DVD drive hangs system

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Guest

Guest
When I insert a CD in my DVD drive, my system hangs. No fatal errors, but mouse stops moving. When I press the eject button it takes 2-3 attempts to eject the CD and when it's ejected the system is fine again. DVD is master & CD-RW is slave, which has no problems.

This is the 1st time this happened.
1st time this happened is when I partitioned my 80GB HD [DVD became "L: drive"] and tweaked the OS. I couldn't figure it out so I restage the system, no tweaks, and it fixed the problem.
2nd time [now], I just added a new IDE controller & 20GB HD. I put my 80GB HD on the new controllers IDE1 and the 20GB HD on IDE2, both as masters
OnBoard IDE1-Master=Zip drive
OnBoard IDE2-Master=DVD drive & Slave=CD-RW

Now DVD drive is "N: drive"

DMA is enabled when it was working fine and it is still currently enabled.

Dell Dimension XPS B 1000r
512MB RDRAM
Win98SE
DVD=NEC DV-5700A 12x
CD-RW=Yamaha CRW2200E
Maxtor 80GB HD
Maxtor 20GB HD
Maxtor IDE controller (add-in)

-I haven't cleaned the drive yet (I'm going to try that tomorrow - as soon as I can get to the store =))
-I'm downloading the latest firmware 3.43

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!!!

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HonestJhon

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Apr 29, 2001
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what brand dvd drive is it?
my little brother bought a dvd drive, and when it wouldnt play dvds in his computer good enough to enjoy, we put it in my computer. after like a week or two, it started to lock up the computer...
ended up, the drive died...
took it back to fry's.
if it is a cheap drive, then it might be dead.
if it is an expensive drive, it might be dead.
i hope that the firmware helps...
sorry i cant really be much of a help on how to fix it, i didnt want to deal with it at the time, seeing as i had just graduated from high school, and had too much to do...(hangin with friends..hehe)
but yeah, so my opinion is that the drive might have died.


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-
 

ejsmith2

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Feb 9, 2001
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Yeah, I just supported my local tax base, and bought a 'cheepo' dvd drive too.
I'll mess around with it for a while, and get I/O errors. To the point where I have to reboot Win2k to restore functionality. Even with the latest firmware. I'm going to keep grinding on it, though...

Dude, you have a Dell computer, which is one more gawdaffle headache to deal with. But that rules out a couple of things: incorrect bios settings (dell eliminates that), bad bios flash (dell doesn't release them but annually), and a bad ide cable (dell checks them before shipping).

Try a firmware update. And check your IRQ's for a conflict with the PCI controller card. Then I'd have to go for the 'grind-it-under-until-it-explodes-or-shapes-up' marathon. Try ripping a dvd to divx, or running Sisoft Sandra for 6 hours straight on a seek/read test.