ASUS P5B Deluxe cannot read PATA :(

[Blouge]

I can't get the JMicron IDE connector to accept any hard drives. It sits during POST saying "Detecting drives..." for several minutes and then finally gives up. If I plug a DVD drive in instead, it instantly shows the name of the drive and boots up.

Nothing seems to change these facts; I tried different cables (both ATA 133 I think), DVD drives, hard drives, master/slave jumper settings, BIOS settings. I also used AFUDOS.exe to flash to BIOS 0804. The hard drives generate noise and heat, and the enclosure I tried shows both the "IDE active" and "IDE power" lights on, but they never are recognized. The HD's I tried were 100 GB and 20 GB Western Digital 7200 RPM's.

Between this JMicron bug and the crackling sounds on this board, I know what the AFU stands for!!

 

[rwpritchett]

What do you have the JMicron controller set to in the BIOS... IDE, AHCI, or RAID?

Also, have you tried cable select?

One more thing, my WD drive has a separate jumper setting for when it's used as a single drive. This is not master, slave, or CS... it is for single only. I remember my WD drive failing to detect when setup as a single drive but not jumpered correctly, so this may be the same problem. Look up your model on WD's website and see if the drive has this jumper setting.

Post back if you get it working, or if you don't and we'll try something else.

 

[Blouge]

Thanks for the suggestions! I've actually tried all three JMicron settings and many jumper settings. The WD drives seem to have 5 jumper settings, CSEL, MASTER, SLAVE, (blank), and PM2. I'll look into what the last two do.

I think that, because IDE DVD drives work perfectly, the problem has to do with the interface speed: my JMicron is unstable at ATA/133 and needs some lower speed to work. Setting the hard drive as a slave to a crappy CD-ROM to slow it down might work. I remember the drive working once before on this particular PC, that took quite a few tries.

I tried MANY jumper/BIOS combinations with four different devices (2 DVD, 2 HD) and two IDE cables (both ATA/133 IIRC) last night and all failed to get any HD working. Maybe it's a defective MB or a conflict with Western Digital drives. I'll try again and keep some consistent records tonight and flash through every BIOS version 710 through 910.

Hopefully my PC does not burn out during the testing, each little change requires about 4 reboots due to the double "stuttering" bootup problem and I get tired of waiting 5 minutes for JMicron BIOS to time out and fail! Also, I either have to choose the background image at bootup time, and remember to hit Del VERY quickly; or I have to turn the image off and have my CRT monitor flash loudly and repeatedly as the BIOS resets to the same text display mode over and over. I'm not happy with this board currently

 

[rwpritchett]

Double-check those jumper settings, here's a direct quote from WD's FAQ:

Incorrect Jumper Settings will also prevent the BIOS from detecting your drive. The most common incorrect jumper setting used is for a drive that is alone on the data cable. Keep in mind that the concept of Master/Slave applies to a given EIDE channel. If there are two drives on the data cable, one must be Master and one designated as Slave. If the drive is the only device on the cable, it should be jumpered as a Single drive, NOT a Master. To do this, place a jumper shunt on pins 4 & 6, or remove the jumper shunt completely to set the drive as a Single drive.

Also, here is the jumper settings for all of WD's drives from their website:

I don't know if you have a 10-pin, 6-pin, or 9-pin drive, but the picture shows a "single drive" setting for all of them. If all else fails, maybe the JMicron controller is bad.

 

[Blouge]

I have 10-pin drives. Removing the jumper results in "Single" mode. I tried this and other settings as depicted on the drives themselves. Nothing worked.

I should try Single mode connected to the gray cable end. I haven't tried that combination yet; I think its actually incorrect. Also, I'll try the "sideways" jumper settings that select the Standard mode. I never knew about those, thanks!

 

[rwpritchett]

Be sure to post back if you get it working. If the JMicron is fried, I guess you have three options.

1) RMA the board
2) Buy PATA->SATA adapter
3) Buy PATA controller card.

Good luck.

Also, maybe try different molex power connectors from the PSU. Maybe the HDD's aren't getting enough juice.

 

[Blouge]

BTW, is there any way to get access to the JMicron BIOS to set hard drive parameters, like the normal BIOS SATA screen? I wonder if they are set to something other than "Auto" on mine, perhaps it's set to "DVD" or something? That could explain why PATA hard drives aren't accepted.

I ALWAYS have a "ATAPI CD-ROM" as a choice in my boot menu, even when none is connected! Is this normal?

I will try connecting two DVD drives at once. If only one works then it could be further evidence that the JMicron BIOS settings are wrong. I thought pressing Ctrl-J had something to do with JMicron BIOS, but it doesn't do anything like Ctrl-I does.

 

[Blouge]

Thanks for your help. It turns out the cause of my problems is my own stupidity, plus my 100 GB hard disk dying. It quickly gets very hot, and hard to touch, in a small area. My 20 GB PATA HD now works fine with JMicron.

I swear I checked it over and over before and neither hard drive was working. Either I goofed and didn't check it properly (most likely), or resetting my CMOS last night helped "fix" JMicron.

I still have a meaningless "ATAPI CD-ROM" as a choice in my boot menu; I guess this is normal on an ASUS P5B.

 

[rwpritchett]

Yeah, my P5B-Deluxe has the ATAPI CD Rom option in the boot menu as well as my two DVD burners. I don't pay it any attention.

Well, since your 100GB HDD is dying, it's a wonderful opportunity to upgrade to a nice SATA HDD.

So what exactly was the cause of your PATA troubles?

 

[Blouge]

>your 100GB HDD is dying

Yeah, It's not recognized and I would be afraid to put it into a PC since it generates a lot of localized heat, on the exposed circuit board underneath, within seconds. This HD had a some backup data, I wanted to use it because I had the same data on my SATA drives but wanted to un-RAID them. Due to the drive being dead I had to use an old 200 GB hard drive and in the end I now have two un-RAIDed SATA drives on my PC with copies of the data. I heard the best way to deal with dead HD's is to drive a nail through it and toss it.

>So what exactly was the cause of your PATA troubles?

My 100 GB PATA drive was dead. With the 20 GB, either JMicron was being flaky and was refusing it or I originally wasn't attaching/jumping it properly 😳 . It works now.