CD-RW Drive Problems / New PC...

Hi guys,

I decided to upgrade my old system (900 MHz Athlon) to an Athlon 1800 XP. I only purchased the new parts I would need for the upgrade. I purchased the following: CPU AMD|1800+/266 ATHLON 1.53G XP, Motherboard, ABIT NV7-133R, and DDRAM 512MB PC-2100 CORSAIR.

After installing everything including my four hard drives, Sony 16 CDRW and my DVD drive things seemed fine; however, every ten minutes my Sony CD-RW drive flashes and seems to spin (with no CD) for about a minute or two. After leaving my PC on over night, I woke up to have the PC locked up and the drive spinning constantly. This also happened when I reset it and came home from work. What could cause this drive to spin so frequently? In addition, when I open the drive it waits about two seconds and immediately closes the drive tray. This never did this on my old configuration.

I have the drive connected to a channel as a master on the motherboard. Does anyone have any suggestions as to resolve this issue? Could there be a jumper setting incorrect on the motherboard, or is there a setting in BIOS I missed? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

does sound very odd...here is a Sony Diagnostic Tool:
<a href="http://sony.storagesupport.com/cdrw/diagnostics.htm" target="_blank">CD-RW Diag</a>

also...scan for a virus(hey, it can't hurt!)

if running the diag shows nothing, try removing the sony from the equation and see how it runs,

Hello again,

After a full virus scan I found no viruses present.

I received the following error message after running the Sony Diagnostic program:

This verison currently only supports CD-RW drives. There will be tests implemented for other drives at a later date. No testing will be performed. My drive is listed as follows:

J:\ CD-ROM Sony CD-RW CRX168B (1.0a)

After checking their website I found that DriveCheck was only compatible with certain CD-RW drives and mine was not one of them.

Currently, I have the drive unplugged and the system seems to be working. If anyone has any other suggestions, shoot them my way :)

Thanks!

could possibly be a faulty connection, if u have a spare ide lead you could test it with?

G.

Hmm spare IDE lead, what do you mean another IDE cable? I am going to try the drives in the other channel tomorrow.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by psuwtb:
<strong>Hmm spare IDE lead, what do you mean another IDE cable? I am going to try the drives in the other channel tomorrow.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">yep. sorrry. i meant cable, getting used to my own words again :rolleyes: good thinking, btw hope it works..

Just a weird thought.....what is the power/quality of your power supply?

OK,

I used the same ide cable but switched it to the secondary channel and then went to bed. Same problem. Woke-up this morning with the CD-RW light constantly on, and the hard drive light the same way. Just before I left for work I unplugged the CD-RW drive and left the DVD attached and will let the system run all day. If it's not locked up when I get home, I am going to order one of those Verbatim drives from Staples (40x12x48) for only $50.00. I figured it's not a bad deal, and if mine is bad anyway :)

As far as the Power Supply... I have a 500 W CompUSA manufactured by PowMax. I am pretty sure that this is working fine, as it's only three weeks old. Anymore thoughts are gladly welcomed :)

Thanks!

did the sony work on the old system with no problems?

Yes,

I have had the Sony CRX168B for over a year now without any problems. Very few coasters, and probably close to 200 good discs. That's why it seems weird that the drive would be going bad...

:/

hmmm, weird aint it. might be a bad bios setting, have you checked jumper settings on the drives (ie master/slave)

Haven't checked the jumper settings, but nothing changed when I upgraded my old PC. I just swapped motherboards and plugged the cables in.

:confused:

take off the dvdrom and run it with just the writer <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> see if your system crashes then.

Ok, will try that when I get home from work...