www.abithelp.com

Hello,

First post, so be gentle...

Anyone having issues with eSata external hard drives? I've never had any problems until I installed two of them. Now, my system intermittently locks up for a few seconds and then resumes. If I'm listening to music - it changes to a loud buzz and then returns to music.

I'm using a Seagate 1tb and Western Digital 1tb - it happens when either or both are connected. I have the latest MOBO bios [v17] and all hardware/software updates.

I can't seem to find this issue discussed anywhere - help would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance - hopefully my signature contains enough system info for a possible fix.

NOTE: I'm just about to dismantle my rig and move to the country where I'll be setting up Satellite for Internet access. So, I may not be able to see replies until mid to late January.

What is the LATEST drivers that you have? As I do not know what you have updated and have not, so calling things the latest really doesnt help me

The JMicron controller controls both the eSATA and the IDE1, JMB363....Thats the driver I would make sure is correctly installed. Then Your using TERABYTE drives....I know that a few models of SEAGATE drives in the 1 to 1.5TB range need updated Firmware to operate correctly, It wouldnt surprise me if both those drives need firmware updates.

I'm sure Grey Bear will correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem to me at a one or two second pause, with all the devices in your system and the CPU having to try and "poll" all those inputs on a pre determined basis, would be the norm? Access times are what I would suspect.

We seem to be in an age where Dual and Quad core CPU's are necessary just to access all the extra "stuff" we keep adding to our PC's, eSATA being one of the newest.

Yeah, I know I'm not helping much. Do as Grey Bear says, make sure you have all the latest firmware and software.

I wonder, since an eSATA drive is powered thru that eSATA connection, is there a "spin up time" to be concerned with? Or is the drive up and running as soon as it's connected? Chris.

I had forgotten about the power scheme on this also. Your about to kill that little 500watt PSU..... What PSU do you have?

Im not quite sure Chris. Since I do not use eSATA, and only use my USB drives to store and then put away my data....but If mine pauses, its not noticable...if he is noticing it, I suspect more the power / controller, but that could be a eSATA feature.

I've got a 1000w power supply and using Abit's default 'optimized' bios settings.

The drives do power down and spin up when needed - same as my internal drives. However, the spin up time does not seem to be the issue. When I view the drive in Windows Explorer and the icon is not 'active' I click on the drive, it spins up, the icon changes, and the folders appear, but this does not cause the issue.

I went looking for the latest firmware for both eSata drives but could not find anything. Does anyone know how to get Seagate and WD ext. drive firmware updates? In fact, I've never updated the drivers for any of my external drives and I have 9 of them. However, only two or three are ever active at one time. I do know for a fact that if all my drives are connected at one time - everything goes berserk. As far as I know, everything else has the newest drivers.

The Jmicron driver is the latest and I followed the instructions to install it - maybe I did it wrong, but if it was wrong, wouldn't it cause 'more obvious' issues?

I'm really guessing here.


Thanks for the suggestions.

P.S. I've cancelled my current ISP service [effective 12-31-08] and will not be back on line full time for a few weeks. I will try to use someone esle's computer to keep track of this thread - thanks again folks...
P.P.S. I just noticed that while the manual 'wake-up' of my hard drives does not create this locking up issue, the automatic trigger does. I don't know yet if it's the automatic shut-down or wake-up that's doing it. How do I find out? ***begin edit*** Actually, it seems that both of the automatic triggers cause the lock-ups ***end edit***

Upon your return...

First add the make and model of the PSU to your signature. 1000w should be more than enough, but you could be running alot of items...you list your controllers but not the HDs connected to them. Most Internal HD have 2 power sources being utilized. they get power straight from the PSU and then thru the SATA/IDE cable also. So, Im not exactly sure about eSATA power scheme.

Now on HDs themselves....for the most part, not all HDs need firmware, and alot of people never even know that there is firmware for the HD. What happens is on XXXX chipset, there is no issue, but on YYYY chipset there is. But you take a different SEAGATE drive and place it on YYYY chipset and there is no issue.

When this happens and the company knows that enough drives have been sold and enough people have the problem, they will issue a firmware to prevent it from happening. As an example, Click HERE

When supported by the latest firmware updates, downloadable from Seagate once you've purchased your drive, this spectacular unit offers the best of both worlds -- top performance and a very small eco-footprint, so you know you have an industry leader AND are doing something good for the environment.

So, when certain anomolies appear, you pull the drives, and get the model / serial numbers....I believe some of these companies also have Firmware checking tools to pull up frimware info. Then you can contact them and ask. The above model has 3 firmwares CC1H, CC1J and whatever it came out with.





