A new xps 9000 arrived approx. one month ago, it is very fast, works great except that the eSATA port does not work with two eSATA external hard drives I have. One is a WD Home 1.5 TB model and the other is a LaCie Q2 Quadra. Both drives work fine in Firewire mode. In fact, the LaCie drive initially worked in eSATA but then stopped. I've had several online chats with Dell Tech Support, including a session during which the tech. took control of the computer and updated the BIOS from A-14 to A-15, and also checked registery settings. As a result of several chats with two different techs the conclusion was that there must be a problem with the motherboard.

Very reluctantly I accepted that recommendation and agreed to the swap. (Frankly, I was not convinced that a new motherboard would solve the problem). Several days before the scheduled swap I again contacted Dell via internet chat and reemphazied that the two external HDs were only certified thru Windows Vista (my computer is a Windows 7 (64 bit) model. The tech. asked me to connect the two HDs to another Win 7 computer and stated that he would call me the next day. I went to a BestBuy where the two HDs were connected to an HP that was running Windows 7 (64 bit) and both worked just fine in eSATA mode.

The Dell tech. did not call at the appointed hour as promised, so the Dell on-site tech came the next day and replaced the motherboard. As expecetd, the two HDs do not work in eSATA mode!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Then remembering that I had recently installed an eSATA PCI card in an old Windows Xp machine, I connected both HDs to it and they both worked fine in eSATA mode.  I did this because both WD and LaCie have advised that their drives only work in eSATA made with specific eSATA controllers

. My thought now is that I should be able to install the same PCI card((PPA Int'l, 3 Port PCI Card) in the xps 9000 with good results, any thoughts will be appreciated.