XPS 14 Ultrabook (L421x) SATA II or SATA III?

Hi Arstocker,

     The SATA III spec 6Gb/s was released 3 years prior to the release date of your XPS14. The Spec. Sheet doesn't indicate properly that it''s SATA II or III but I'd bet dollars to donuts if it's sold as SATA III it's supported. If you Right Click on Computer and select manage and then pick Disk Management  you may simply need to initialize the SSD from there. If this screenshot is from your PC with the Drive installed, your computer knows the drive exists, you just have to convince the operating system it's there. If this answer helped please remember to click the YES button and if you need further assistance don't hesitate to contact. 

Here's the link to you XPS14 

http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-14-l421x_Reference%20Guide2_en-us.pdf

     Thanks for taking the time to point that out.! That is curious indeed! I'll bring it to one of our contacts employed by Dell. I'll also mention it to the Rockstar team so more people know about this.

Thanks for your reply.  Yes, that screenshot attached is from my laptop after I installed the SSD and the computer recognizes the drive perfectly except Samsung Magician reports that it is not performing at the maximum speed because my laptop does not support SATA III (This can't be accurate).  Like you mentioned, I am also very doubtful that a computer made in 2012 does not support SATA III.

Does anyone here actually works at Dell that would have that information available?

Hi,

After installing bios A16 drives operate at sata II speeds. I downloaded A15 and that fixed the issue.

You simply go to Driver Downloads/Bios chose A16 then click on previous versions and chose A15.

See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/673546-xps-14-ultrabook-owners-lounge-189.html

The question is: How can we let Dell know about this and fix it!  I already had a chat with a technitioan but no case got opened :D

Yes, that did it!  I just downgraded the BIOS from A16 to A15 and now it is reporting SATA III.  Thank you very much!

 Now Dell just needs to fix the latest BIOS update....

Weird indeed!

How's the progress going? It's now April 10, 2014 and it would be nice for Dell to release a new Bios update to fix the Sata III problem that exists with Bios 16.

Is there truly no update on this problem??? Please advise! :)

Although suggesting a downgrade to a previous BIOS is a temporary fix to enable SATA3, it is not a solution to this problem.

Is Dell no longer going to support this laptop? It's been almost two years since the release of this faulty BIOS update and no solution has been provided.

Do you really expect more from Dell?  I did,  once....

I even called them, talked to support, insisted on raising a case, ticket number.... This is how far we got in 2 years... NOTHING.  v16 of fw says: speed improvements...  from 6gb/s to 3gb/s .. the DELL way.

There is an old saying: trick me one shame on you, trick me twice shame on me...

Since than I never buy/recomend Dell.

I have the same problem. Is there other solution instead of downgrade the bios?