Building New Computer - CdRom conflicting with system

[jaybirdxkj]

Im building a new system - Here are the specs to give you an idea what im working with: AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz, Soyo Dragon Plus motherboard, 60gb maxtor hd, 256mb ddr ram, geforce2 mx400 agp card, Sony 16x10x40x burner, and i want to install a creative labs soundblaster live card eventually but that deals with part of my problem so let me explain. I put the system all together. The cdrw drive is set as slave on the primary ide channel and I can get windows and all the drivers for the motherboard, graphics card, and all that basic stuff installed. But after I have the basic system set up, I cant use the cdrom extensively without the system totally locking up. ex. When im trying to install the software for the Soundblaster card or in one instance when i was updating to win98 se in which totally screwed up the whole thing and I had to reformat. I'm thinking its a conflict that this sony burner is having with the system because it didnt come with any special drivers nor did it ask for any, but I have no idea what to do.

 

[paparazi]

Take the writer off Primary slave and onto Secondary Master,you will need a standard UDMA33 ribbon cable to do this (courser wired than your exsisting HD cable)
Unless your writer came with dedicated drivers it will run fine on standard ATAPI interface drivers in windows that will plug and play and install automatically.
Manufactures and suppliers tend to supply just the one cable, this is only for cheapness, give the writer it's own IDE channel and see how you go! Martin. Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[Tels]

Absolutely, theoretically having a CDROM on the same IDE cable as your hard drive should cause no problems, but I've had a few PC's needed re-formatting cos of a similar problem. You're not alone....

Plus the CD-ROM is much slower than a hard drive and only drags the speed down by being on the same cable....

Tels Win2000 Network Administrator

 

[jaybirdxkj]

Thanks guys, but I'd like some advice as well and an answer to this question: Why does the computer still freeze up when Im only using that burner for a normal cdrom(not burning anything, just reading off cd's) And I'm thinking about buying a dvd rom so that I can have two optical drives at once, should I put it on the same ide channel as the hd? or on another channel (I have 4 channels, 2 for raid) It is bad that I cant put anything else on this primary ide channel b/c that throws away a whole device. I dont know, maybe with a regular cdrom or dvd drive, it wont cause any problems. We will see. And im gonna try and put the sony drive on the secondary channel, so i will keep you updated. Thanx again.

 

[jaybirdxkj]

Ok - I moved it to secondary master and now im wondering if its not the cdrom thats the problem. Im thinking it might be a heat problem that is causing the computer to freeze. Whenever it does lock up, I reset it and get into the bios where I can find the case and cpu temps. One time the cpu temp was at 51 degrees celcius. Now, I know that it starts getting really dangerous in the 60's but would a temp in the high 40's or 50's cause the comp to freeze?

 

[topscribe]

In addition to the other suggestions here, I'm wondering if the problem may be that the "read-ahead" setting may be too high and the CD-ROM controller is being driven faster than it is designed to be. You might try reducing that setting. It is found by right-clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, then the Performance tab, then File System and then the CD-ROM tab. I don't know if that is the problem, but I though I'd throw in my two-bits.

 

[red54]

May not be the problem, but just finished debugging a new system with similar problems. This one would just freeze without a cdrom r/w on it. Found it to be the stick of 512 ddr. Replaced it and no problems since. Might be worth a try.

 

[michael64]

Have you tried going into the Ide controller and enabling DMA on the secondary? This may help you as alot of cdroms now are udma compliant.

 

[jaybirdxkj]

The ide controllers are set to auto - so that they will automatticly detect udma devices. This is drivin me nuts. Thanx for all the help tho you guys.

 

[michael64]

Whenever it was installed, you didn't happen to load any Dos based drivers did you?

 

[cbsnz]

I have a similar problem. My CDs read fine for a couple of attempts but soon freeze up Win2000. No freezes if I don't go near the CDs during a session. If you found a solution jaybirdxkj please post it here. Regards

 

[irishkiwi007]

Hi my two bits
first of AMD`s tend to run hot I would put a better heat sink or internal fan if it runs over 55 degrees.If you run loads of apps on it( or burn test it ) for ten minutes or more then check the temp.Also if you have 4 channels why dont you use them. I would put the hard drive on the raid channel.