PC reboots upon inserting disc in CDRW drive 1

[goombawaho]

Okay, just as the title suggests. If I put a CD-R (blank or written) into the drive with the PC running, it reboots the PC upon CLOSING the CDRW door. If I put the CD in before the PC starts, it's fine and I can burn a CD. But, when I eject the CD, it reboots the PC.

The previous CD-ROM drive was working just fine. Only upon replacing it did the problem surface.

My System - all vintage approx. 2002 except the CDRW drive
ASUS A7V-233
Antec 400W power supply
TSSTCorp CDDVDW SH-S202J
RAID 1 array using onboard RAID (2 drives)
Only the CDRW is on the IDE controller

What I tried:
Replaced the drive with another exact physical unit (swore it was defective) but problem followed with the new unit.

Moved the drive from Secondary Master to Primary Master. This worked for a few weeks and then the problem started happening again.

IDEAS
1. I'm thinking this is a power supply issue, even with a great power supply like an Antec, it's 5 plus years old.

2. My only other thought is to unplug the IDE cable and then insert a CD and open and close the drive to see if it still reboots without any connection to the motherboard.

Any other ideas??? Comments on my two ideas above??

 

[robmazco]

Update system BIOS maybe?

 

[wahnula]

Check to see if there's a newer firmware for your new CDROM. As for your ideas, PSU is always a suspect, but there is so little draw to spin up an ODD that the PSU would have to be borderline...and why not with the old drive?

As for idea #2, sure, disconnect the IDE cable and see if it's an increased DC demand causing the reboot, although I highly doubt it. Can't hurt and reasoning is sound.

Ever since reading thread602-1356640 I always think about upper & lower filters when I hear of CD-ROM problems. Don't know if it will help here but it's an idea.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[goombawaho]

When I had the first drive, I checked for newer firmware and there wasn't anything newer than what was on the drive, but I'll check again.

There is a BIOS update, but I kind of hate to do that, but it may be the last option. I know this is an old motherboard, but it does what I need and I just don't want to spend the money for just surfing the internet and storing my music.

I can change the power supply as I have the original one that only has about 20 miles on it (in car terms).

And, I guess I'll try unplugging the IDE cable as I suggested unless anyone else has any other fresh ideas. This is pretty weird considering this PC has been exceptionally reliable and trouble free all these years.

 

[DTracy]

Does it reboot if there is no CD in the tray when you open and close?

 

[DTracy]

Or if the CD is put in the tray upside down?

 

[goombawaho]

It does NOT reboot if you just open and close the door when there is NO CD in the drive.

It does NOT reboot if you open and close the door when there is a CD in the drive upside down.

Very interesting. What are you thinking??? I haven't done anything else yet that I was mentioning as I'm waiting for more suggestions.

 

[DTracy]

Virus.

 

[Freestone]

Autoplay somehow messed up?

 

[DTracy]

Freestone- I hadn't thought of that yet, good idea.

GoombaYahoo- You see that if this doesn't reboot with the disk in upside down then the PSU is out of the picture. But the driver for your new CD drive could be corrupt or could have a virus. And I use the word virus because I can't think of a better word yet, not to mean necessarily an intentional attack from those virus people.

Regards,
David.

 

[DTracy]

Sorry, I meant goombawaho.

My appologies.

Sincerly,
David.

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, it can't be a virus or spyware. I'm meticulous about keeping this system clean and scanned.

And someone above is right (DTracy) that it can't be the power supply if you can put a disc in upside down and close it AND just plain close the door. I guess it still COULD be the power supply, but it would have to be on the very fine edge of being bad for just putting a disc in to trigger it.

There is no driver for and IDE CDRW/DVDRW drive - it's purely autodetected within Windows. And, remember, it ran for a while and then started misbehaving again.

New course of action - I'll look into the Autoplay issue.

 

[goombawaho]

As for drivers, I have the same drivers listed for the other CDRW in my system which is a much older external SCSI HP CDRW. Same files names (4 of them) and same driver date and version.

The other CDRW burned a CD fine this morning. But, of course, since it's SCSI and external (externally powered) we can't really read much into that.

 

[goombawaho]

Okay - things are getting worse. Yesterday afternoon, I was just surfing the web and boom - a spontaneous reboot. Upon bootup afterwards, I got the "windows cannot start because" registry file SYSTEM is corrupted. I know how to fix that, so I don't need advice on that. It's probably just due to all the instantaneous improper shutdowns.

So, now I'm looking AWAY from the CD drive as the cause. I'm going to replace the power supply first and then do the registry recovery and see where I'm at.

I'm thinking it's either motherboard dieing or the power supply. For sure, the first thing I'm going to do when Windows will boot again (with the new power supply in place) is to put in a CD-ROM and see what happens. Will report back.

Ah computers - you can't live with 'em and you can't shoot 'em.

 

[JimInKS]

In addition to all of the above...

I would think about RAM or Hard Drive issues. My experience has been that RAM failure is more often an infant mortality issue. Since your system is fairly old, of these two choices, I would lean toward hard drive.

Since it is easy, I would let Microsoft memory diagnostic run over night and see if it reports any errors.

Windows has always been horrible about hard drive issues. I have never seen it report a hard drive error (This is one of my many pet peeves with Windows). I would run spinrite or something similar on the OS disk.

Oh, I see you have a Raid array. Not a lot of experience with odd behavior there. I would still not rule out a hard drive (or controller) issue.

 

[goombawaho]

It's definitely looking like it was the power supply, but before I test it with Windows booted, I'm doing a full backup. After having to get the registry unhorked, I'm not anxious to screw it up again.

With just the SCSI controller utility loaded, it used to shut off when inserting a CD, but now it does NOT with the new power supply.

I'll do a "real" apples to apples test with Windows running and report back. This is really odd, but it appears to be just a power supply on the razor's edge of not supplying the proper power.

 

[goombawaho]

Yep - problem solved. It WAS the power supply. I'm dazed and confused by how this can be, but no more reboots ........ so far.

Thanks for suggestions. I may give out a star, but I haven't decided yet.

 

[wahnula]

WOW...another case of the PSU causing weirdness. Just shows to go ya, logic is out the window when it comes to PSU problems. Really glad you got it sorted, and thanks for repeatedly posting back to keep us informed.

Smart move doing the full backup, many can learn from this nugget of wisdom.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[SimonDavies]

I have been caught out on strange psu issues in the past, went thru a raft of components before discovering the culprit was the psu, it was the newest component prior to replacing the other ones and I stupidly thought it couldn't be that.. but when the only items left unreplaced was the case and the psu you start to realise that perhaps you could have saved money by checking the PSU first

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

I have always had problems with Antec PS, will never buy another one again.

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!