til the 260m GTX come out)

 

Here you go:



Are you also having a hard time calling PCMW? I was trying to call them last Friday and I was on hold for about 1.5 hours without anyone answering the phone! I was really pissed then.

I also have the Diamond Protection Package, when the GTX 260M comes out what benefits will we get with our warranty program?

 

You can also download the non .exe version of the Intel Matrix Storage drivers, extract that, and point your SATA controller (device manager) to that location and tell it to locate. See if that works.

Is that image an image of you updating drivers, Deathwinger? It looks like you're trying to run the Intel Matrix Storage CONSOLE program, not the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, which is what updated SATA drivers. When I update my SATA drivers I get a "Intel Installation Framework" window (is this an XP/Vista difference?)

I've never run the Console.... I run the Manager, update SATA drivers, reboot, and yank out any Intel programs that load themselves upon boot

 

Well, the console is the only icon that's under the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager" under program files of windows vista x64.

 

Thanks for the picture kevin, and no I haven't waited that long. Normally after 4 minutes I hang up and recall, that usually works.

And Tar, can you give me a URL on where to find this non exe version of this matrix storage drivers, because whenever I do a search I reach to the storage console download.

 

But it's not needed to update the drivers at all. In fact, all of the Intel Matrix Storage programs (two run) are useless and unneeded; I assume they're buggy as well from the above screenshot.

I'm not sure how the Console giving a RAID plugin error is related to eSATA issues, so I'll just state again what I found: the 3/13/09 drivers from Intel significantly improve eSATA support and performance. I had a 5 second freeze/pause upon connecting eSATA devices, incorrect removal of eSATA devices, odd speed issues - all fixed.


Link:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101 -> pick OS -> very first link, 'Intel Matrix Storage Manager' (3/13/09, link below is the previous version) is the .exe. Scroll down to "32-bit Floppy Configuration Utility (197KB)" and download that and extract it to a folder. Point device manager's listing for your SATA controller (ICH9EM, or similar, I forget ) and click update from location.

Isn't that a great name for Intel to use for the drivers? the "32 bit floppy utility" is just the files extracted, without an auto-installer! Dummies, Intel! (er, use 64-bit choice/versions if that's what you're running).

 

It's meant for you to put on a floppy disk so that you can install windows xp in ahci mode

 

Yes, because enabling AHCI in Windows XP will lead you to a BSOD if XP is not installed using a floppy disk with those files.

 

And you can use it to update drivers from device manager's update option, instead of running the installer.

 

Yup, so either way Intel's done a good job on naming the files to be downloaded

 

Yep, geniuses! It's like they don't want you to update your drivers and just buy a new motherboard.... that can't be it

Anyway, that might work for updating, good luck.

 

Alright. I tried updating the drivers with the 64bit version and same results. BSOD on the starting of the system. I honestly don't know what I am doing wrong so I'm just going to do my last resort.

Time to write an email providing pictures of two different EDGE laptops experiences and then call them on Monday.

 

Did you remove (add/remove programs) the intel matrix storage drivers already installed in safe mode? Try that.

But yeah, something is wrong and it might be time to yell at them.

 

Yup Tar, I tried that. Same thing.

I am starting to believe this is why my system initially did not come with turbo memory as it was supposed to. Because the testers found this problem as the drivers are installed with the turbo memory as well and decided to just take it out to avoid it.

I would admit that the average user and those not well informed would have had an excellent computing experience non the wiser, but being a video editor and needing the capability that Esata would bring and being very informed on software fixes for the m860tu, these are large bumps in the road for me and I feel like I'm not getting the 100% on this system as was intended.

I sent off the email with pictures and links to all associate files, now to just make that call come Monday.

Honestly, if its something as simple as a hard drive change, it'll take it. If its the whole system, I'll hold off til they get those nice new video cards.

 

OP here,

Thank you for all the replies, I'm glad to hear that at least some of you have positive experiences with the eSata input on m860tu.

 

Well, actually, I think my esata enclosure or latest drivers tend to freeze my system randomly (1-2/day when used heavily - gaming/torrenting a lot). I don't get any event log errors, my ram is ok, I've chkdsk'd everything, updated drivers (including realtek's NIC drivers - of course the new Intel drivers could be causing this too), and the freezes have been recent, since I've used the esata enclosure. I'm fairly sure it's a driver issue in XP and I'm tempted to install Vista to test this; the other alternative is that the esata port (JMicron? what's used on this motherboard? this is the most common/only I've found) is bad and/or low quality.

