Disable SATA ?

17 years ago

Hi,

My aunt's laptop (HP Pavilion, Windows XP SP3) has been having boot-up problems on occasion. It gets caught in some kind of 'loop' and never making it to the Windows welcome screen.

I recall the last time when our "computer guy" addressed this situation, he did something, I believe, with the SATA settings. So, today when the laptop was having its boot up trouble, I hit F10, went to 'system configuration,' and checked the SATA setting. It was 'enabled.' So I disabled it to see what would happen, and the computer booted up normally. Then I restarted, set the SATA back to 'enabled,' and it wouldn't boot up, but got caught in that loop again.

Is there anything wrong with having the SATA settings permanently left on 'disabled,' or is this something I really need to get addressed for some security reason or something ?

Thanks !

Scott

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Comments (10)

zep516
17 years ago
"Is there anything wrong with having the SATA settings permanently left on 'disabled".

No I would leave it disabled if that fixes it, No security risk.
not2bright
Original Author
17 years ago
Okay. Thanks, zep !
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zep516
17 years ago
I wonder why it's getting enabled? That I don't know..
Janette_ORz7
17 years ago
OK, for those of us stumbling around in this land of the computer, what is SATA?
Thanks
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
17 years ago
some of this info might be helpful they all seem to deal with hp and sata. See link at the bottom.

SATA has to do with hard drive
this link explains
What is SATA or Serial ATA?

Here is a link that might be useful: info
jemdandy
17 years ago
SATA is another way to connect hard drives to your motherboard, and uses a different shaped connector and cable compared the older EIDE (or IDE). If you are not using the SATA feature, turn it off in the BIOS setup.

Beware that some modern laptops may have only the SATA connection and of course, for this condition, it must be turned on.
owbist
17 years ago
At what point during the startup does this loop commence? I assume it must be during the initial POST when the screen is black and the writing scrolls up the screen?

When you changed from 'enabled' to 'disabled' in the BIOS you did remember to click F10 to save and exit I presume?

What model number and how old is this laptop?
not2bright
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi,

Thanks for the further discussion/links on this issue !

A reply I (thought I) posted last night apparently didn't show up, so I'll have to offer it again here (in my response to zep).

At what point during the startup does this loop commence? I assume it must be during the initial POST when the screen is black and the writing scrolls up the screen?

When you changed from 'enabled' to 'disabled' in the BIOS you did remember to click F10 to save and exit I presume?

What model number and how old is this laptop?

owbist,

On powering up, I'll get as far as the "Windows" screen (the black screen with the multi-colored progress bar underneath the word "Windows") and then it will flicker totally blue for a fraction of a second and then it goes back to the black HP start-up screen (with the F1 and F10 options at bottom). Then the F5 screen appears (the one with all the options for how to boot up: safe mode, last known good configuration, etc. I tried both of those, but to no avail). Only disabling the SATA setting (and saving it via F10) allows me out of the loop and into a normal boot-up.

Re: model #: although I don't have it in front of me at the moment, as I recall it's about 2-3 years old. A DV5000 HP laptop.

I wonder why it's getting enabled? That I don't know..

zep,

I can't imagine, and Matt, our computer guy, doesn't know, though he suspects some sort of power surge. But, as I wrote in my post that vanished into cyber oblivion last night, my aunt did get a new AC adapter recently. It has been working just fine for weeks. But I have noticed that the plug doesn't have a very tight fit in the computer. She sometimes has to rotate it a bit back and forth in the jack to make sure it's connecting properly. Otherwise she'll get the battery icon in the lower right of the taskbar.

I wonder if toggling from battery to AC to battery and back again could send the kind of signals to the computer that would affect the SATA setting. ??? It certainly hasn't affected any other aspect of the computer or its performance that I can see.

Anyway, it seems to be working okay for now. As long as it is (and as long as she doesn't really need the SATA setting to be enabled) she/we can live with it.

Thanks again for the comments !

Scott
owbist
17 years ago
Scott you are right, she does not need SATA enabled as long as the computer has an IDE or ATA (same thing, different word) hard drive.

However your notation on the new AC adapter is troubling. You or your aunt should really check to see you have the correct adapter there. Have you ever Googled these things? HP seems to have so many variations it is mind boggling. They come in so many electrical sizes you really have to wonder why HP could not find some way simpler to avoid any confusion and computers or printers being ruined by attaching the wrong adapter.

Over time I have noticed the male prong on the equipment is sized to allow the female adapter to fit snugly making it harder to use the wrong adapter. However this does not seem to be foolproof. My daughter ruined 2 routers exactly this way, I was there one day and she suggested plugging in the end that was visible to me. I did, smoke rose, router died.
not2bright
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi, owbist

Well, I didn't get the adapter from HP directly. I got it through Amazon, but I did make sure that when I got this adapter that it was the same specs and was compatible with her specific laptop model. But now that I see it might be faulty, I hope to be able to send it back for a replacement.

Disable SATA ?

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zep516

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Disable SATA ?

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zep516

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