cd or not cd

there is an intermittent boot problem going on where the cd drive just clicks, and the activity light blinks, without any further boot up of the system. i am using a pc chips mobo, with a celeron 700mhz cpu. win me.
also when i set the correct cpu speed and multiplier in the bios the system will not boot.
after i restore the default settings (cpu set at 200mh)the system will sometime boot.
on that rare time the system does boot, the cpu speed reads 700mhz in the post, but it is still set to 200mhz in the bios setup.
can a cd rom drive prevent a system from booting?
should i just replace the mobo, or the cpu? thanks guys..........!

Before you go replacing the motherboard, have you disconnected the cd rom from the motherboard and the power to see if it still happens?

Have you gone through the manual for your motherboard and checked all your jumper settings?

Yes, many times i have seen a cd rom prevent a system from booting, has the system booted previously? as Noo Noo suggested, i would remove the cd rom from the mobo, also if this works, check to see the cable was in the right way and it was jumpered correctly.

ok guys sometimes the obvious is overlooked.
will disconnect the drive.
btw...el cheapo mobo no jumpers to set.

just because its cheap doesnt mean its crap <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> trust me on that... besides most motherboards are jumperless now...