Portégé Laptops

[IgnisArtificis]

Just going to say that I also have this problem and I also think that this shouldn't be disabled without it being specifically indicated in the computer specs that SATA 3 (6 Gb/s) is not functional on the Portege R835.

Waiting intensely until Toshiba gets back from their break...

[raychan]

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jim wrote:

I don't have an answer for you but have put the question to technical staff.  The bad news is that Toshiba in the US is on holiday until 7/6 so that's the earliest time that anyone will be able to look into it.

I'll post to this thread when I have an update.

Jim

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First, my thanks to Jim the administrator for acknowledging this thread.

The key question here is whether Toshiba has somehow disabled the SATA III capability of the chipset used in our laptops.  That question calls for a simple "yes" or "no" answer, so hopefully we can get one soon.  Of course, I am also curious about why and whether Toshiba is going to fix this.

[horsebabe921]

Any news yet? I have a R35-P70 and I'm planning on replacing the HDD want to know if it will be worth it to buy a SATA III or if I should get an older SSD with SATA II...

[jim]

No news yet but this is just the 2nd work day following a 4-day holiday weekend for Independence Day, and it's a popular time of year for vacations... 

Jim

[srubman]

After 7/6.  Any news from the technical staff on this?

[centino3d]

Has anyone figured this out yet? I am looking to upgrade my 835-p70 to an SATA 3 ssd!

[Skeletron]

Still eagerly waiting for a response.

[DialMforMatt]

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Skeletron wrote:

Still eagerly waiting for a response.

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yup...

[srubman]

Jim,

Given the amount of interest in this, I'm surprised you cannot get this escalated?  Maybe try a manager?

[jim · Accepted solution]

The answer is that SATA III is not supported at this time as SATA II is the optimal configuration for both performance and battery life given the components used in current manufacturing runs. There may be a BIOS update to add SATA III support in the future, if this model is updated with SATA III drives built in.

Jim

[raychan]

Jim:

Thank you for your response.  I am disappointed but not surprised. 

As I stated before, the identification of the chipset as "Mobile Intel HM65 Express Chipset" in the Detailed Product Specification without any disclaimer is somewhat misleading.   IMHO Toshiba should have included a disclaimer expressly stating "SATA III transfer rates not supported" or "Only SATA II transfer rates supported", similar to how German car manufacturers say "Electronically limited to 155mph" after quoting horsepower and torque.

Raymond

[Skeletron]

Yeah, that's very disappointing. I purchased an SATA III SSD with the expectation that it would be supported by the laptop. Would it be possible to release an BIOS update to remove the speed limitation?

[nebody00]

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Skeletron wrote:

Yeah, that's very disappointing. I purchased an SATA III SSD with the expectation that it would be supported by the laptop. Would it be possible to release an BIOS update to remove the speed limitation?

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Same here, that is very disheartening that Toshiba disabled a feature.  Even though it's a very slim possibility, I hope that Toshiba will reconsider a BIOS or patch to allow users to enable SATA III. 

[AleeTR]

i am a unhappy user..

if you choose  optimal configuration for both performance and battery life i think YOU CAN DISABLE TURBO BOOST MAYBE NOT WORKING DVD-ROM FOR BATTERY LIFE, DISPLAY BUT NOT BRIGHT DISPLAY AGAINS FOR BATTERY LIFE...

 WITH NOT WORKING KEYPAD - "PLEASE USE YOUR SCREEN KEYBOARD FOR YOUR PERFORMANCE AND YOUR BATTERY LIFE"

IF TOSHIBA NEEDS SOME MMX CPUS FOR MAXS BATTERY LIFE I HAD SOMES. I CAN GIVE YOU..

AND LAST ONE, FOR PORTEGE PORTABILITY YOU CAN DETACH SOME PARTS MAYBE CPU COOLER WHO NEEDS IT..

:@ :@ :@ 

[DialMforMatt]

I'm sure I'm not the only person who spent extra $$ to get a SSD with SATA 3 support. This is more than a little irritating, first the heat sink is made of aluminum instead of copper as advertised and now it turns out it's limited without good reason to SATA II speeds. This laptop seemed like the clear winner before purchasing it, but now I'm not

 so sure.....

Assuming this issue is never fixed, which at this point it seems it won't be (700+ views on this thread, took close to 15 days and 25 responses to even get an answer to the question, let alone a solution) this will most likely be my last toshiba computer. 

[Brian998]

It's really disappointing. I just bought a new R830 recently, and now I am regreted that I didn't choose Sony SA or Thinkpad X for lightweight yet performance laptop. If it's Toshiba's official decision not to react to such complaint then I'm seriously considering not to recommend Toshiba to everyone I know. Coz you never know anything else will be disabled in the future just for their "battery life consideration" excuse.

[Brian998]

I ran a test on my new R830 today, and found it still using the buggy step B2 HM65, and it's connecting the DVD drive on sata port 2! This is a terrible news, I don't know why Toshiba is still selling buggy products with buggy configuration ? It makes me wonder if there is something between the limitation of sata 6GB and the buggy chipset. I hope Toshiba can give us a good explanation.

[ Fact Check: No R830's or R835's shipped in the US with the Intel step B2 HM65. -Forums Admin ]

[raychan]

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Brian998 wrote:

I ran a test on my new R830 today, and found it still using the buggy step B2 HM65, and it's connecting the DVD drive on sata port 2! This is a terrible news, I don't know why Toshiba is still selling buggy products with buggy configuration ? It makes me wonder if there is something between the limitation of sata 6GB and the buggy chipset. I hope Toshiba can give us a good explanation.

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This is just getting better and better, isn't it?

What Toshiba did makes no sense whatsoever.  The bug you are referring to does NOT affect ports 0 & 1 (the SATA III ports), but only affects ports 2-5 (the SATA II ports). 

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/6/sb/CS-032521.htm

So why would Toshiba not put the two SATA devices on the two non-affected ports?

One of the main reasons that I got this laptop instead of other ultra-portables is because it comes with an optical drive.  But now it looks like I might lose the optical drive one day because it's on a SATA port that might fail.

No wonder Office Max is selling these are $649, just two months after I paid $800 for one.  Thank you Toshiba for letting me be a guinea pig.

[ Fact Check: No R830's or R835's shipped in the US with the Intel step B2 HM65. -Forums Admin ]

[raychan]

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jim wrote:

The answer is that SATA III is not supported at this time as SATA II is the optimal configuration for both performance and battery life given the components used in current manufacturing runs. There may be a BIOS update to add SATA III support in the future, if this model is updated with SATA III drives built in.

Jim

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Sorry, Jim, but after more research I call BS on the "battery life" excuse.  First, there is no way that the originally installed 5400 rpm drive will exceed SATA II transfer rate, except perhaps from its cache.  Even 7200 rpm desktop drives do not exceed SATA II transfer rate.  Second, an SSD uses LESS battery than a 5400rpm drive REGARDLESS of whether the SSD is working at SATA III or SATA II transfer rates.  So limiting the chipset to SATA II transfer rates does nothing for battery life.

[AleeTR]

Waiting for reply !!!!

its support sataIII or not?