fedora installer not recognizing SATA

Hello
i am trying to install Fedora 6 on the Dell Optiplex box and installer does not recognize the SATA drive.
The BIOS does not have an option to switch to PATA.
Is there a way to upgrade the installer?
Any other solution?

thank you

You did not specify what exact Optiplex model that you have, but have you considered Fedora 8, which would likely support your system hardware?

It is Optiplex 775
I actually have Fedora 8 running on it now. The problem is that I have problems with video quality (due to either driver or new Xorg). So I wanted to backtrack to Fedora 6...

thnx

Take a look at this article.

It describes a different model, but what happens when you pass;

linux pci=nomsi as he did at the installer splash screen?

What graphics card is in this system?

I cannot get past 'Select driver' stage at the very beginning. The installer cannot find the hard drive, offers to Select driver, i choose 'ata_piix' and it fails.

The box has Q35 chipset and integrated 3100 Intel graphics

Looks like ICH9 support for sata, from what I have read, was not available until the 2.6.21 kernel. This would explain why Fedora 8 works.