Hi,
  I have Dell Vostro 3550 laptop with ExpressCard slot (BIOS A12, Intel SandyBridge, pciehp). I did not have problems with SATA drives attached via eSATA port directly wired to SandyBridge chip nor with eSATa port provided by an ExpressCard based on Sil3132 chip.

  I recently updated firmware from A10 to A12 and also added some kernel features, I think DMAR/PCI-IOV were was one of them. I will have to experiment with that.

  Now I do have problems to connect a 3.5" drive to the eSATA port, without getting it detected but after a some second being rests. I think kernel is too eager to do hard resets on the SATA connection. It happens with both eSATA port from SandyBridge and also with the eSATA ports from Sil3132. It happens also with various 3.5" SATA drives, various power supplies.



Anyway, here is I got when plugging the ExpressCard into its slot. Notably, I had the SATA data cables already plugged into the SATA card and both drives were spun up already as I anticipated the RESETs being issued otherwise. Still, this approach did not work:

May 15 22:04:25 vostro kernel: pciehp 0000:00:1c.7:pcie04: pcie_isr: intr_loc 8
May 15 22:04:25 vostro kernel: pciehp 0000:00:1c.7:pcie04: Presence/Notify input change
May 15 22:04:25 vostro kernel: pciehp 0000:00:1c.7:pcie04: Card present on Slot(7)
May 15 22:04:25 vostro kernel: pciehp 0000:00:1c.7:pcie04: Surprise Removal
May 15 22:04:25 vostro kernel: pciehp 0000:00:1c.7:pcie04: check_link_active: lnk_status = 7011
May 15 22:04:25 vostro kernel: pciehp 0000:00:1c.7:pcie04: pciehp_check_link_status: lnk_status = 7011
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: [1095:3132] type 00 class 0x018000
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: reg 10: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000007f 64bit]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: reg 18: [mem 0x00000000-0x00003fff 64bit]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: reg 20: [io  0x0000-0x007f]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: reg 30: [mem 0x00000000-0x0007ffff pref]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: supports D1 D2
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: disabling ASPM on pre-1.1 PCIe device.  You can enable it with 'pcie_aspm=force'
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: BAR 6: assigned [mem 0xf0000000-0xf007ffff pref]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: BAR 2: assigned [mem 0xf6c00000-0xf6c03fff 64bit]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: BAR 2: set to [mem 0xf6c00000-0xf6c03fff 64bit] (PCI address [0xf6c00000-0xf6c03fff])
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0xf6c04000-0xf6c0407f 64bit]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: BAR 0: set to [mem 0xf6c04000-0xf6c0407f 64bit] (PCI address [0xf6c04000-0xf6c0407f])
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: BAR 4: assigned [io  0xc000-0xc07f]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pci 0000:11:00.0: BAR 4: set to [io  0xc000-0xc07f] (PCI address [0xc000-0xc07f])
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pcieport 0000:00:1c.7: PCI bridge to [bus 11-16]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pcieport 0000:00:1c.7:   bridge window [io  0xc000-0xdfff]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pcieport 0000:00:1c.7:   bridge window [mem 0xf6c00000-0xf7cfffff]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: pcieport 0000:00:1c.7:   bridge window [mem 0xf0000000-0xf10fffff 64bit pref]
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: sata_sil24 0000:11:00.0: enabling device (0100 -> 0103)
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: sata_sil24 0000:11:00.0: enabling bus mastering
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: scsi12 : sata_sil24
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: scsi13 : sata_sil24
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: ata9: SATA max UDMA/100 host m128@0xf6c04000 port 0xf6c00000 irq 19
May 15 22:04:26 vostro kernel: ata10: SATA max UDMA/100 host m128@0xf6c04000 port 0xf6c02000 irq 19
May 15 22:04:28 vostro kernel: ata9: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0)
May 15 22:04:30 vostro kernel: ata10: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0)
May 15 22:04:47 vostro kernel: ata10: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x10000 action 0xe frozen
May 15 22:04:47 vostro kernel: ata10: irq_stat 0x00a00080, device exchanged
May 15 22:04:47 vostro kernel: ata10: SError: { PHYRdyChg }
May 15 22:04:47 vostro kernel: ata10: hard resetting link
May 15 22:04:49 vostro kernel: dmar: DRHD: handling fault status reg 2
May 15 22:04:49 vostro kernel: dmar: DMAR:[DMA Read] Request device [11:00.0] fault addr fffc0000 \x0aDMAR:[fault reason 06] PTE Read access is not set
May 15 22:04:49 vostro kernel: ata10: softreset failed (SRST command error)
May 15 22:04:49 vostro kernel: ata10: reset failed (errno=-5), retrying in 8 secs
May 15 22:04:57 vostro kernel: ata10: hard resetting link
May 15 22:04:59 vostro kernel: dmar: DRHD: handling fault status reg 2
May 15 22:04:59 vostro kernel: dmar: DMAR:[DMA Read] Request device [11:00.0] fault addr fffc0000 \x0aDMAR:[fault reason 06] PTE Read access is not set
May 15 22:04:59 vostro kernel: ata10: softreset failed (SRST command error)
May 15 22:04:59 vostro kernel: ata10: reset failed (errno=-5), retrying in 8 secs
May 15 22:05:07 vostro kernel: ata10: hard resetting link
May 15 22:05:09 vostro kernel: dmar: DRHD: handling fault status reg 2
May 15 22:05:09 vostro kernel: dmar: DMAR:[DMA Read] Request device [11:00.0] fault addr fffc0000 \x0aDMAR:[fault reason 06] PTE Read access is not set
May 15 22:05:09 vostro kernel: ata10: softreset failed (SRST command error)
May 15 22:05:09 vostro kernel: ata10: reset failed (errno=-5), retrying in 33 secs
May 15 22:05:42 vostro kernel: ata10: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
May 15 22:05:42 vostro kernel: ata10: hard resetting link
May 15 22:05:44 vostro kernel: ata10: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 10)
May 15 22:05:44 vostro kernel: ata10: EH complete


I better unplugged the SATA data cable from the drive to save its heads from the additional RESET-induced shocks.

Wasn't there some change between 3.10.12 and 3.10.72 which makes kernel more eager to issue the soft and hard resets on the SATA bus? What do you get from the above messages?

Thank you