Thanks Mark.
Neither the Device Manager nor the Storage Manager (Disk Management) show any drives I plug into the SATA2 ports (HDD or CDROM). Those same devices will show and function perfectly if they are plugged into the SATA3 ports.
As an example, with a 250GB HDD in SATA3_0, DVD/CD writer in SATA3_1, and 1TB HDD in SATA2_4, the title above the port designations during AHCI boot up shows "03 Devices". The boot-up will hang for a few seconds as it tries to detect the device in SATA2_4, but then simply moves on and will post "Port-04: No device detected".
With a 250GB HDD in SATA3_0, DVD/CD writer in SATA3_1 and no other SATA devices connected, the title above the port designations during AHCI boot-up shows "02 Devices".
This tells me the system knows the third device exists, but simply will not accept it for some reason, even though all three devices will work in any of the SATA3 ports.
There are different code numbers in the upper write corner of the AHCI boot-up screen. "18" when a device is in a SATA2 port, and "16" with no device is in a SATA2 port. That could be a clue as well I assume.
I hope that helps!
Thanks!
Steve