Just because it's attached directly to the motherboard doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

If you don't know who the SATA adapter vendor is, open up your device manager and find it. It might say in the description. If not, open up its properties and go to the "Details" tab. Select "Device Instance Id" and find the values associated with "VEN" and "DEV". (For instance, the Device Instance Id for the ATA controller in this computer is "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24CA&SUBSYS_052D1014&REV_01\3&61AAA01&0&F9". The values I'm interested in are "8086" and "24CA".) Then search for them at the PCI Database. That should point you in the right direction to find better drivers.