HDD SMART and temp no appear in new external enclosure (Vantec NexStar HX4)

[gregglee]

I previously had two hdds in separate external enclosures (one esata and one usb3).  All readings including SMART and temperature have been reported by AIDA64. 

 

I moved both drives to one four drive enclosure connected by esata.  Other two trays are empty.  The enclosure is a VANTEC NexStar HX4 NST-640SU3.  Everything works, but AIDA64 reports SMART and temperature for only one of the two drives.  Temperature is just not there at all.  Under storage/smart the name of both drives appears, but SMART is blank and gray.for one.  If I reverse the positions in the enclosure, no SMART or temp changes to the other drive.  Both drives appear completely in all other AIDA64 pages and tools where an hdd should appear. Only SMART and temp are affected.  

 

This issue might of course originate with the enclosure.

[Fiery]

1) Did you have to install any drivers for the Vantec NexStar enclosure?

2) Do you know what sort of controller chip does the Vantec NexStar enclosure has inside?

 

Thanks,

Fiery

[gregglee]

No driver install.  Instructions said that Windows 7 would take care of it.   But I didn't see any evidence that a driver was actually installed   No "device is ready for use" message for example.   The enclosure doesn't seem to appear as a listed device.

 

Chip.  I could not find it listed on Vantec web site, and so far no where else.  

[gregglee]

In a newegg "feedback" for this drive I found a review that said:  "It uses the JMicron JMS539 USB 3.0 chipset... The eSATA chipset is JMicron JMB391.  He didn't say how he learned this.  Another newegg reviewer using all four trays said that 3 of 4 drives were read..    

 

On the other hand I got a reply from Vantec support after my first post here that says:  "It will read the first drive and the rest is block by the chipset that control the SATA drive."  

[gregglee]

I got an email back from Vantec confirming that the controller chipsets are JMicron JMS539A (USB3)  + JMB391 (esata).

 

Specs listed  here  http://www.jmicron.com/Product_list.htm

 

My motherboard esata controller is JMB361 (with most recent driver) so I guess everything is about as compatable as it could be. 

[Fiery]

Thank you for the info.  We'll try to get a similar box to diagnose this issue.  However, as with other multi-bay external HDD/SSD boxes, there's only a slim chance that we could provide SMART information (incl. temperature readings) for more than 1 drive in the box

[gregglee]

I realize the problem is likely the enclosure, but for the database: 

 

All above is using esata connection.  I tried connecting by usb3 rather than esata.  In this configuration windows did indicate a driver being installed, and the enclosure appears as a "USB mass storage device" separate from the two hdd devices.  hdd reporting is similar to esata connected, but even less for the second drive.  For example in Windows Device Manager and on some aida64 pages, it is identified only as "hard drive" rather than by name.  In aida64 SMART page it does not appear on the drive list at all.    

 

Separately, when I changed to usb3 and again when I changed back to esata, the custoimized drive labels in OSD were scrambled, similar to as I reported in thread on not reading SSD temperature.