Need help geeting a SATA drive accessible

[Mike Keithley]

Here are the boot messages starting from the first mention of libata.  My SATA controler is an intel and this was defined in the SCSI section.

libata version 1.02 loaded.
ata_piix version 1.02
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[C] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
ata: 0x1f0 IDE port busy
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xFEA8 irq 15
ATA: abnormal status 0xFF on port 0x177
ata1: disabling port
scsi1 : ata_piix

[SCSI0 is the controler I use to run Linux from an external SCSI drive.]

I beleive we've got a hardware-configuration problem which probably could be
changed in CMOS.  If anyone can recommend any changes, I'd appreciate it.
Again, this is a Dell dimentions 8400 machine.

Many thanks.