Problem solved. Always check the easy things first! ;)

[alanhall4]

I've had my computer up and running fine for about a month, and today it just started acting real weird. I narrowed it down and noticed that, it only occured when I had a cd inserted into the dvd drive, and during this time I was unable to open the cd. It always locked up explorer. I just tried a fresh install of windows, mainly because I needed to do it anyways, but it didn't help. It still does the same thing.
The drive is plugged into the Promise IDE/RAID connector on the motherboard, and it's alone as the master on the slot. The dvd comes up fine in the system manager, and in the promise bios. Does anybody have any ideas, or should I just get a new DVD drive? Thanks for any advice.

CPU- Athlon XP 2100+
Motherboard- Gigabyte GA-7VRXP
Ram: 512 MB Corsair XMS 2700
DVD ROM- 16x Pioneer Slot Load
Video Card- MSI GeForce4 Ti 4600
Sound Card- Audigy OEM
Case- ANTEC Performance PLUS Model PLUS660 w/ Antec 350w power supply
Hard Drive- Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB 120GB w/ 8mb buffer
Speakers - Altec Lansing 4.1
Keyboard- MS Office Keyboard (USB)
Mouse- MS Intellimouse w/ intellieye (USB)
OS-Windows XP Pro

 

[TheWart]

did u flash either your mobo or the dvdrom recently? did you change any DMA settings in device manager? if it just started today tell us what you have recently done/installed please.

 

[alanhall4]

No thats the thing. I haven't flashed anything in about a month, and i haven't installed any new software in about a week. I didn't change around any settings or anything either. Could the cable be bad? (Does it hurt the cables to be twisted a little bit) Thanks again.

 

[NutBucket]

Plug the drive into the chipset header. You can't, to the best of my knowlegde, have a cd-rom/zip/etc. hooked into an add-on controller.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
Plug the drive into the chipset header. You can't, to the best of my knowlegde, have a cd-rom/zip/etc. hooked into an add-on controller.

Wha?! Of course you can.
You can use those on-board or stand-alone RAID controllers for any regular IDE devices: HD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc. Windows may not recognize the drive if the controller's drivers are not installed properly, but that's a separate issue. And also, it's not called a chipset header, it's called an integrated IDE controller I don't mean to come down hard on ya, sorry.

P.S. His Pioneer DVD-ROM drive is not dead. It simply has been terminated

 

[alanhall4]

It was working before under the exact same conditions, so I'm thinking that it either has to be the drive or the cable. I'm going to check the drive in another computer, and see how it works. If anybody has any more ideas, let me know. Thanks.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: alanhall4
It was working before under the exact same conditions, so I'm thinking that it either has to be the drive or the cable. I'm going to check the drive in another computer, and see how it works. If anybody has any more ideas, let me know. Thanks.

Wouldn't it have been easier to replace a cable before even asking? Or, how about replacing the cable now? Why bother taking it to another machine... Also, try a different drive on the same IDE channel, see if the controller is busted... If that fails, reinstall Windows or at least remove the drive from the Device manager, then let Windows auto-detect it..

 

[alanhall4]

Well I was going to take it to a new system because my case is a little bit tight to work in. (I need to get some round cables) I did decide to just unplug the cables and them plug them bag them, and I also straightened out one of the cables. That completely fixed the problem. I don't know how it all of a sudden messed up because I hadn't moved the case or anything around at all. I'm just happy that it's working, and you're right I should have checked the simple stuff first. I just still don't understand how it would all of a sudden just screw up like that.

Thanks everybody.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: VBboy

Originally posted by: NutBucket
Plug the drive into the chipset header. You can't, to the best of my knowlegde, have a cd-rom/zip/etc. hooked into an add-on controller.

Wha?! Of course you can.
You can use those on-board or stand-alone RAID controllers for any regular IDE devices: HD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc. Windows may not recognize the drive if the controller's drivers are not installed properly, but that's a separate issue. And also, it's not called a chipset header, it's called an integrated IDE controller I don't mean to come down hard on ya, sorry.

P.S. His Pioneer DVD-ROM drive is not dead. It simply has been terminated

I'm just speakin from my experience and what I've read in the past. I'm almost positive my CUBX manual says to only connect harddrives to the ata66 controller and use the integrated IDE controller for all other devices/hd's.

 

[Mavrick007]

Usually most Raid controllers on mobos are not meant to be used with optical devices like cdroms/dvdroms.
They are normally meant for ide hard drives but you can use optical devices on an ide expansion card or the primary/secondary ide channels on the mobo. These are the safe bets to place optical drives. It might work on the Raid channel but I would put it on the primary or secondary and then put the other hard drives off of the Raid channels even if they're not being raided.

 

[Markfw]

The head is dirty, and can't read the DVD. Try different CD's, data,audio, and finally DVD. I think you will find that it can read some (make sure they are all clean, no scratches or fingerprints), but not others. If this isthe case, clean the heads, or buy a new DVD rom ($40) if you can't get them clean.