# JMicron Problem?



## balloonball (Feb 28, 2007)

Hi, folks. From what I could gather on the Internet, JMicron JMB36X controller has had a long-standing issue with CD/DVD drives and I'm assuming this is the problem I'm having right now.

My computer isn't recognizing that my two disk drives are DVD RW and, therefore, won't burn to DVD's or even see the DVD's that are in the drives. 

I downloaded the latest JMicron driver, but that only made things worse (PC didn't recognize one of the drives at all), so I did a system restore. My disk drives were running extremely poorly after that, so I uninstalled the JMicron driver, did a re-boot and now everything is more or less where I was to begin with.

From what I'm gathering, I may have to re-install XP and do a hands on install of the JMicron driver at some point in the installation process, but I don't have a floppy drive to pull this move off. I'd like to avoid doing a re-install, of course.

It would be great if someone could walk me through a solution in the simplest, dumbest terms possible. I've read lots of threads on this issue, but I have to say that the terminology was way over my head. Also many of the threads were quite old and offered a few different solutions, thus muddying the water a bit....so apologies if you've seen this problem before. 

I've got an ASUS P5B and Intel Core2 [email protected] Both of my optical disk drives are set to scsi (I'm not sure if that's important).

I hope to hear from ya'll soon! 

Cam


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## norton850 (Mar 9, 2004)

Where are your drives set to SCSI? Are they SATA or IDE drives?


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## balloonball (Feb 28, 2007)

norton850 said:


> Where are your drives set to SCSI? Are they SATA or IDE drives?


Hi, norton850.

In Device Manager/DVD/CD-ROM Drives/Properties/Details, it says

SCSI\CDROM&VEN_HL-DT-ST&PROD_DVDRAM_GSA-H10N&REV_JL12\5&14880C4E&1&000

Also, in Device Manager, one of my optical drives is described as an SCSI Cd ROM Device...however the other drive is just "CD/ROM Drive."

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to find out if they are SATA or IDE...by the same token, in Device Manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, the two Intel ICH8 ports are Serial ATA Storage Controller 2825 and 2820, respectively; the two Primary and two Secondary Channels are all IDE.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but I greatly appreciate your interest.

Cam


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## norton850 (Mar 9, 2004)

Windows sometimes does some odd ID'ing. It will commonly call SATA type drives "SCSI". For example I have three SATA hard drives. The RAID pair it lists as SCSI and the other one as IDE. I wonder what VISTA does with all this?

Anyway it would be somewhat unusual for your optical drives to be SATA (which Windows might call SCSI). It's not impossible, just unlikely. Other than all this, does Device Manager list the two drives as working properly?


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## balloonball (Feb 28, 2007)

norton850 said:


> Windows sometimes does some odd ID'ing. It will commonly call SATA type drives "SCSI". For example I have three SATA hard drives. The RAID pair it lists as SCSI and the other one as IDE. I wonder what VISTA does with all this?
> 
> Anyway it would be somewhat unusual for your optical drives to be SATA (which Windows might call SCSI). It's not impossible, just unlikely. Other than all this, does Device Manager list the two drives as working properly?


Hi, norton850.

Yes, Device Manager says the optical drives are working properly. Why would it say that when they clearly aren't?

Cam


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## replay (Aug 13, 2003)

taken from "hardwaresecrets.com" http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/408

It is very important to notice that the single ATA/133 port available on this motherboard is controlled by the JMicron chip, not by the chipset. This means that if you still have a parallel IDE optical drive it will only be recognized on Windows after you install JMicron's driver. The problem is that this driver comes on the motherboard CD-ROM, and you won't be able to install it, as the system does not recognize your optical drive. You can download the driver from the net, however the driver for the on-board LAN port is also on the CD-ROM… The only option you have is to copy the JMicron driver from the CD to a floppy disk or a USB pen drive using another PC. This problem happens not only with this motherboard from ASUS, but also with all other motherboards based on Intel P965 chipset we've seen to date. Of course if you have a SATA optical drive you won't face this issue.


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## accat13 (Jun 8, 2005)

Have a look at this thread http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/548288-please-help-me-asus-p5b.html?highlight=jmicron

I do believe you are going to have to find a floppy drive for temporary purposes I did....My ide dvdrw drive still shows up as scsi (no biggie)...I put my sati hardrive on both controllers the jmicron and the intel...The jmicron does not give drive stats but comes up as udma6 whereas the intel controller lists as udma5 with drive stats...I'm very close to buying a sata dvdrw drive...The price has come down alot in the past month or two, you can now find them for about 50 $ Canadian ....You will get the added bonus of better cable management and sticking with the native intel controller...

Reason for edit Replay you beat me to it  ....basically same information


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## balloonball (Feb 28, 2007)

Hey, thanks replay and accat13 for your replies to my post. 

To be frank, I've seen just about every thread and comment on the web about this issue (including the one kindly referred to by the two of you), but I'm a bit too technically ignorant to confidently go ahead with the solution.

What I think I know about this:

I must ensure that the JMicron controller driver is installed during the XP installation process.

I must have the driver on a floppy or a USB drive since the JMicron driver is bundled with the ASUS driver CD.

I must, at some point in the installation process, press F6 to get the ball rolling to install the driver.

All the little details in-between are very, very cloudy for me. In fact, I've re-installed XP Pro three times in the past month or so and each time the process was different - I don't know why that is, but it doesn't concern me. I only mention this to demonstrate what a noob I am.

Some of what I don't know:

Do I have to completely re-install windows?

If not, then I suppose I must do an XP repair? 

Either way, I don't have a floppy drive. So do I have to install one? I don't mind doing that since it may come in handy in the future.

On the other hand, I do have a USB drive. Can I install the JMicron driver from it? And, how can I find out if my PC will allow this? Does my USB drive have to be completely empty except for the JMicron driver?

Finally, if any of you can, could you direct me to an explicit, but simple, walkthrough that will resolve this JMicron baloney? I know it's a lot to ask, but I really want to get this right the first time. 

Thanks again, folks.

Cam

PS: would it just be easier to install a couple of SATA CD/DVD drives (whatever those are)? I don't really care about cost.


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## replay (Aug 13, 2003)

here is asus chat......there is alot of info from regular users ...scan thru the pages or u could sign up and post

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.asp..._id=1&model=P5B&page_size=10&page=1&count=512


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## balloonball (Feb 28, 2007)

replay said:


> here is asus chat......there is alot of info from regular users ...scan thru the pages or u could sign up and post
> 
> http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.asp..._id=1&model=P5B&page_size=10&page=1&count=512


Replay, I obviously hadn't read just about every thread and post on this topic. I originally went to the ASUS site and did a "JMicron" search and came up with nothing so I just left - I gave up too quickly...turns out there are lots of posts there if I'd just bothered to go to the forum page you specified. Thanks a lot, replay.

Now, I think the problem is solved...and quite simply at that.

Here is the quote of the solution:

_In "Device Mgr" got to the "Scsi / Raid Controllers" icon. Look for JMicron and "right click" then "click" "update driver". Select "No, not at this time" and click "Next." Then select "Install from specific location" and click "Next." Now select "Don't Search , I'll choose driver to install from a list." You will now see two (2) options. "JMicron JMB36X controller" and "Standard dual channel PCI / IDE controller." Select the "Standard dual channel PCI / IDE controller" and click "Next" to allow the computer to do the rest. When finished go to "Add / Remove programs and "Remove" anything JMicron that's in there. You don't need to reboot. Now go back and see if all is well. Good Luck. Worked for me because the JMicron drivers are crap. _

Here is the link to the thread:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070308063830783&board_id=1&model=P5B&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Now, I don't know if any other issues will arise from mucking about with JMicron, but so far, so good.

I want to thank all the folks who contributed to this resolution. ODD's are running much faster now and there is no longer a dragging lag when I insert a new disk AND I've successfully burned a DVD - Yippee!

I have to say, though, that I was unable to remove JRAID from Add/Remove programs as specified in the solution. InstallShield Wizard said: "JMB36X RAID Configurer...INF not found! Setup program will terminate!" Makes me wonder if the JMicron driver will re-install when I re-boot...AND, so I've just re-booted and Windows didn't try to install the driver for JMicron. Good.

Thanks again, folks! I love this web-site...it's been a great help to me and hasn't let me down. I hope to return the favour many times over!

Take care!

Cam


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## Media Director (Jun 5, 2007)

Followed the instructions above to correct ASUS P5B (w/Micron chipset) inability to burn cds or dvds through Windows XP pro. Instructions worked just fine. Also removed JRAID, which did not reinstall (at least it does not show up). Windows still does not recognize any blank CD or DVD. Third-party burn programs work just fine. Any more suggestions? Thanks, Tony


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## brk1 (Jul 1, 2007)

I was a bit worried after purchasing an ASUS P5W Deluxe ,I've been running 2 dvd burners ,a dvd rom and a cd writer as well ,I was stuck for choice as nearly all modern m/boards only come with one ide channel these days ,accepting 2 extra devices. I've read these posts and many others about the jmicron controller not accepting atapi devices and how some ppl have got around it ,jmicron claim the chip used on the P5W Deluxe board did work with atapi drives. I finally set my board up with the 2 dvd burners that I use most on the ICH7 ide controller ,then set the dvd rom and CD writer on the jmicron channel .I installed XP Pro as a complete fresh install and never added the extra drivers for the jmicron at F6 time , all my drives work fine , all show up in my software appz ,as expected, only the dvd drives show up at post time but as soon as the jmicron post screen comes up ,the drives are recognised as ODD0 and ODD1 and all perform correctly once windows has booted. I understand the P5B only has a jmicron controller and don't know if it runs the same chipset but my particular jmicron works with atapi DVD/CD drives without any additional drivers or setup options ,just a straight forward windows install.I'm not running any raid setup , just a 250 gb sata 2 hdrive on the ICH7 controller :up:


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