How to troubleshoot fault with SATA detection

[wibble]

Hi, just thought I would try this forum in case any one had some experience of this issue.

The machine is a Toshiba Satellite L500 (core i3).

Fault is ; no HDD detected in BIOS. Does not detect HDD on boot/ However, the internal optical drive is detected.

Just for clarity, the problem is not a faulty HDD, it appears to be something with the motherboard. As I see it, could be either (a) southbridge chip bga problem; (b) BIOS corrupt; (c) bad SATA connector or faulty smt cap / resistor between connector and southbridge (South Bridge: ICH9-M)

Or perhaps its something else I have not thought about.

Does anyone know if there is some software I could use, presumably booted from a CD, which could check the ICH9 bus itself. Or, is there a known common fault with these chips, etc.

Thanks.

[diif]

Re: How to troubleshoot fault with SATA detection

I'd check the connector and BIOS settings before the more complicated stuff.

[hansie55]

Re: How to troubleshoot fault with SATA detection

In my case it needed a bios update. (Bios was never updated yet since delivery.)
Newer HDD's seem to need other bios settings.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: How to troubleshoot fault with SATA detection

Remove the optical drive and test with just the HDD drive. Sometimes a bad optical drive can cause such symptoms.

[atsio]

Re: How to troubleshoot fault with SATA detection

Hi, just thought I would try this forum in case any one had some experience of this issue.

The machine is a Toshiba Satellite L500 (core i3).

Fault is ; no HDD detected in BIOS. Does not detect HDD on boot/ However, the internal optical drive is detected.

Just for clarity, the problem is not a faulty HDD, it appears to be something with the motherboard. As I see it, could be either (a) southbridge chip bga problem; (b) BIOS corrupt; (c) bad SATA connector or faulty smt cap / resistor between connector and southbridge (South Bridge: ICH9-M)

Or perhaps its something else I have not thought about.

Does anyone know if there is some software I could use, presumably booted from a CD, which could check the ICH9 bus itself. Or, is there a known common fault with these chips, etc.

Thanks.

If intel PCH ibex peak, it is a well known problem with recognizing sata hdd's (errata 21)