CD drive causing slowdown?

[Don Vito Corleone]

I am perplexed by a chronic stalling my computer exhibits from time to time. Specifically, it happens when I open a window of Windows Explorer, or when I click on the pull-down arrow in the Address field in IE 6. It appears that the entire machine is stalling while it waits for my CD drive to spool up. Is there any way to prevent the PC from looking at the CD drive in this situation, or can I somehow improve its performance?

My machine is configured as follows:

Soyo 6BA+IV mobo with Intel P3-900 at 1050
250W power supply
512 MB PC133 SDRAM
Creative Labs GeForce 2 GTS video card
Creative Labs SB Live! X-Gamer sound card
generic NIC
30 GB 7200 RPM ATA/66 Maxtor HD
3 GB 5600 RPM ATA/33 WD HD
Matsushita 24x CD-ROM (this is the drive that appears to be causing the problem)
TDK 32/10/12 CD-RW
generic floppy
Win 98SE w/ all Critical Updates and IE 6.1

Each of my four drives is set as the sole drive on its connection. The HDs are connected to my integrated Highpoint ATA/66 connection and the CDs are connected to the main ISA connectors.

 

[Comp625]

Yes believe it or not, I have the same exact problem too. It occurs when I first boot up the computer (I boot into the desktop, open up a Windows Explorer window, or MS IE) and my whole system freezes. I would have to wait about 6 seconds until my CD-Rom drive spools up until the system unfreezes.

I think this may be an uncurable problem...something that can't be fixed. But heck, I dunno.

Win98SE
MS IE 5.5

 

[Comp625]

Hallo?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

^^^^^

 

[BatmanNate]

A lot of times this problem can be linked to your CDROM drives not having UDMA enabled. Try enabling it (in the properties panel on whichever controller you have the drive attached to.) Hope that it helps!

 

[Comp625]

I checked all the Controllers present in Control Panel > System. None of em have an option to enable DMA mode. However, if I double click on my CD-Rom drive in the System list...I have the ability to enable DMA mode. I enabled it. It tells me DMA may not work with certain hardware, etc. It asked for a reboot. I rebooted. I check the Control Panel again and DMA is disabled (the option is unchecked under my CD-Rom drive).

 

[Comp625]

^^^