sata HDD activity led

[pilihp]

I have a new sata drive and mobo. How do I get the HDD activity led going? Has this facility been dropped with these new drives? The connections are on the mobo but don't light the led. Have tried reversing the polarity.
Any ideas?

 

[wahnula]

Please specify your mainboard/CPU combo and drive stats. I've not had any trouble with SATA drives and the HDD LED even in mixed usage with PATA drives. As for "new", SATA drives have been around since 2003 !

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[pilihp]

wahnula
Mainboard - Gigabyte GA-81865GME-775-RH
CPU - Intel Dual Core E2140 1.6 GHz
Memory - Corsair 512 MB DDR 3200
HDD - WD 800JD, 80 GB SATA II 8 MB cache 7200 RPM

It's my first experience of a SATA drive and I was sure I had read that you couldn't have an activity indicator with them. Obviously I'm wrong so would be interested in your comments as to why it doesn't work.
The computer as a whole works very well.

 

[wahnula]

pilihp,

My current system has (3) SATA drives and both the RAID 1 array and the alternate-boot Vista SATA Raptor trigger the HDD LED. These LEDs are really cheap parts, and they seldom wear out, see if the wires are continuous and the connections at both ends are good. The LED comes with the case, which case are you using?

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[pilihp]

Tony, I should have said that I swapped the power indicator connections with the activity indicator to prove that the activity led circuitry was ok so it can only be a mainboard fault. I hate the way the chipset heatsink gets so hot, you can't leave your finger on it! but the supplier says this is normal.
I will let the led thing go as the machine is being used by someone else and is working ok. Thanks for your thoughts.
Philip

 

[Freestone]

FWIW - I quickly looked through the User Manual for this motherboard and it states on page 21 (the only reference for the hard drive LED) "IDE Hard Disk Active LED" in the pin depiction, and "HD (IDE Hard Disk Active LED)" in the pin description area.

Notice IDE not SATA. I am not sure if this is intended or a typo. A note to Gigabyte may clarify.

 

[pilihp]

Freestone, many thanks for pointing this out. The fact that IDE is mentioned in this connection indicates to me that maybe the SATA drive would NOT support an activity indicator. I will try to contact Gigabyte but their web form does not cater for simple enquiries and I will have to open the machine to get all sorts of numbers from the mainboard. This is difficult as someone else is using it.
philip