wtf is wrong with my burner

Thanks for reading. I'm running windows xp with an amd athlon xp 2500+ at 1.83 GHz on a ASUS A7V600 Mboard, two maxtor harddrives (80G primary, 20G backup), and 512M ram. The problem is my CDRW drive. It's a Lite-on (Cendyne repatch) LTR 522465, and it reads just fine, but my whole computer just powers off and won't reboot (sometimes for a couple of minutes) when I try to burn anything with the drive. It's real sudden, as though someone has just unplugged it, and it always happens as soon as the write process begins. Any suggestions would be very appreciated... Thanks.

 

Whats size is your PSU ??

 

Good question-- it's a premier 300W, and I think it's probably toast. I just unplugged a broken DVDR drive and the system wouldn't boot. If that sounds completely illogical, it wouldn't be the first time it's behaved erratically lately. Any other ideas, just in case (while I look for another power source)? Thanks...

 

I agree with the psu issue. A 300 watter is just too small. It probably came with the case and may not have been putting out enough real world wattage in the first place.

 

If you can get to boot or go to another computer and type in relevant info you will get a correct answer on your wattage usage..
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

 

You also need a good quality power supply rather than just focusing on how many watts it has.

Go for a reputable brand like Themaltake or Antec etc.