Solved AHCI trouble

[msalton1]

Machine: Toshiba M305D-S4831
History: Came with Vista 64 bit installed. Several years ago, I installed Win 7 64 bit. It's been so long, I honestly can't remember if I installed in in AHCI mode (it was a fairly recent technology back then).
I partitioned the (only) drive into 3 partitions (I dumped the recovery partition).

Recently, I attached a Thermaltake BlackX esata (also usb2) drive dock to the combo USB/eSata port. The system wouldn't recognize it. I checked the bios. The only sata setting is for the sata controller mode. It's set to AHCI (as opposed to "compatibility mode").

I then checked the reg key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci --> Start

The key value is '0', as it should be. There is no iastorV folder in the HKLM tree, but my understanding is that it's not necessary.

Device manager does NOT show an AHCI device. (see image).

Maybe it's something simple, but I don't see it. All seems to be as it should be, but no AHCI in device manager and no esata.

Any help appreciated.

 

[msalton1]

No one has any ideas?

 

[Mellon Head]

Do you have to select between USB and eSATA operation on that combo port? Maybe they're mutually exclusive.

(If I understand this correctly.)

 

[msalton1]

Hi Mellon. Thanks for the response. That's an excellent question that hadn't occurred to me. I actually called Toshiba after reading your remarks just to see. Unfortunately, Toshiba says that both USB and esata are active all the time on the combo port.

I've pretty much exhausted my options. I did find that Thermaltake dock was bad. I tried multiple cables, mutliple drives, flashed the latest bios. Nada.

I guess I just have to assume that the esata portion of the port is bad. The reg entry for esata is there, the amd esata driver is present. sata is set to AHCI in the bios. Not sure what else it could be but the port.

I guess the only option for that laptop is to get a USB 3.0 express card. I'm not sure it'll be as fast as esata, especially given that it's not 'native' to the motherboard, but it may be the fastest option available.

Again, thank you for your response.
​

 

[Mellon Head]

Sorry it didn't work out for you. Maybe the USB3.0 option will hold some success.