VIA VT6421A - Help me save my 10 bux

june gloom on 3/12/2010 at 06:00

FYI I don't have a lot of technical knowledge, hardware wise- just enough to be dangerous.

Backstory- this PC has 4 SATA slots, 2 SATA HDs, and 1 SATA DVD burner.

It also has a massive black cock of a video card (8800GT if you want to know) that blocks two SATA slots. My DVD has been inaccessible for months because I only have room for the HDDs.

I bought a SATA RAID and IDE controller with the intention of hooking up one of the drives to it so I can use my DVD drive again. I should have figured I was wasting my money when it was only $10...

Unfortunately it detects neither the DVD drive nor the HDDs. A quick look on the back of the box tells me it doesn't work with SATA 2.0, and both hard drives are SATA 2.0 (I presume- they don't have any jumpers on the pins.)

Am I screwed? Should I just go buy an external DVD drive and save myself the headache?

Renzatic on 3/12/2010 at 17:48

I'd say you're out of 10 bux. You could goof around in the bios play with the drivers, and maybe see if there are some pins you've overlooked, but...you know...you're probably SOL. My experience with those PCI SATA/IDE controllers have been flaky at the best of times anyway.

There is one more thing you could try before plunking down cash on an external DVD drive. I'm in about the same boat as you, what with my gigantic ass 8800GTS 512 blocking a SATA port and all. It kept me from hooking up a second HDD for the longest time. What I did to fix it was find (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=right+angle+SATA+connector#q=right+angle+SATA+connector&hl=en&prmd=ivs&source=univ&tbs=shop:1&tbo=u&ei=Ai35TNzuJYP6lwf_qc3hBw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQzAMwAA&biw=1920&bih=955&fp=4488cb887e893d25) a right angle SATA connector, took out my graphics card, popped in the new cable, then put the graphics card on top of it. They're pretty snug against each other, but not to the point where I could see it causing any potential problems.

If you're lucky, you might be able to do the same. And it'll only cost you a buck.

Edit: Check and see if you have roughly a quarter inch clearance between the card and the SATA port. If you do, you'll probably be able to do this.

june gloom on 3/12/2010 at 18:20

Nope, it's pretty snug in there. Thanks anyway.

june gloom on 3/12/2010 at 22:50

I noticed after I put the thing in that it was causing my PC to boot very slowly. Today it would get halfway through booting Windows and stop. Even safe mode was affected. When I pulled it out (I'd put it off 'cuz I didn't feel like opening my PC yet AGAIN) everything was fine. Weird...

Renzatic on 4/12/2010 at 03:03

Controller cards usually slow down your boot times a bit. It's an extra bit the bios has to check and account for during boot, and it usually doesn't do it as quickly as the controllers on the motherboard.

But stopping boot halfway through? Well, like I said, they're flaky at the best of times. I've only ever seen a couple that worked without any weird little hiccups or outright crashes.

Ladron De La Noche on 4/12/2010 at 03:06

(http://www.directron.com/me340q.html) http://www.directron.com/me340q.html
(http://www.directron.com/nst530s2.html) http://www.directron.com/nst530s2.html
Grab a 5.25 external enclosure for your sata dvd drive. Sata to usb connection. $35 bucks or less around the net. Shop around you might find one cheaper. External dvd drives cost $50 or more on newegg.com, no need to buy another one.

theBlackman on 4/12/2010 at 04:57

I have two External Sata Hotswap USB ports that work on all my systems. I also have a couple of stand alone externals and two IDE swap externals.

They all work with no problems and don't appreciably slow the system down. As was said full enclosed 500 GIG externals are running around $35-50. Adaptors for external USB run from about $20-30.

All my USB externals handle 1 Tbyte Sata drives with no problem.