HP Mobo won't recognize SATA ports/drive

Having read the thread "New Mobo not recognizing SATA hard Drive", I am still having issues installing a SATA drive on a HP Pavillion a710 desktop.

The old IDE drive crashed and I am attempting to replace it with a WD 250GB SATA. Upon startup using Partition Magic as a boot CD, it does not recognize the drive and/or SATA ports. More details and things I have already tried:

• Win XP Home (SP3) is already pre-loaded onto the new drive.

• 
  The drive checks out OK when tested on another PC.

• Cables and power to drive test OK.

• In BIOS/Setop, three IDE ports are shown (although only two IDE ports actually exist on the board). Having checked the BIOS settings using both "F1" and "F11", the board won't auto-detect the SATA drive.

• Partition Magic won't detect the SATA drive either

• HP's website is no help at all

The mobo specs (pasted from HP's web site) are as follows:

Motherboard Description Mb manufacturer name: ASUS A7V8X-LA

HP/Compaq name: Kelut-GL6E
CPU Socket A

AMD Athlon XP

Core frequency up to Athlon XP 3200+
Chipset VIA KM400A

VIA VT8237
Front Side Bus (FSB) 400 / 333 / 266 MHz
Memory 2 x 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets

Support up to maximum 2 GB memory (PC manufacturer's maximum memory may differ)

Supports unbuffered PC2700/2100 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory
Expansion Slots Three PCI slots

One AGP 8x/4x (1.5V)
Storage Two UltraDMA 100 IDE connectors

Two Serial ATA connectors
Integrated Graphics VIA UniChrome graphics
Audio Realtek AL658 six-channel AUDIO CODEC

Digital audio via an S/PDIF out interface
LAN Southbridge integrated 10/100 Mbps

VT6103 LAN PHY
Hardware Monitoring Super I/O integrated monitoring of: CPU/chassis fan, MB/CPU temperature

Internal I/O Two USB connectors support additional four USB 2.0 ports

One IEEE 1394 connector for an additional IEEE 1394 port

CPU/chassis fan connectors

20-pin ATX power connector

Front panel connector

CD/AUX connectors

Front panel audio connector
BIOS Features 4Mb Flash ROM

Award BIOS

Enhanced ACPI

DMI 2.0

Green features

PnP features
Industry Standard PCI 2.2

USB 2.0/1.1
Manageability WOL

WOR

Wake on PS/2 mouse

Any ideas on how to solve the issue would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Do you see any of the above on the new sata drive?( they are extra jumper settings (just like slave,master etc on ide drives)

These refer to transfer speed that the hd uses, it is most likely set to fast or opt2... try setting it to opt1 or slow then booting it get anything...

or did i just confuse you?

jerry

 

Thanks for posting the reply.

The only pin option setting stated on the WD drive is to connect the jumper to 3/4 in order to enable PLUS Power Up from standby. I have tried the drive with and without the 3/4 jumper; it won't recognize it with either.

BTW, the original (crashed) drive was running XP Home (SP unknown), so I know it isn't an issue related to Vista.

This is a friend's PC. I may just bite the bullet, buy an EIDE drive and keep the WD SATA for a future PC build. :banghead

 

Yeah from checking around it seems that sata support for that board is Iffy.(it seems to need external support/workaround to work)
I would buy him a cheaper IDE and keep the new one for yourself.

Jerry

 

Thanks. I'm transferring data off an old 60GB Maxtor IDE and will erase/reformat it to restore the PC. Not only will this make my life easier; it will also save my friend a few $ on the repair cost.

I'll file this under "Why I Hate HP PCs". Every time I have to restore or work on one it seems strange issues always pop up. :confused