Changing sata ports

[inlandempire]

Hi there, i received my desktop pc about a week ago and very happy with it but unfortunately i heard of the intel chipset problem and would like to somehow fix it.
I have an asus p8p67 pro with two hard drives (1 ssd, 1 black caviar wd) and 1 bluray rw drive. I had a look inside the case and saw 4 cables connected to the sata ports (the western digital hard drive connected to the white 6gb intel-driven port, the other 3 are connected to the 3gb ports). But since i only have 2 hard drives and 1 optical drive why are there 4 cables? Anyway because i have read that the chipset problem is affecting the 3gb ports i would like to unplug the cables connected to those and connect everything to the 6gb ports.
Is this something that i can just do by myself? any suggestions on how to do it?
below are the pc specs
thanks a lot

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£90)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£89)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium PCI Express (£59)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£29)
Quantity
1

Price: £1,420.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[MickyG]

I'd have a guess at the 4th wire being plugged into the card reader.

See the link to the thread below that PCS have posted informing people who have the Sandy Bridge systems and what they can do:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...ridge-Chipset-Update-1&highlight=sandy+bridge

In it they mention that they will be contacting people over the next couple of weeks (by email I believe) with the options available to them, but have a read of the thread it gives more details than I can recall

G

 

[inlandempire]

I'd have a guess at the 4th wire being plugged into the card reader.

See the link to the thread below that PCS have posted informing people who have the Sandy Bridge systems and what they can do:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...ridge-Chipset-Update-1&highlight=sandy+bridge

In it they mention that they will be contacting people over the next couple of weeks (by email I believe) with the options available to them, but have a read of the thread it gives more details than I can recall

G

yeah but in the meantime i would like to switch everything to the 6gb ports so that i avoid any problems

 

[inlandempire]

I'd have a guess at the 4th wire being plugged into the card reader.

See the link to the thread below that PCS have posted informing people who have the Sandy Bridge systems and what they can do:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...ridge-Chipset-Update-1&highlight=sandy+bridge

In it they mention that they will be contacting people over the next couple of weeks (by email I believe) with the options available to them, but have a read of the thread it gives more details than I can recall

G

yeah but i would like to switch everything to the 6gb ports to avoid any kind of problems in the meantime

 

[inlandempire]

yeah but i would like to switch everything to the 6gb ports to avoid any kind of problems in the meantime

 

[pengipete]

There's an eSata port on the front panel of that case (far right of the panel) - that's the fourth connection.

If you want to move drives to other SATA ports, it's easy. Power off and move the Sata plugs to whatever port you want (some Sata leads have a small metal clip -if your's do, you just need to squeeze them gently to unplug them). The only thing to watch is that you may need to change a couple of settings in BIOS and there's no way anyone can tell you what values to use because it depends on what settings you currently have. If you are not familiar with BIOS, it may be better to wait a couple of days as you're not actually having any problems at the moment but - as they say - everyone has to start somewhere so it won't hurt to at least have a look at BIOS and see how certain things work.

Put simply, SATA connections can be set up to work in different way. The can use IDE mode, AHCI mode or RAID mode. IDE mode is the simplest - it gets the drive working but doesn't use any special features. AHCI is more advanced - it adds a couple of "new" features such as "hot plugging - making it safe to unplug drives without switching the PC off - IF the motherboard and dive both support it. RAID mode allows a number of drives to be used together to increase speeds or provide automatic copies of data.

In your case, you have two different Sata controllers - one for Sata2 and one for Sata3. If a hard-drive is installed in one mode - say, IDE - it mathe yl not work if it is connected to a controller that is set to a different mode - say, AHCI - so you would need to check which mode had been used on the drive you want to move and then make sure that the matching mode is set on the other controller. The problem there is that if you already have drives connected to the second controller, you can't change the mode without possibly stopping those drives from working.

What I suggest you do - and don't do anymore than this for now - is to go into BIOS and look at the Sata configurations - you're motherboard's user guide will help if you get lost. AS long as you don't change any settings, you'll be fine. If you do change anything by mistake, there'll be an option to exit BIOS without saving any changes so - as long as you are reasonably careful - you won't get into any trouble. When you've found the settings for both of the Sata controllers - check to see if they both use the same mode. I suspect that PCS will have already set the controller for the Sata3 ports to AHCI but no idea on the Sata2 ports. If both controllers are set to the same mode, you are free to change the connections to any ports you like. If they are set to different modes, you'll need to make a note of which mode each of them uses and post back. You'll also need to tell us which of your drives your operating system is on.

 

[inlandempire]

i did it! everything was set i ahci mode and i just unplugged the vertex 2 from the 3gb port and plugged it into the 6gb one! done