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Computer won't power up after installing DVD-RW drive

M

Madinat

Junior Member
could use a bit of help here. i installed an nec dvd burner on my mom's computer and it worked like a charm. after the first shut down, it won't load windows. it will just load a black screen with two options in the lower right hand corner, F10, and F12. but pushing either of those buttons just clears the screen except for a white cursor in the top left corner. on the rare occasion that windows does load, i've noticed that i get a message saying "booting from cd-rom" and intel something or other. i changed the boot loading sequence in the compaq menu, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. i don't know where the problem is, but when i unhook the dvd-rw, the comp is fine.
thoughts?
 
Is there a disk in the drive when it says booting from CDROM? And when you say you changed the boot loading sequence in the compaq menu, are you referring to the machine's BIOS?

When connecting the new drive, are you connecting it to the same IDE cable as the boot drive is using? If so, try connecting it to the other controller with a separate cable.
 
hey, thanks for the response. no, there aren't any disks in the drive when i boot the comp. i'm not sure if i got through to the bios screen, it didn't say bios, just compaq setup menu.
i connected the new drive with the same cable used for the old one, i basically just swapped the drives out. i'll try the separate cable tonight.
 
yeah i tried the separate cables thing, but that didn't work. any other ideas? i'd really hate to have to return this and they find nothing wrong with it and i have to pay a 15% restocking fee.
TIA
 
I would check the jumper setting on the NEC to be sure it is correct. Some computers use Master/Slave and some use Cable Select. I don't know what other drives are on your IDE cables, but putting it on the Secondary IDE as Master by itself would be good. Computer not starting could be caused by having it jumpered wrong. There may be a way to self-test the drive. I would check with NEC.
 
Another possibility is proprietary design. Compaq used to use a lot of proprietary design, meaning only parts made by Compaq work in Compaq.
 
I think it probably uses cable select.
Look on the cables & see if it has "master" & "slave" screen printed on them.
 
thanks yall, the switching the cable select jumper did the trick. to think the best buy "geeks" could only come up with me needing a "customization" which would have cost me $80.
 
Originally posted by: Madinat
thanks yall, the switching the cable select jumper did the trick. to think the best buy "geeks" could only come up with me needing a "customization" which would have cost me $80.
Click to expand...

:laugh:

i have a feeling Blake is PMing Madinat an $80 bill as we speak
 
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