kuja killer Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 (edited) Hello, I recently purchased a Latitude E6420 laptop a week ago, as a backup to use over my Latitude D620 i've had always without problems. (Only if i get an issue figured out with the E6420) This came with a clean install of XP Pro 32 bit, i5 2540m, Intel 3000 graphics only, and "Toshiba" 128 GB SSD model number "thnsnj128gcst" - I'll try not to make this topic too long because i posted about this problem on notebookreview.com hoping to get a reply from any other past E6420 owners, but nothing. If anyone is willing to look at my problem here (i couldn't register there with my name kuja killer for some reason) http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/latitude-e6420-problem-with-ssd-looking-for-some-help.837143/ The reason im posting here now is - I want to try the "ATA" option to boot from, to see if it will simply stop the endless Hard drive light acitivity that i can never manage to find the source of. I'm not sure exactly what I would do to get it to boot from the regular IDE/ATA/SATA without being forced to re-install all over again. My D620 uses that, but the E6420 only uses "raid on" with a different driver(s). It's not as simple as copying the "atapi.sys", and "pciide.sys" and other files to the System32 drivers folder right ? Would probably take a whole bunch of registry edits/etc too ?? I dont have an a physical XP install CD - just only whats on the D620 here to copy from. about these -- https://i.ibb.co/HqZsvq7/ata-drivers.png Is there a step by step process anyone might know of that i can do this, to test ?? I dont know if this is even going to solve this stupid annoying HD light acivity problem at all, if it doesn't then i'll just only assume this Toshiba SSD needs to be replaced. Edited November 16, 2021 by kuja killer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainyShadow Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 Didn't check the other forum, kinda in a hurry now... Are you sure it's the SSD causing the constant light? Try removing the optical drive. Also, there may be a "Drives" tab in the BIOS settings - uncheck all ports except the SDD to check if it makes a difference. Does the light stay even before booting (i.e. in the F12 boot menu)? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuja killer Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 (edited) Oh my god that was it. the 1 single thing i never would of thought to try... the DVD drive. - I was on the verge of totally giving up after days of pure fustration. I took it out ...and it stopped the hard drive light, it actually acts normal now, and not 1 blink per second forever. I put it back in, and it started happening again. So i just instead disabled it from Device Manager (for now) ...and... it stops the HD light activity. Wow, its finally solved. But that's weird, why would that happen from the DVD drive though ?? I mean i wasnt using it, there's nothing in it. I'm guessing it because it has a bad firmware, it's "D600 A04" version from dell's site. But based on some google searching, apparently this TSST Corp DVD Drive had firmware "D800" originally, but dell only provides D600, and i cant find any link for this D800 anywhere period. So it's a down-grade I couldnt use the "rollback driver" option in device manager as it said it doesnt have any backed up files for it. As it was already the latest version...or bad one apparently i guess. But at least it's finally stopped this infinite activity on the hard drive LED on top-left side of the laptop. I've never experienced a problem like that ever before on previous PC's throughout my life. Edited November 16, 2021 by kuja killer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainyShadow Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 (edited) Put a disk inside and see if it works. Also, driver and firmware are separate things. [edit] One more thing - examine the connector at the back of the drive for dirt, bent pins, etc. Edited November 16, 2021 by RainyShadow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuja killer Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 (edited) sorry, firmware i mean then ** my mistake. This was a dicussion thread i was just looking at earlier about this D600/D800 thing: https://www.dell.com/community/Storage-Drives-Media/TSSTcorpDVD-RW-TS-U633J-DRIVE-not-ejecting-after-firmware/td-p/3781036 And yea i tested a CD and DVD, they load up fine. Edited November 16, 2021 by kuja killer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 It seems like it is "by design" https://www.dell.com/community/Storage-Drives-Media/Dell-Dimension-Blinking-Hard-Disk-Light-SOLVED/td-p/1078513 jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuja killer Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 Dang that's seriously crazy. I had no clue that's been a Dell related issue since forever. That totally explains it then. I was mentioning in my post from a few days ago that it doesnt happen on my Dell Latitude D620. Thats why i've never knew until I got this Latitude E6420 where it does happen, until literally disabling (or physically removing it) it in Device Manager as mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainyShadow Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 If you don't expect to use that drive much, just put a second battery in its place and enjoy the longer uptime :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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