But I could be WAYYYYYYYYYYY off base. But you have already updated the Driver and feel confident you did that right. The fact everything appears to work, Im going with your confidence on that also.

Sustained POWER could be an issue, but trying not to go there because I focus on that to much generally.

One other area of concern. OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS. Enter the BIOS, only chnage this.....There is a Voltage Value on the RAM sticker, Make sure that is the value listed in the BIOS....if that value is 1.8 or 1.85 on the sticker, make it 1.9 in the BIOS. If the BIOS did not match the sticker, fix that.

I just want ask one thing and that is what are the sizes of the HDD in the computer. I could be wrong with this but what is max HDD size in Vista. He has not told you guys that size of the drives in the computer. He could have all TB drive in the computer. Could that be a some of his problem. I know in XP it is about 2TB and what is it Vista just asking.

Hi folks - back on line [dial-up at the moment]

I don't remember the brand of the PSU, but it wasn't one I'd heard of before. I never manually checked the recommended voltage of the RAM sticks and just went with the BIOS default Optimized settings.

I think this might be a default power scheme issue and I should tweek the settings, especially since I have plenty of power.

The main reason I'm leaning toward power as the issue is because the more hard drives powered up and USB devices that are turned on has a direct affect on the frequency of the lock-ups. Plus, whenever I run the two 'system info' programs I have [Everest Pro, and SIW], the lock-ups happen every 20 or 30 seconds.

Often times, opening or closing a Windows Explorer window will also trigger the lock-up. Opening or closing a program doesn't seem to have the same detrimental effect.

I don't have enough space in my signature to list all my gear, but I try not to have anything turned on that isn't being used. Some of the equipment I have connected are:

Canon i9950 Scanner [USB Powered Hub]***
Canon i9900 Printer [USB Powered Hub]***
HP 4260 Printer [USB Powered Hub]***
Creative Live Cam Optia AF [USB Powered Hub]***
Creative Audigy 2 Z5 Platinum Pro [PCI]
Realtek HD Audio [Mobo] [driver 6.0.1.5591, date: 3/08]
Logitech LX-710 Wireless key/mouse combo [USB Powered Hub]
Conexant SoftK56 Data/Fax Modem [PCI]
Maxtor 350gig Ext. Drive (X 3) [USB Powered Hub]***
Seagate 500gig Ext Drive [USB Powered Hub]***
WD 500gig Ext. Drive [USB Powered Hub]***
WD 1tb Ext. Drive [USB Powered Hub]***
Standard PS2 Mouse and Keyboard [in purple and green jacks]
Over 100 installed programs

*** denotes gear that is manually powered up

Hope this new gear info helps. I guess my question now would be how do I find out the precise power settings I should manually use when configuring the bios. Now that I'm on dial-up - going to everyone's web site and searching will be too big of a challenge. I tell my friends that dial-up is so slow, that by the time your web page loads, you forget why you went there. I haven't used dial-up since it was the only thing available.

Thanks again...

One thing that I have found with sata drives is what kind ribbon cables are you using. I found if you are using the cheaper ones without the clips to lock them in place. This could be causing some of your problem. I have had drives are just gone. This is with a computer that nobody has touch the cables and the computer would just act funny. I found the ones with locking clips work the best. These sata cables are not the greatest cables in the world. Just one thing to check. On the memory just go the to they site and check volts. Where you are running 4gb run it at the spec and just bump it up a little. If it calls for 2.1 run it at 2.3 it's not going to hurt anything. Plus that is a lot of USB stuff. You need a nice wireless print. I have one and it is great HP Photosmart 6180.

Yeah, you may have a good point on the cables. I bought the cheap $12.00 [6 foot] cables at a local retailer. I never even considered there might be 'better' cables. In fact, now that you mention it, I did have some problems during the original connection. I had to shut down, unplug then replug in the drives before they would work properly.

The only reason I have two printers is my Canon print head needed replacing, so with the price of printers these days, I just bought another one until I could afford to replace it. The HP was pretty cheap. I plan to use the HP for everyday printing and power up the i9900 for high quality print jobs. I've been very happy with the i9900 - the quality is better than many of the local labs I've compared it to. Actually, I have three printers - the other one is an OKI 5150 color laser that's not in my office right now.

Is the voltage to the memory the only voltage I should manually adjust? Also, when you change the voltage option to 'manual' do the other voltages stay at the 'optimized' settings, or do I need to double check them as well. Silly question, as I'd find out as soon as I got into the bios, but my question is really aimed at asking if I should examine and change any other voltages.

Many thanks...