Via Vt6421 Compatible With Hitachi 47dj ?

[JaGo]

I have managed to flash my MS28 with this card but no matter what I do I cant get the Hitachi seen in Windows.

I am using the Slax disc and have tried Slax 2 also.

When I have rebooted after loading Slax, It goes into Windows (XP) and my VIA vt6421 shows up as an (!) in device manager\System and the drive is not visible. 

If I power off the pc and unplug the sata to the 360 it then boots into windows and the VIA vt6421 is back to normal in device manager.

I tried disabling all PCI on board devices but that didnt work.....   
I also plugged in my DVD writer to the IDE port on my VIA card and that didnt help either.

Any ideas?

[gigabite]

I get the same thing, I tried all cd's same error, same drive and card...all I was told was try try the red port on the back, but none of my sata cables fit in it!?

gigabite

[JaGo]

bummer... guess we will have to buy another card just for Hitachi's!

Do you know of a card that is 100% compatible with Hitachi's?

[dogger26]

I get the same thing, I tried all cd's same error, same drive and card...all I was told was try try the red port on the back, but none of my sata cables fit in it!?

gigabite

Lol i thought some1 with your experience would not be defeated by it not fitting in

[gigabite]

Yeah pitty lol, maybe I bought some kind of a cheap asian fake (the driver vcd (yes vcd - small 8cm disk) was homemade) - no offence..one thing for sure, is MY red port on the back (the extrenal one) is not made for sata cables...look closely at your sata cable notice how on one side it has an "edge", on the external port on the back of the card it has 2 "edges" (not like the usualy sata port) - crosswire, with 1k resistor :p

giagbite

[dogger26]

Same here dude, sata wont fit in, i got mine from hongkong off ebay, so does any1 know what the port is for?

[MSimpson]

Same f****** problem, with my VIA card.

[gigabite]

Seems glaze83 was wrong, we all have the same problem putting our sata cables into the red port mate (if your reading this)

[PACKERB]

I got a sata cable in the port in the back by unscrewing the two screws that are connected to the card
then taking pliars and bending the metal back where the sata port is.Then i reattached the back, the cable fits good but I haven't tested.

In the picture it doesn't show any metal, but there  is some on the card i (we?) have.

[gigabite]

Well for starters, the PCB on my card is blue and the port at the back is red...and also, even if you took the metal off there is no way to know which way is the right way to plug the sata cable in (look at the edges thing I was talking about)

gigabite

[PACKERB]

Mine is blue also look at the contacts to see which way the cable goes in.

[gigabite]

OK, I will try your method right now....Ok with some filing down of the end of the cable (the edge on the side) and some sheer force (I am very strong and i'm telling you this is FORCE) and some pliers to push down on I managed to get the cable in. To know which way I put it...you want to join the pins on the top of the connector (on the red port) to the pins on the top of the conecter (on the sata cables end)...if this works, I will make a tutorial because it's very hard thing to do...

gigabite

[dogger26]

After alot of searching i'e found that the external sata port is called a ESATA for use with external sata based hardware which actually uses a diff cable?
Copied this and pasted from our friend the big wiki

External SATA
eSATA was standardized in mid-2004, with specifically defined cables, connectors, and signal requirements for external SATA drives. eSATA is characterized by:

Full SATA speed for external disks (115 MB/s have been measured with external RAID enclosures)
No protocol conversion from PATA/SATA to USB/Firewire, all disk features are available to the host
Cable length is restricted to 2 metres, USB and Firewire span longer distances.
Minimum and maximum transmit voltage increased to 500 mV - 600 mV (from 400 mV - 600 mV)
Minimum and maximum receive voltage decreased to 240 mV - 600 mV (from 325 mV - 600 mV)
USB and Firewire require conversion of all communication with the external disk, so external USB/Firewire enclosures include a PATA or SATA bridge chip that translates from the ATA protocol to USB or Firewire. Drive features like S.M.A.R.T. cannot be exploited that way and the achievable transfer speed with USB/Firewire is only about half of the entire bus data rate of about 50 MB/s. This limited effective data transfer rate becomes very visible when using an external RAID array and also with fast single disks which may yield well over 70 MB/s during real use.

Currently, most PC motherboards do not have an eSATA connector. eSATA may be enabled through the addition of an eSATA host bus adapter (HBA) or bracket connector for desktop systems or with a Cardbus or ExpressCard for notebooks. Also available are simple adaptors or cables which allow to interface between eSATA and SATA. With such simple adaptors, the cable length is limited to 1 meter, as no translation between the SATA and the (more tolerant) eSATA signal levels is performed.

Note: Prior to the final eSATA specification, there were a number of products designed for external connections of SATA drives. Some of these use the internal SATA connector or even connectors designed for other interface specifications, such as FireWire. These products are not eSATA compliant.

eSATA does not provide power, which means that external 2.5" disks which would otherwise be powered over the USB or Firewire cable need a separate power cable when connected over eSATA.


Ps
my pci card is rev 02, i take it most of us will have diff revisions too, sure i read somewhere about a rev 5.0?

[dogger26]

http://www.cooldrives.com/206fsaiieexs.html

And theres a esata cable

[gigabite]

Even *if* you get the sata cable I have reason to believe it still will not work (I mean what is it changing by switching to eSata - thanks for the info as well dogger26 ).  Maybe probustus (sorry if the name is wrong) could shed some light on why it's not working...i'll be happy to give you any log files etc just tell me how to make them. 

gigabite

[JaGo]

well I havent even got an external port on my card! only 2 internal.

After alot of online researching I have found that a SATA card with a SIL 3112 chipset is our best bet for Hiatchi's.

P.s we need older drivers though, anything after Oct 06 wont work apparently.

[gigabite]

See this thread (http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?topic=6310.0;topicseen)

gigabite

[Exist2Resist]

I have the same card as you guys and it detects the hit drives no problem, I use slaX 2.1 as it has better code for mode B on the drives. Just did a 78 the other day.

[Exist2Resist]

Also did my 47DJ and it worked. but I also own a xeno connectivity kit, maybe thats the difference.

Do only some Hitachi drives work or can no one get any of them to flash.
If you cant get the Slax 2.1 to work for Mode B use the Resistor/Wire trick, i use a 1.2 kohm resistor.
Recommended is 1 kohm. If you use the resistor you wont brick your drive.
Remember this trick is only valid for drives pre revision 78.

[Exist2Resist]

Also after you get into Mode B, unplug the sata cable, as sata is hot swapable. Boot into windoze, then plug the sata cable in, that is what i have done.