I actually have avoided using JMicron products for years and years (mostly enclosures - they chips are crap). I haven't found any other company dealing with esata chipsets or enclosures, however, and I have a feeling they're partly to blame with the iffy esata performance all around (i.e. other people's issues - mine seems small compared to other threads).

Note: BIOS 1.0.5/default. That's next in the random freeze issues fixing :/

 

I spoke to CSR's at PCMW and they told me it is a Jmicron chip and it isn't very good in the first place. However, in consideration of my other problems installing the Intel Matrix Storage Drivers, they will send me an expresscard esata (Which most likely will be better than the onboard one) and whenever I'm ready, to send in the notebook for repairs.

But based on your usage and knowledge of JMicron, I think I'll still use the expresscard eSATA.

 

Im getting only .5Mb/s average when I test my new e hdd when im using esata.
I get the usual 35Mb/s when I test it using usb T_T

whyyyyy?

Using Xp and its a Freeagent Drive with the hdd inside from seagate

 

Updated to new Intel Storage Matrix Drivers? (3/13/09s - intel's site)? Rebooted with the drive (not hot plugged it - esata handles that badly). Running in AHCI mode?

 

Enabling AHCI in a system with Windows Vista already installed will result in a BSoD if SATA was configured in IDE mode during Vista's installation. Before enabling AHCI in the BIOS, users must first follow the instructions found at Microsoft Knowledge Base article 922976. This fix also works with the Windows 7 Beta.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Anyway it seems like I got mine working finally Im getting speeds comparable to my internal drive now when I test it with HDtune. I can hotswap too now .

What I would do to get yours working is.

1.Do this registry edit
2.Change your bios to ACHI. I had to change mine from XP mode to Vista Mode.
3.Install the intel matrix mangager.
4. Install any access program that came with the drive (My FreeAgent Xtreme came with one)

After doing all these steps I was getting 82MB/s Max 65MB/s avg and 40MB/s Burst. (Dunno why burst is lower @_@).

I get around 120MB/s on transfers between drives (Loving Awesome <3)

 

That's interesting, and sort of a step back from XP. Good to know! Glad it works. Your SATA internal HDD will also run cooler.

Your burst speed (and access time) is probably due to what hard drive is used in the enclosure - I assume they use 5400rpms or not the best hard drives in Freeagent drives (one piece enclosure+hdd units). Check to see what your hard drive should be at The numbers sound good though.

 

Im pretty sure its a 7200 but Im unsure how to check :\

 

Easiest way to do it is to see what shows up in Device Manager when the enclosure's plugged in (hard drives). Then take the model number, google that, see what shows up. Some new hard drives don't have a manufacturer's RPM speed rating attached to them (example, some new WD drives) because speed is not entirely related to how fast spindles spin with newer gen drives. The only reason to look up the model number, determine rpm and/or normal transfer rates is to see if your drive's performing as it should It sounds like it is, however, but the burst IS low (were you running stuff in the background? a/v? etc).

 

Hi,

I just noticed this thread and maybe I can help you out by correctly installing the Sata interface. I dropped a manual(/howto) in the main M860tu thread a while ago and I think it's usefull here.

[WinXP] Native SATA AHCI support for the ICH9 Chipset

 

So... just a note on my eSATA post (last one in this thread). Ignore it The eSATA is fine; the random freezes were tracked down to video drivers (anything past December or so :/).

 

So yea I still can't get esata to work.

I got frustrated with the fix and reinstalled my OS in ACHI mode.
I have two different brands of drives with the eSata Port. A freeagent and a laCie. Neither are detected in bios at startup. Windows hangs at startup when I try to boot with the drive plugged in. I can hot plug both drives thou.
The system takes almost 5 minutes to detect the freeagent and the LaCie hangs the system for 5 seconds and is then detected. The LaCie drive vanishes from the system after about 10 minutes and must be turned off and on to be detected again. I don't have any idea what to do.

Im using the 1.06Bios and the 1.04 K/ec I believe.
I also have the latest Intel matrix driver installed.

What external drives are you using that works and what bios are you using?
Both drives work fine on usb.


Update its definitely a bios problem as the bios sees it just fine in IDE mode.

 

Try update your BIOS/EC.....