My love of asus has official ended... another P5B warning of problems...

A

azneinstein

Gawd
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
784
I have always owned asus from the KT800 days, to the a7n8x deluxe, but recently went to bfg and had some problems so I decided to go back to my ol' faithful asus for my new c2d setup.

Set up:
e6300
regular p5b with updated bios
1gb ddr2800 corsair XMS
2 sata: 250gb and 200gb WD hard drives
IDE: 1 DVDRW, seagate 400gb

The problems... first off- I'm installing a "stripped" down version of windows XP, so I know it shouldn't be program issues, it is a brand new install- fyi- this will be my 5th reformat install of windows TODAY as I thought maybe it was my copy of windows but seeing that 4 different versions has resulted the same way- it's the crap motherboard and drivers.

First problem: After the first istallation of windows, after the boot menu finishes it waits... for about 1-2 minutes before showing the windows loading screen... Windows would also "jitter" "lag" and stutter with any movie/music file.

Attempted to troubleshoot it only to discover that it was the horrendous Jmicron drivers that seem to have plagued all other p5b owners. Up to now, I've only heard the legitimate reviews and yet to google "p5b problems."

Things got better when I uninstalled the sound drivers and disabled HD audio, doing two channel stereo anyways.

Fun part: So if I disable the Jmicron drivers in the bios, my IDE drives aren't detected and there goes my media files along with my DVDRW. BUTTTT- the slow boot time is gone and it boots up perfectly!

So the dilemna- I could return the board and get credit for it, but wasting money and time. Any idea on the issues? I can't/don't want to get another sound card, and I really rather keep these drivers rather than go full SATA- broke anyways.
 
Have you tried using the windows supplied IDE drivers instead of the JMicron drivers? That's how I have my P5B Deluxe system setup and it's working just fine.
 
I'm using the P5B deluxe with SATA drives (5) and 2 opticals.

Make sure you set the Jmicron controller to IDE in the bios and just use the windows drivers. Works perfect for me.
 
I'm using a P5B Deluxe with 2 SATA drives on the Intel controller and one DVD-RW optical drive on the JMicron controller with no sluggish boot problems. Just make sure not to install the JMicron drivers in Windows or any other software that comes on the installation disc for that matter.

All is not perfect though with my P5B Deluxe. Compared to the trouble free DS3 I previously built, this Asus board has been a bit of a PITA.

Problem 1): I tried to install XP to a RAID set-up but so far I've had no luck and wasted a pile of time trying. I started with the bios that was shipped with the board, then I tried with the 0804 bios and now I just switched to the recently released 0910 and it still results in a BSOD soon after I complete the F6 procedure and load the RAID drivers. I tried using the Intel RAID drivers from the original installation disc and I also tried with the latest drivers from the Asus and Intel websites but still the same problem.

Trying to install in AHCI mode also ends up in a BSOD. Windows XP installs just fine when I install it to a single hard disk with the default XP IDE drivers and the computer is rock solid stable. Today I will waste another day trying to figure this problem out by attempting to install using XP Home SP2, XP Pro SP2, SP1, SP0. If nothing works, time to RMA.

2) When overclocking I have no problem running my E6400 at 8x425 = 3400 MHz on this board with stock voltage. With some extra voltage I can even boot into Windows at 8x450 = 3600 MHz but there is a bug that as soon as the FSB gets over 380 MHz, the S3 suspend to ram feature stops working. This is a known bug that they tried to previously fix with a bios update but it still hasn't been fixed. When you try to restart after a suspend the computer tries to boot up, stops, tries again and then just sits there with a blank screen. You then have to cycle the power switch and wait and then do a full reboot. Suspend mode worked perfectly on the Gigabyte DS3 even at 7x473.

3) I'm not impressed with the SoundMax onboard sound. With the latest drivers I don't seem to be having the problems that a lot of users have complained about but it sounds like the bass is mostly missing. With my previous mobo with an on board Realtek chip I never needed to have my Logitech sub even at half way. There used to be piles of bass. Now when I move the control from no bass to full bass I barely notice any difference. Something is not right. I'm hoping the EBay Audigy2 card I just ordered will fix that problem.


The P5B Deluxe is a stable board with a pile of features and it overclocks like crazy but I'm thinking about RMAing it before it's too late and I will likely get a DQ6. The extra $20 or $30 is nothing compared to the headaches and time I've already wasted with my P5B. Buyer beware.
 
