WD SATA drive won't spin with data cable connected

Status
Not open for further replies.

genistas

Baseband Member
Messages
71
Hi,

I've actually had this problem with 3 or 4 different 80 GB WD SATA drives on 3 or 4 different occasions with several different motherboards. These drives work fine with other motherboards, and the motherboards have all worked fine with other sizes/brands of SATA drives.

Here's the problem:

When I plug the power and data cables into the drive and power on the machine, the hard drive will not spin up. If I unplug the data cable, the drive spins up fine. This drive works perfectly on other boards. Other drives work perfectly on this board. All BIOS settings are correct.

There seems to be a compatibility issue with these boards and particular model of hard drive. However, there must be a way to get around it. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Thanks!
 
SOLUTION! WD SATA drive won't spin with data cable connected

In case anybody else has this problem, I have found a solution. Install a jumper on pins 5 and 6 on the back of the drive. This limits the speed to 150 mb/s but will allow the drive to spin up properly. I guess this problem was caused by an incompatibility between this model drive and certain VIA chipsets that can't negotiate the transfer speed properly. Hope someone finds this useful!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom