SATA CD-ROM XP Prof SP2

[Jon Delano]

Hello

I've built a new machine using an ASUS P5KC motherboard.
My old machine had 3 IDE devices (a HD, a CD-ROM/Burner and a Iomega Rev
Backup drive).

The Asus P5KC board has but 1 IDE controller (2 devices).
So I put the HD and the Rev on the IDE and purchased a SYBA IDE to SATA
converter.

The system now has, 2 IDE devices, 2 SATA (a HD and the converted CD-ROM)
and a SCSI HD (15K RPM boot drive)

My problem is that Windowx XP doesnt see the CD-ROM, the bios lists is
perfectly. SATA2: CDROM:Memorex...
If the BIOS sees the CDROM, then why is XP not seeing it?

I googled and tried most all the "windows xp missing cd-rom" things I could
find.
I know the drive works as when I put in the new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I
had the CD-ROM connected to the IDE controller to load the drivers and such.

Is there some trick for SATA cd-roms? If anyone has any suggestions that
would be great.
I guess I can try to switch the cd-rom with one of the other devices, I just
prefer to have a burner on its own controller.

Thanks
Jon

 

[Paul]

Hello

I've built a new machine using an ASUS P5KC motherboard.
My old machine had 3 IDE devices (a HD, a CD-ROM/Burner and a Iomega Rev
Backup drive).

The Asus P5KC board has but 1 IDE controller (2 devices).
So I put the HD and the Rev on the IDE and purchased a SYBA IDE to SATA
converter.

The system now has, 2 IDE devices, 2 SATA (a HD and the converted CD-ROM)
and a SCSI HD (15K RPM boot drive)

My problem is that Windowx XP doesnt see the CD-ROM, the bios lists is
perfectly. SATA2: CDROM:Memorex...
If the BIOS sees the CDROM, then why is XP not seeing it?

I googled and tried most all the "windows xp missing cd-rom" things I could
find.
I know the drive works as when I put in the new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I
had the CD-ROM connected to the IDE controller to load the drivers and such.

Is there some trick for SATA cd-roms? If anyone has any suggestions that
would be great.
I guess I can try to switch the cd-rom with one of the other devices, I just
prefer to have a burner on its own controller.

Thanks
Jon

That is a tricky and immature motherboard.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5KC&SLanguage=en-us

The users note interaction between the usage of a certain USB header and
the IDE. They note that the Jmicron driver doesn't get installed properly
from the motherboard CD. (Go to Jmicron.com and try a driver from there.)
There seems to be an issue with the BIOS checking for drives, before spinup
is finished (which is why toggling the power works for some of them). There
is also an interaction between installing the sound driver, and knocking
out the LAN interface (there is a proper install order needed, to prevent
that from happening).

In any case, have a read through the forum posts, and see what has been
discovered about that board so far.

There are more comments here, but they seem to be focused on enthusiast
RAM issues.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813131188

You have a couple options for SATA ports. Four ports on the Southbridge,
or that lone port on the JMB363. Since the Southbridge only has four
ports, I doubt there are any modes on it that would upset operation.

I notice in the manual, that SATA 1/2 are for booting and SATA 3/4 are
rated for data. Which suggests there are two separate controllers in the
Southbridge, for the four ports. I further notice, that the individual
ports have configuration screens, and "CDROM" is an option there as well
as the default "Auto". You could try that for your converted
IDE drive + IDE/SATA converter dongle.

You could also try the Jmicron single SATA port, for your converted
optical drive, and see if the Jmicron driver is any happier with
the thing.

When IDE/SATA converters first came out, there were mixed results
with them. That improved to some extent, with later versions. Most
of the converters will have comments somewhere, as to how well they
worked. Some of them (I've seen some priced at $1) are worthy of
an honorary "brick" award, because they are about as useful as
a brick and about the same price.

A better option, would be to get a native SATA optical drive, as you
can get those now. Optical drives are not very expensive (for burners,
you'll waste way more money testing media, than you will on the cost
of the drive itself). Perhaps another drive would be better than trying
to get the dongle to work.

Paul