DO NOT download the Jmicron drivers that are on Windows Update. That will cause the DVDRW / Hard drive to run in what seems to be PIO (instead of DMA) mode. You will see a LOT of stuttering.
 
Figures. If you don't buy a high end ASUS board, it will come back to bite you in the ass.

In my case, how the heck does a ASUS mobo start failing after a 90mhz OC?

That being said, good luck with your problem.
 
Here's an update: I found some other drivers online, and after installing those instead of the ones provided by the cd- the audio works with no hiccups- at least in 2 channel.

I isolated the problem!!!
I wanted to ask you guys, in your bios menu under ADVANCED tab, and then to ONBOARD DEVICES CONFIGURATION, There's the JMicron SATA/PATA Controller. Under it is the Controller Mode which is set to IDE. If that option is disabled, my computer boots fine- however I don't see any of my IDE devices. Some of you have said that you're using the Windows IDE drivers, but since this is in the bios- how can i fix this? And yeah, after reading the problems with the Jmicron drivers, I did not install them in windows.
 
Azneinstein, what did you do on install? You should be able to see your IDE drives without installing the Jmicron drivers. If you can't, and you are in IDE mode in BIOS, then your board is fubar. I would say your Jmicron chip is just not working. I have not seen anyone have problems in IDE mode, lots of people screw things up trying to switch boot drivers from AHCI to IDE but that doesn't seem to be your problem.

Are you using a SATA drive as boot on the Jmicron port? If the Jmicron chip is semi-fubar, than that would explain why your videos are playing so badly, even off your boot drive. Something is fundamentally wrong with the board.
 
P5B-E here

Running Vista RTM 32bit, with the Jmicron controller set to IDE in BIOS and with a NEC DVD drive on the master, and a 200Gb Maxtor 7,200 hard drive on the slave, installing windows Vista and booting is trouble free.

HOWEVER - using the Vista default IDE drivers which it installs itself, when I use certain DVDs in the drive (please note not all DVD's do this, some read/write fine) the drive will spend a few seconds trying to read the DVD, the system will lag briefly and then BOTH the DVD drive and the IDE HDD get removed from "My computer" and have to be re-added through Device Manager.

I've tried several sets of the Jmicron specfic drivers and they produce a different problem where the same DVD's make the channels take ages to refresh, it takes about 1-2 minutes and then eventually crashes explorer which Vista fails to shut down, at which point a hard boot is needed to restart.

Other DVD's are perfectly fine, I've read quite a few, written about 5-6 but the occasional DVD just will not read back, I suspect its something like it's failing to read multi session discs or maybe ones over a certain size.
 
I have a P5B-E...the Jmicron selection in the bios is NOT DRIVERS so quit calling it that. It is simply setting the mode that the Jmicron runs in.

In windows, do not use the drivers that are on the CD, just use the ones XP installs. For me they work fine and have been working fine since install. I had one load that was all screwy with the optical drives I had (insert a disc and the whole explorer would freeze), but I think that was just a bad load as I reinstalled windows and all is fine now.

I think I read somewhere Vista has issues reading multisession discs, but not 100% sure.

The jmicron is not great, but intel does not support IDE on the 965 chipset, so companies have to go to the jmicron. I might also add that the jmicoron is the the DS3 and a lot of other common Conroe boards as well...

If it is just a huge issue you cant stand, get a simple PCI IDE card and use that while disabling the Jmicron...problem solved :)
 
YAY! **STILL BROKEN**

After trauling through a few old support threads for similar P5B boards I've found a few people with similar problems as me (although slightly different due to XP and not Vista)

What I did was went into BIOS and set the Jmicron controller to AHCI mode rather than IDE mode. On the right it actually says that this setting sets the SATA contoller part but the PATA part remains IDE always (not sure why IDE is a selection in this case, but oh well!)

As the Jmicron controller set to AHCI mode I rebooted into windows, Vista failed to install the drivers correctly so I manually removed the controller and re-scanned for hardware and force installed the drivers by selecting the destination and then picking I wanted to chose where to install it from, the pre-existing widows default IDE controller drivers were there, picked them and it worked fine, went on to detect and install the drivers for my DVD drive and my hard drive OK.

