A disk drive including a disk, a signal measurement circuit to measure amplitudes of signals received from the host, and a processor for controlling operations in the disk drive. The processor under the control of a program in conjunction with the signal measurement circuit: measures an amplitude of a signal from a host during a first speed negotiation process and determines if the amplitude of the signal from the host is above a pre-determined amplitude for the disk drive. If so, the processor commands the disk drive to transmit the signals to the host at the measured amplitude of the first speed negotiation process. However, if the amplitude is below the pre-determined amplitude for the disk drive, a second speed negotiation process is forced using a low frequency signal from the host and calculations are performed to determine appropriate transmit amplitudes for the interconnect.