VIA VT6421+ Win7 +BIOS= Problem → Incompetence

[tbst]

So I bought this cheap SATA PCI from ebay. When I put it in the MoBo, and booted, Win7 acknowledged and loaded a driver. The problem comes when I hook up my hard drives(s) to it, it doesnt acknowledge them. (Even after restarting, etc.)

I have done some forum readings, and people mention doing a BIOS flash. Is this what I need to do? If so, how do I go about doing this? Normally I can figure things out, however not this time.

Pertinent information:

Card
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170353154174&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_3017wt_1165
MoBo
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
Hard drive
Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (not main, using all other sata ports, need the RAID card)
Device Manager->Storage Controllers->VIA VT6421 RAID Controller

I appreciate it. I have tried updating the driver thro windows platform, to no avail. Any detailed help on the BIOS flash if needed would be great.

 

[tcsenter]

VIA SATA controllers do not support auto-configure with SATA 3.0 Gbps drives. Setting the drive to SATA 1.5 Compatibility mode should cure the problem. Western Digital usually provides a hardware jumper setting for SATA 1.5 compatibility, but some drives may need a software utility to change the mode in firmware. A few drives today don't offer any way to change the SATA mode, but most do.

Check the documentation from Western Digital.

 

[tbst]

Just to clarify, not sure why I am so slow about this, but is this what I am looking to do? I am looking at the diagram on this page, and OPT1 enabled?

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1679

I watched some youtube on what I physically need to do, however this video reverses what I need to do, but I think that it gets the point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLsNDyVCPYU

My next question is, where are the jumpers? I bought my hard drives OEM and they did NOT come with any jumpers. What do I do?

 

[tcsenter]

Just to clarify, not sure why I am so slow about this, but is this what I am looking to do? I am looking at the diagram on this page, and OPT1 enabled?

That's]http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1679

That's it.

My next question is, where are the jumpers? I bought my hard drives OEM and they did NOT come with any jumpers. What do I do?

Find some.

 

[tbst]

Yeah, did that. And nothing. Still no recognition with the shunt in the proper spot. I know the hard drive works because I connected it tot he sata on the motherboard.

 

[tcsenter]

If the drive is not initialized or partitioned, it will not appear in Explorer. Goto Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Disk Management and look for the drive in the Disk Management snap-in. If present, then initialize and/or partition the drive, assign a drive letter and format it, then restart and check for the drive in Explorer.

For whatever reason, Windows doesn't always start this snap-in automatically when an unpartitioned drive is added to the system.

If that isn't the problem, then you might need a different SATA controller card. I recommend avoiding cards that use VIA controllers. Look for a controller card that uses a Silicon Image or JMicron controller chip.

Also, according to the photo of the card from Ebay, that PCI card is keyed for 5V-only (the notch is toward the back of the card). This may be your problem as well. The card should be universal keyed, with one notch toward each end of the card, like this:

Universal keyed PCI card

 

[tbst]

Yeah, the HD is already formatted/partitioned, I had it connected to the mobo just to make sure it worked. What would the 5v versus another V have to do with the problem?

 

[tcsenter]

PCI Spec 2.3 removed support for 5V-only PCI cards. Some PCI 2.3 compliant boards still work with 5V-only PCI cards, some don't.

 

[tbst]

Not to beat a dead horse, but would the mobo recognize the card, thro Win7 if it was not compatible?

 

[tcsenter]

Possibly. The card could be detected and appear to be installed properly but just fails to function right. If I had to guess, I'd say its more likely an issue with an out-dated/older BIOS on the VIA card that isn't correctly handling the geometry of such a large drive than it is to be a PCI voltage issue, but its possible.

Do you have a smaller drive to test? e.g. 500GB or 640GB?

 

[tbst]

Yeah, tried a 80gb, a 500gb, and a 750gb, to no avail. What about flashing BIOS? Is that only if I want to use it as a RAID config?

 

[tcsenter]

That tends to point towards a defective card or the PCI voltage issue. I was thinking the controller BIOS may be too old to properly handle drives as large as 1TB but if its not working with 80GB ~ 500GB drives, either, its probably not the VIA BIOS ROM.

VIA doesn't provide BIOS ROMs to end-users, anyway, so you're often stuck with whatever comes on the card.

 

[tbst]

This may sound stupid, but since I am only going to get 1.5gbps, I was thinking that maybe something like this would work.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Serial-ATA-SATA-To-IDE-HD-Motherboard-Converter-Adapter_W0QQitemZ280409778048QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4149b9a780#ht_4098wt_939

That way I only have $3.00 tied up in it. My only concern with this, is if it would work? (Obviously.) But also, can the IDE be "slaved" on my motherboard? IE, NOT the primary hard drive?

Thanks so far.

 

[tcsenter]

I wouldn't mess with those things, personally. Have no idea whether it would work.

 

[tbst]

Gonna buy this one, what do you think?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124006

 

[tcsenter]

That looks fine to me.

 

[iKaibil]

Hi:
I searching for an answer to my problem, I saw this post and perhaps you can help me.
My NAS200 broke and I had a Windows XP Pro 32bit SP 3 in a AMD Athlon XP 1800 with a VIA KT133A South Bridge VT82C686.

The machine was siting there with no use, so I purchased a SiI3512 - PCI to 2 Port SATA150, to add the 2 drives that I was using in the NAS200, both drives are Seagate's Barracuda.

Windows sees the Card, but it does not sees the SATA Drives,I thought that it may due an bios issue with DOS, so I cleared the bios, but now I am not able to flash and write the bois because is asking for a hex address and I do not know what the hex address is.
I have change driver and the Sata utility doesn't sees the bios in windows, in the documentation it says that I am supposed to see in the device manage / properties a tab with bios information, but I do not see this feature.

At first I thought that it may be the SATA Drives, but I tried them in another PC and they are working fine. Now I am thinking that it may be the VIA motherboard, I am going nuts trying to figure his card and need help.
Thank you
Mario