Packard Bell ixtreme M5850 or Acer AG3600 Acer website it returns not found message.

Hi all,

I have managed to reinstate an old win7 computer. Unfortunately, the PC does not detect any hdd if I plug it into SATA ports (apart from Win7 which is working fine). If I look at bios it say AHCI Port 1-5: Not Present. I imagine this could be because of bios is outdated. Currently I am running P01-A1 version as shown below.

The reason why I am in Acer website it because Packard Bell does not exist anymore. The motherboard is Acer's (although I cannot see model number written anywhere on the motherboard). When I enter serial number or SNID on Acer website it returns not found message.

Any help will be much appreciated.

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

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billsey

I don't believe there is any newer BIOS for those. You likely have to enable each SATA port in the BIOS, but I don't have example pictures of those pages…

JackE

Tap DEL key on startup to enter BIOS menu. Go to the Advanced features and Integrated periperals to enable SATA drive controllers.

intercomp

Thanks for your quick response, billsey and JackE. I went through BIOS setup to see if I could enable it but as you can see from the screenshots below there is no such option, billsey. Similarly, I am struggling to find any option for Integrated Peripherals, JackE. Please see the screenshots below.

[Edited the thread to hide sensitive content]

JackE

> > Unfortunately, the PC does not detect any hdd if I plug it into SATA ports (apart from Win7 which is working fine)>

Not the same BIOS. What SATA ports are you trying to use? Take a phone photo. The Boot menu looks OK to me. What are you trying to do?

Try this. Plug in an HDD you don't think is detected. Then boot to Win7. Open the elevated command prompt. Enter 'diskpart'. At the DISKPART> prompt enter 'list disk'. Post a photo of result.

intercomp

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1260555#Comment_1260555

What I am trying to do is build an ZFS system/pool on an old desktop (Packard Bell ixtreme I8525UK). I have bought some 500gb hdds and 250gb ssds to test ZFS system (once all drives up and running). I want to use all 6 SATA ports available on this motherboard as shown below. Right now windows 7 OS is plugged in on PORT 0 which is in the blue port in the middle top row and it is working fine.

I remember trying cmd > list disk and it definitely wasn't showing hdd I plugged in. I am just waiting for some SATA data and power cables to try and see if it makes any difference.

JackE

> >remember trying cmd > list disk> >

Try it again with the data cable you have. You also need to attach a power cable to the 3.5" HDD or it won't work.

You need to be at the elevated command prompt C:\windows\system32>_ before entering 'diskpart'. Once DISKPART> prompt appears, then enter 'list disk'.

intercomp

I am at work right now. I will give this a try and let you know as soon as I reach home. Many thanks, JackE.

intercomp

This is the setup 250GB SSD connected to SATA4 port.

20240219_193247.jpg

20240219_193306.jpg

JackE

Doesn't seem to be powered. Pull the power cable connector off. Check for voltage between red wire & each one of the other black & yellow wires with a multimeter. Also the data connector doesn't seem lined up with the ribbon. Drive really should be grounded to chassis.

intercomp

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1260629#Comment_1260629

It must be powered, Windows 7 is running on this primary HDD (1.5TB), plugged in on SATA 0. I can hear 500GB hdd spinning on SATA4 port. 12V is between Yellow+Black and Black. 5V is between Red and Black.

JackE

Does the WD & SATA0 work with the other data cable?

How can you hear an SSD spinning?

intercomp

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1260639#Comment_1260639

Yes WD works with the other data cable. I have tried swapping them. I have 5x 500gb Toshiba 2.5inch HDD. As well as a couple of 3.5inch HDD. I can hear them spinning. I was referring to those when I had them plugged in. This is so weird 😆. I think it must be outdated BIOS but I can't find them anywhere.

JackE

So only the SATA0 socket seems active?

intercomp

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1260651#Comment_1260651

Yes Sata0 works

JackE

With another HDD or SSD attached, go back into the BIOS menu. Click on the ADVANCED tab. Does your BIOS look like the following image? You should be able to enable up to 3 other drives from this option section.

intercomp

Good

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1260715#Comment_1260715

Yes I have seen that before. I can't remember if there was an option to enable anything. There couldn't have been anything promising otherwise I would have taken a photo. I will take screenshot when I reach home.

Good news is, before I left to work, I updated BIOS with model AG3600 which has same motherboard (I think). I have managed to get SATA 1 working i.e. the both blue SATA ports are working now in AHCI mode and none of black SATA ports are working (SATA2, 4, 5, 6).

Here is the link

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/AG3600/downloads?suggest=ag3600;0

Screenshot of the page

Here is the screenshot of installation.

JackE

> > Good news is, before I left to work, I updated BIOS with model AG3600 which has same motherboard (I think) > >

Not sure about vR01-A1. That seems to be for an updated much more recent mainboard design. While they might be similar, I'm surprised it installed without bricking the board.

For your mainboard vintage, the original AMIBIOS version seems to be 2.02.1205 that supports 4 SATA ports. It was released near the start of the Win7 era. Simply Google searching the number '2.02.1205' will turn up plenty of BIOS hits for that machine's mainboard.

Here is a link to a discussion of the Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel 2nd generation mainboard. It uses the same BIOS firmware. There seems to be later versions that might —- or might not —- work properly or at all.

intercomp

Thanks JackE. I will give it a go when I reach home. Is there a simple way to backup existing bios just to be on the safe side?

intercomp

Here is screenshot of Advanced tab in bios.

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1260745#Comment_1260745

I have downloaded zip files given in the above link. I need some time to figure out how to flash this on BIOS. I am not too much concerned if it bricks motherboard I was planning on getting a new motherboard anyway. Do you know which one of these I should go for?