DVD drive reboots my PC

Hi, i have a 3ghz P4 aopen AX4SG-UN MB , it works well but i have a problem with this HL-GDR 8161B drive rebooting my PC evertime it tries to read a disc. This drive works good in my moms dell PC and it works on a laptop via usb/ide cables but can't get it to work on my setup. I have tried all the configurations with my ide cables, both ports, drive by itself as master ect .. no go. I have several other dvd drives that work fine on my setup. My bios is current to 2005, rev 2.05 which i believe is the newest available. Does anyone know what the problem could possibly be ? by the way ... ihave looked for other drivers for this drive and can't find anything else on the web for it . The firmware on it is 037 and i can't find anyother fW for it either . Thanks for any help

 

you say it reboots your PC. Do you know if it is a blue screen of death (BSOD)? Most computers are automatically set up to restart upon BSOD.

 

No... just reboots normal to windows , but it reboots evertime i put in a disc and it tries to read it, if i take disc out everthing is fine.

 

so, when you put a disk in does it:

1) the screen suddenly goes black and your computer then shows the BIOS screen and begin's starting.

2) The computer shows the "windows is shutting down" and then it shows the BIOS screen and beg'ns starting.

 

When it tries to read a disc it goes black screen then reboots as if i just started it up in morning... works fine until i try to read another disc in it .
My buddy plugged power into the drive backwards so know it is froed anyway but i would still like to know what the problem was incase i get the issue again with different drive.

 

Sorry about the delayed reply.

What you describe is a blue screen of death (BSOD). Since most computers are set up to automatically restart on system failure (BSOD), you usually never see the BSOD. What you do see is your screen go black and then your computer start up as if "i just started it up in morning". You can change it to show you the BSOD by right clicking on my computer; click on properties, click on advanced tab; click on settings under startup and recovery; uncheckmark automatically restart under system failure.

BSOD is often caused by hardware failure. The drive is obviously damaged, so it makes sense that the computer trying to use it causes the system to malfunction. I would not be upset with your friend tho. I work as a computer technician and I have accidentally plugged a molex power connection backwards :-o. It didn't go in very far because of the stoppers, but it fried my 200GB hard drive regardless.

Edit: I should probably mention that replacing the defective drive should fix that problem. At least until someone else plugs the power connection in backwards

 

Yes but the drive worked perfect on 2 other computers so it wasn't defective. Know i have another LG GDR 8161b and this too worked good in my buddies pc earlier today, brought it home and hooked it up to my PC and same problem,when tring to read a disc BAM rebbot.. so it has to be something other than a bad drive because i seen both drives work perfect, just not on my setup. And its not my configuration on the ide cables, because i've had many other drive hooked into it. I think these drives may have been spesific to HP and dell machines when built , but not sure, they do work good on my mom's dell. This shit bugs the living hell out of me !!!

 

If you feel confident about hardware manipulation you can open your PSU and check for swollen capacitors, I got BSODs and restarts when my USP was defect and I tried to operate my cdrom. It could only be a crappy little cable or anything else, too bad you let your friend play around with it.

 

I now have another working lg gdr 8161b and it does the same thing, can't see it being a cable or capasitors if all other drives work good on my pc except these lg hatatchi gdr drives. My pc see's the drive and installs driver for it but i still have the reboot problem and the drives works flawless on 2 other computers.

 

I believe i would take a look at the power supply, i think its shutting down as the load is applied. ed

 

But why the load from these specific GDR drives and not others ? my power supply is 2 years old ..400watt .

 

unplug the data cable from it leave the power lead in start the machine up then put a disk in the drive it should spin up(are you saying it happens when disk spins up or when you try to read it?), if it still restarts it's possible your PSU's not happy with the motors start up surge

 

when the disc spins up..lights out reboot.

 

Yes i do get the reboot without the IDE cable attatched, just power cable on it . What could cause this ...bad caps on power supply or board maybe ?
Keep in mind both these drives worked fine else where and many other drives i have had and do have don't do this .

 

it sounds to me like your psu is not happy with the motors start up surge current, the HL-GDR 8161B obviously is more current hungry than the other drives you are using.
The problem with inductive loads like motors is the start up surge current, that can be ten times the running current. Admittedly this can be less than a few microseconds but seemingly enough to upset your psu, its probably sensing over current.
A way to prove or disprove this would be to hook up a resistor in series with the 12volt line into your drive(yellow wire) round about 6 to 10 ohms or so as this would quench some of the surge current.

You also have to remember that the ratings on these PSU's are total fairytale figures, there's no way you would ever achieve them in real world conditions they seem to be some form of theoretical maximums.
It could be signs of a failing PSU that your experiencing so just keep in mind it might one day shuffle of it's mortal coil.

 

I swaped my powersupply for a different 500w and my problem is solved. My old supply has a reptured cap on the board. Now my CPU preformance went from 1.7 to 3.9 with the experience rating on the new windows 7 OS... this is rated from 1.0 to 7.9 . Thanks