Apologies for the length of this. Every time the conversation got tricky the tech support guy would disappear, unfortunately I don’t have the first transcript. See the end for how I resolved it:
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You’re now talking to Safecom AG12 from ‘Tech Support’ The topic is : Not Provided |
Safecom AG12> How may I help you?? Could you please type the part number which is in question?
Safecom AG12> give me the exact product coe please
Safecom AG12> code
Joel> SU2FSJ-35CAJ
Joel> Safecom AG12> How may I help you?? Could you please type the part number which is in question? Joel> I was chatting with Khayyam 10minutes ago Joel> and my SU2FSJ-35CAJ SATA external enclosure Joel> The LED on the unit, and LED on the PSU is on Safecom AG12> ok Joel> however the harddrive isn’t spinning up and Windows XP doesn’t detect a device Joel> I have just put the harddrive in a PC and partitioned and formatted it Joel> and put some files on it fine Joel> so the drive is fine Safecom AG12> ok Joel> I have connected the enclosure directly to the PC (no hub) via USB Safecom AG12> so please tell me the exact problem Joel> Joel> however the harddrive isn’t spinning up and Windows XP doesn’t detect a device
Joel> any ideas?
Safecom AG12> have you check the harddrive directly connectd to the system
Joel> yes, as explained I put it internally to format it and partition it
Joel> I explained this to Khayyam
Joel> the caddy isn’t powering the harddrive
Safecom AG12> ok
Joel> The caddy is new, it only arrived 3 hours ago
Safecom AG12> tell me that you have this caddy the product code is SU2FSJ-35CAF
Joel> yes
Joel> SATA to Firewire / USB2.0
Joel> External Harddrive enclosure
Safecom AG12> ok tell me that whats the status of the LED
Joel> The LED on the enclosure is on (Green)
Safecom AG12> yes
Joel> the LED on the PSU is on
Joel> there is no LED or sound from the harddrive
Safecom AG12> what is the color of LED
Joel> The LED on the enclosure is on (Green)
Joel> the fan is spinning
Safecom AG12> tell me that what is the color of LED on the caddy
Safecom AG12> ok
Joel> I have told you 2 times already “The LED on the enclosure is on (Green) ”
Joel> The colour of the LED is green
Safecom AG12> this time it is coneccted or not
Joel> the LED on the caddy is a green LED, it can’t light any other colour!
Safecom AG12> ok
Safecom AG12> okok
Safecom AG12> tell me that the caddy is connected this time to the system
Joel> yes, via USB directly to the PC (not via any USB hub)
Safecom AG12> ??
Joel> YES
Safecom AG12> ok
Joel> it is connected to the system
Joel> there is no USB hub in use
Safecom AG12> now right click on my computer icon and selcet manage
Joel> yes
Safecom AG12> now right click on my computer icon and selcet manage
Joel> I am in device manager
Safecom AG12> have you done that
Joel> yes
Joel> computer management
Safecom AG12> select the disk management
Joel> yes
Joel> There is only my internal harddisk and CDROM drive listed
Safecom AG12> you can see there differnet hard drive partitions
Joel> Only Disk 0 and CD-ROM 0
Safecom AG12> not the caddy one
Safecom AG12> hard disk
Joel> Are you trying to talk me through partitioning the harddrive?
Joel> I have to leave the office soon
Safecom AG12> no
Safecom AG12> ok
Joel> the harddrive is currently in the caddy
Joel> and the caddy is currently plugged in via USB to the system
Safecom AG12> now click on action menu on that windows
Joel> ok
Safecom AG12> and selet rescan
Safecom AG12> ok
Joel> yes, no change
Safecom AG12> now click on action menu on that windows
Safecom AG12> and selet Rescan
Safecom AG12> ok
Safecom AG12> tell me that the harddrive is formated or not
Joel> yes, still only Disk 0 and CD-ROM 0
Joel> yes it is formatted NTFS and has files on it
Safecom AG12> because the cadyy supported it in formated form
Safecom AG12> ok
Joel> The LED on the harddrive is not lighting-up so I know the caddy is not providing power to the drive
Safecom AG12> ok now change the jumber to the secondry
Safecom AG12> and also try it with out jumper
Joel> there is no jumper because this is SATA
Joel> And I have already tried with the SATA150 Jumper on and off
Joel> the drive still doesn’t power up in the caddy
Safecom AG12> ok
Safecom AG12> ok
Safecom AG12> check it on another system
Joel> I have, no difference
Safecom AG12> because the the caddy LED is green so it mean the problem is not in the caddy
Safecom AG12> you mean that you have checked it
Safecom AG12> but no difference
Joel> YEs
Joel> I have tried on two other computers and it doesn’t work
Safecom AG12> ok
Joel> anything else to try?
Safecom AG12> try to connect through sata
Joel> how?
Joel> This is the model which only does firewire and USB
Safecom AG12> are you there
Joel> I don’t have firewire on this PC
Joel> yes
Safecom AG12> through sata cable
Joel> I don’t understand
Joel> how?
Safecom AG12> it have sata interfac
Joel> no
Safecom AG12> ok
Safecom AG12> sorry
Safecom AG12> connect it through firwire
Joel> Joel> I don’t have firewire on this PC
Joel> I have to go soon
Joel> Firewire will not make it work as the caddy is not giving power to the harddrive
Safecom AG12> so plesae check it with firewire
Joel> No, I can’t because I don’t have firewire
Safecom AG12> to find the solution of te problem
Safecom AG12> and to find the root of te problem
Joel> but I don’t have firewire
Safecom AG12> then i will next suggest you ok
Joel> And I need this to work on USB
Safecom AG12> so try to check with any your friend pc which have fire wire
Joel> I don’t have access to any other PC
Joel> I need this to work on USB
Joel> If this doesn’t work on USB then it is no good
Joel> Can you please give me an RMA if you don’t have any other ideas
– The guy disappeared and then the Live support showed as ‘closed’ !! I took it home and for the record it was dead when plugged in to the firewire socket aswell
Anyway for anyone reading this it appears that the board inside is in fact a parallel IDE to USB (“Prolific PL3507 Combo Device (1394-ATAPI rev1.10) IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device”) with a SATA to Parallel II daughter board on it.
However the power cable running off of the daughterboard to the harddrive prevents the power connecter making good with main board and hence no power running through to the harddrive. Applying more pressure to the two boards makes the HDD power up.
I discovered this by stripping the SATA daugherboard off and using a Parallel IDE drive fine.
I suspect this is always going to be an issue but since I’ve been at the mercy of eBuyer’s infamous eNotes system I’m gonna live with it. If it plays up too much I’d rather buy a Parallel IDE drive than try and return it!
Just trying to make it all work... and then stay that way 