Device not ready

[CowDoc]

O.K....i said I'd fix my boss's computer (first mistake). It's an older Intel chipset motherboard. There are 2 cd-roms, each on a different ide cable. one is master, the other is slave (to hard drive). when you try to access the cd-roms, both say "unable to access...device not ready). they both have power, they are both recognized in the BIOS and in device manager (which says devices working properly). I checked the cables, i put another cd-rom on the "master" cable...same thing. jumpers are correct on the drives. I disconnected one of the cd-roms thinking it might be a lack of power....no avail. I have NOT removed the cd-roms and tested them in another system yet. I removed the devices from the device manager to redetect...it detects fine....same 'drive not ready' I'm at wits end. any ideas would be forever appreciated!

 

[hjo3]

Try switching out his PSU. I've seen this before and it turned out to be a weak power supply. A new 300 W might fix it.

 

[CowDoc]

I have a 300W and was thinking about that...but strangely enough, my boss said that it had been working fine for quite awhile.