Tried a disc I knew worked before and that loaded fine as usual, I then tried one I knew didn't work and it span up, took a short while to read and then explorer popped up with no problems. That disc actually holds an ISO file of about 4.19gb and Im copying that ISO file to my IDE hard drive now to make sure the test works.

I will report back a bit later to let you guys know if the DVD writer will actually write OK like this, as thats one of the other common reported problems, that writing or clearing RW discs fails.

*EDIT*

Spoke too soon!

It got to about 4gb of the total 4.2gb copying the ISO file to my HDD and then slowed to a crawl, vista then gave up and I ejected the DVD and put it back in, and now it's misbehaving again, explorer wont read the DVD it just takes ages to refresh "my computer"

Explorer restarted now and reading the DVD OK, I'm attempting to copy back the ISO file again...

*EDIT 2*

OK that ISO file copied over OK this time after cleaning the DVD a little, no pauses, slow downs or crashes, although it did take a bout 5-6 minutes which is a bit longer than I'd expect. Still if having a hard to read DVD causes problems this serious obviously the controller is still buggy, this is far from ideal but at least I've got my COH ISO back :D

I've just tried copying the ISO from the IDE DVD to the IDE HDD and that worked ok as well, again a little slow but thats to be expected from IDE to IDE on the same cable.
 
Im getting similar problems with my P5b-Dlx. Certain times it recognizes my DVD drives and sometimes it doesnt, might be from me playing in the bios. My biggest problem is that I have 2 sata drives not on the Jmicron controller and when in windows it only sees my boot drive. it will not show my second physical drive, but under device manager it will show both drives. I have had nothing but problems since I first srated my C2d system. ist board was a evga 680i with nothing but problems. then I read hat the P5B series are killer overclockers and great boards; so I get one and cant even get it running properly. it double boots all the time (I think thats what its called). If I restart it will shut down, turn on for a second, turn back off, then it will restart. I have the 804 bios which I though was supposed to fix this issue. boots super fast with jmicron disabled but obviously cany run optical drives this way unless they are sata. boots fine with jmicron enabled but having some issues. The other day I reset the bios to default and my system would not turn back on for a whole day with battery removed. seems to me that there are way too many bugs with C2D or I am just unlucky. I have more issues but I dont feel like writing a full novel right now. I finally got system to boot back up so I will try again.

INFRNL
 
I just discovered another common Asus P5B problem tonight. While using the latest 0910 bios, the PCI-E link speed for the graphics card dropped from x16 down to x1. I rebooted a couple of times but it was stuck at x1 until I cycled the power off and on. POS.

3D performance was chopped in half and I was left scratching my head as to what the hell's wrong now. I thought I must have cooked my graphics card earlier in the day when it was overheating like crazy due to too much GPU voltage from the Sapphire factory.

Every damn thing I buy lately is shoddy and hasn't been properly tested. It's just shoved in a box and shipped and the end consumer ( aka. sucker ) gets to waste their time debugging this junk. How come so many review sites rate these bug infested boards so highly?

My niece is still using my original Asus P3B but this P5B will be the last board I buy from Asus for a long time, if ever.
 
Sorta related, but I've started to stay away from Asus after they screwed me on my Z71V laptop. The laptop had a pretty common problem with its battery being defective, and my first one did fail. They replaced the first, but the second time it happened they refused to replace claiming the warranty on the battery (all the parts seem to have seperate warranties) was only good for one year from the purchase of the laptop, even though this new battery was only like 4 or 5 months old. So I feel your pain. Good luck getting it resolved.
 
Does the P5B/-E/Deluxe boot from SATA optical drives?

I'm planning a build on this board and since SATA optical drives are now sub-$50 I figured I'd pick up two.
 
I have never had a problem with my P5B Deluxe...

Accually I hit 3600MHz (400x9) first try, so I left it there, and its been rock solid ever since November 15th
 
I found a work around for my Asus P5B Deluxe suspend to ram problem.

I set my E6400 in the bios to overclock to 375 x 8. After it starts up if I use ClockGen to bring it up higher than that then the suspend to ram S3 feature will continue to work with the FSB higher than 380. It's a common problem for these boards not to resume at high FSB MHz and Asus tried to fix this issue with a previous bios release but they haven't properly fixed it yet.

By using ClockGen, now there's no problem with it resuming from Stand By properly at 425 x 8 and beyond.

In the PLL Setup section of ClockGen set it to use Clock Generator CY28551
 
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