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Inspiron 531 SATA problem when added new HDD
Hi,
This motherboard has 4 SATA connectors but only the first two seem to work. The connectors are SATA 0,1,2, and 3.
When I added a new HDD I had to plug it into Sata 1 to get it to work. Sata 2 would not see the drive. The drive is
working fine but my CD drive, plugged into SATA 2, is not longer working. It is not visible in BIOS.
To Summarize, I have the original HDD plugged into SATA 0 - works fine. I have the new HDD plugged into SATA 1 - works fine.
I have the original CD plugged into SATA 2 - Does not Work, BIOS cannot see it.
thanks, Larry
osprey4
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February 1st, 2010 16:00
Larry:
I have never so much as touched an Inspiron 531, but I can assure you that somewhere in the BIOS is a place to turn on/off the SATA ports, LAN, etc. It should be under the advanced menu, either drives or integrated peripherals. There may be an option to enable the ports by two, i.e., one place to turn on SATA 0 & 1, and another to turn on SATA 2 & 3.
All I can suggest is that you keep looking. It shouldn't be this hard.
osprey4
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February 1st, 2010 11:00
Hi, Larry:
Here is the section of your manual on adding drives. Are you sure all three ports are turned ON in the BIOS? It would also be worth checking the connections.
larry12345
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February 1st, 2010 12:00
Hi Osprey, Thanks for getting back to me. I did read the manual section already, there is nothing in there about this issue; I cannot find in BIOS anything about turning on or off individual SATA ports, although I also thought that probably the first two were ON and the second two OFF; and I did replug the connections. So far nothing has worked. I might have to get a little add in card for the SATA. Larry
larry12345
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February 1st, 2010 17:00
Thank you Osprey, Yes you are right I just couldn't see it even though I looked all through each page of setup. It is under Advanced, then Integrated Periperals,
then Serial ATA Config, then SATA Controller, the field was set to SATA-1 and the other options were SATA-1+2 or disabled. So I set it to SATA-1+2. Upon saving and rebooting, Windows loaded a new driver for NVIDIA nForce SATA Controller. Rebooted again and all my drive appeared now. Thanks again you made my DAY!!
osprey4
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February 2nd, 2010 05:00
Yeah! Another happy ending.