CDRW Freezes PC :-(

[johnoverall]

Got a new ASUS CDRW set up as a secondary master on IDE2, also have another CD running off the primary HD as a slave. Both detected as such on boot into Windows 98 SE. Both present as drives D: and E: Provided I boot up with a CD in either drive I can navigate, install and do the usual things... once I eject the CD the PC freezes up and requires a reset.

There are no conflicts in Device Manager, the motherboard is an ALADDIN5 2A5KKB0DC, with an AMD 450MHz K6-2 on board with 64Mb SDRAM and 4.3Gb drive which is half empty so the system requirements for the drive are more than met.

I've tried alternative CDRW from another machine that is tested and working but in this PC the machine freezes. So I've proved it's not the drives. Was going to flash the BIOS but can't seem to find a site that has the latest patch. I've even reloaded the operating system, ejected the CD after install and reboot and it still hangs. IDE Controllers look fine, Dual FIFO running.

Motherboard problem? Should I out it and start over... I'm only doing this as a favour for my sister-in-law. It took me 15 mins to add a CDRW to my slightly newer machine and start burning CDs, so I'm quite confident I'm doing as much as I can.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,



John

 

[mudskipper]

Could be motherboard, but I would expect to find power supply to be the issue.

When you start up the computer, everything detects and seems to work fine. The CDRW drive uses 5v for all of this. When you open the drive tray, the CDRW is suddenly drawing on the 12v. Sounds to me like you are taxing the power supply.

Just for grins and giggles, try to unhook the other CDRW drive, and any extra hard drives or whatever (so that you are lowering the load on the power supply. Now, does the problem continue? How about if you try another power supply?

Mudskipper
-----------------
Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this!
Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"

 

[johnoverall]

Thanks for the suggestion, I've tried the CDRW alone (without the other CD plugged in) and the fault persists. But will endeavour to try another PSU and come back with any changes to the situation.

Best,


John