The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    L502X - eSata port - port multiplier works?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by user54, Jan 14, 2012.

  1. user54

    user54 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    user54, Jan 14, 2012
    #1
  2. capitankasar

    capitankasar Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    231
    Messages:
    1,663
    Likes Received:
    117
    Trophy Points:
    81
    dont know about connecting two devices at a time to that port since I didnt tested it.

    however I can tell, since I replaced the optical drive with a second hdd caddy, some rare times, I connect the stock optical drive using a cable to the eSata/usb combo port.

    it works fine, can even boot media at the bios, it also power the optical drive thing without external power.

    in your case , when conecting two or more drives to the esata port may require external power suply to power the drives.
     
    capitankasar, Jan 15, 2012
    #2
  3. rabbitz

    rabbitz Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    11
    Messages:
    100
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I think he means whether it can function as both an e-sata and usb port at the same time (i.e act as two separate ports) as opposed to just being a single port that can accept either esata or usb cables.

    edit: ok so after doing some reading, port multiplier is just a feature that allows devices physically connected to a single sata controller to see it as more than one.

    according to this site, there is no way to really tell unless you ask dell or test it yourself (or if someone else has already tested it and confirmed whether it has port multiplier or not).
     
    rabbitz, Jan 15, 2012
    #3
  4. ClearIzzy

    ClearIzzy Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    79
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Tried that dock on my L501X and it didn't work. It did detect one of the hard drives but not both.
     
    ClearIzzy, Jan 15, 2012
    #4
  5. rabbitz

    rabbitz Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    11
    Messages:
    100
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Did you have the drivers installed? You need the intel rapid storage technology I think...
     
    rabbitz, Jan 15, 2012
    #5
  6. user54

    user54 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    ok so looks like port multiplier is not active on the l502x.

    anybody attached a sata drive to one of the usb3 ports with an appropriate adapter? how did it perform? these kinds of adapters are around £20 over here.
     
    user54, Jan 19, 2012
    #6
  7. felipe_carmo

    felipe_carmo Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Sorry to tell that mate, but you can only see both hard drives when you are using the USB cable.

    Using the eSata, you can only see ONE of them.
    I used to have a ASUS G53, which was one of the best laptops on the market 2 years ago.

    I now have a Dell XPS 702X... which should support most of the "top of the line" technologies from 2 years ago". =/

    I will contact DELL support tomorrow to check if there is any driver that could possibly unlock this function on the laptop`s motherboard.

    I hardly believe I will have success, but I will try anyway.

    I let you know about the answer.
     
    felipe_carmo, Feb 2, 2012
    #7