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Problem
When connecting Seagate SATA 3GB/s Hard Drives to some via chipset motherboards, the hard drive may not be detected or may be detected intermittently
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Explanation
The Host Controller will not allow Seagate SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive to properly negotiate to SATA 1.5 GB/s.
This problem has been found to be common on the VIA chipset motherboards with the following controllers.
- VIA 8237 south bridge
- VIA 8237R south bridge
However, this problem is not apparent on the VIA 8237R+ south bridge.
In previous reports posted from the beginning of the year, we mentioned a few solutions to overcome some problems. Those solutions still apply, especially for the use of the SSCset.exe utility with RAID configurations. This solution however has been released by Seagate only recently and has been confirmed to fix the above mentioned problems.
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Solution
The only solution for this is to disable the SATA 3Gb/s function on the Hard Drive.
Since the SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive can only operate at the speed of the controller, there will be no decrease in performance.
To overcome this problem, insert a jumper in the pins next to the SATA Data connector as depicted below.
This will allow the Hard Drive to be detected and will operate at the speed of the SATA controller on the motherboard which should be 1.5Gb/s.
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The jumper solution does not work on the following Hard Drives with firmware version 3.AAE or lower.
ST3500641AS
ST3500841AS
ST3400633AS
With serial numbers xPMxxxx or xPGxxxx .
The jumper solution will only work on these hard drives with Firmware Version 3.AAG or higher.
Affected products
Motherboards with VIA 8237 South Bridge
Motherboards with VIA 8237R South Bridge
All Seagate SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drives 7200.7 and 7200.9 series
Reference:
JacquesV – RCT BLOEM
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