Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

eSATA expresscard making my MBP crash

K

Karel Bata

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
163
Reaction score
0
Points
0
This is likely a hardware prob that will be fixed when I get a replacement card, but I thought I'd bounce it off you guys first to see if anyone else has had similar probs and can advise.

I've got a 2009 MBP 5.2. There's two slots on the expresscard. Anything plugged into the bottom slot makes it crash. Top slot seems to work fine.

Another prob is that when I push the card in it doesn't 'lock' very well, in that it takes little effort to pull it out. Is that common among these cards? Or is it a bad card? Or maybe a faulty slot?

Running on FW800 for now. Bit of of a performance hit, but adequate.

Cheers!
 
Try booting up with the card already inserted.

Also, the expresscard slot does indeed NOT lock, and I hate the springloaded push in to insert/push in to extract. The old PCMCIA slots with a button to push out the cards was much better (although still not a locking connector).
 
Cheers.

I've already discovered that you can't plug/unplug while the mbp is on. A bit disappointing that since it means you have to power down every time you move! Kinda defeats the point of having a laptop. I bet you could write a widget that gets around that.

Any one else here getting by using FW800 only? How you finding that?
 
The sonnet cards have a piece if software that allows you to eject a card. Also be careful about the reconnect sequence

Esata first, then power.

It's not hotswap, but I have no issues with esata this way. I just hate that I can't find a one foot esata cable.

David
 
I had this problems using specific eSata Hard Drive (all of them from the same manufacture)
 
W e s t r e r n D i g i t a l . I was using a very cheap express, card can not remember right now which it was, but i could eject the card normally and back in, while my MBP on. Just had to install its drivers, same with sonnet!
 
So you had a prob with WD drives and cured it with the driver?

Hmm do you think it's possible that driver will work with everybody's hardware..? :smile: I should be able to get that off their site.

But before trying that I need to research how to get rid of it if it doesn't work!
 
I use an older (discontinued) Dynex card on my mid-2007 MBP for personal use. I can easily eject and reconnect the card without having to power down. Only issue I've run into is using drives that "sleep" after a bit of non-use (I'm looking at you, Wester Digital). When trying to access said drive, the computer locks up when the drive spins up.

Not sure if I'd recommend it for any professional use, but I haven't had any problem for over three years now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top