Strange computer problem... +++rep for help!

[isunktheship]

Okay, so.. I don't run into many problems when building computers, but this one has me stumped.

I'm putting together a server out of my spare parts, and everything was going fine. I am using:
1.5Gb DDR 400 Memory
Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz Processor
An Asus motherboard
450 watt PSU
Radeon 9200 AGP 4x/8x Card
Some audigy sound card I had
2 CD drives, both burners
And originally I put an 80 Gb HD (IDE) in just to test it.

The computer booted up fine, it may have been a little slow, but I am impatient, so I ignored it.

I hadn't reformatted the 80Gb since I put it into the new machine, so I ejected the cd drive to reformat. Here is the problem.

*Every time I press the eject button on either of my cd drives, it ejects the drive about an inch, and then stops... as if it has run out of power.*

I pulled the tray the rest of the way out, and put in the windows cd. I then closed the cd drive manually, to see if at least the cd would play properly. No dice. Instead I just hear the disk spinning on the cd tray itself! I open the drive again (1 inch) and then pull it the rest of the way. I took out my windows cd, not scratched, thank God.

Basically the setup here was my old computer, but with a different HD and a different graphics card. I haven't changed anything, but I was thinking that the HD might be at the end of its life. I swapped memory around, I've swapped in a 600watt PSU, I switched to a 250Gb(SATA) hard drive, but nothing seems to work. My CD drives are "out" of power. The 250Gb one booted up properly, but there was still the CD issue.

I know it's probably something really simple that I'm missing here, but if anyone can help I would really appreciate it! If this problem gets solved it would be a good candidate for the forum contest... too bad I already wrote about that darn bunny:bunny: .

[GT40_GearHead]

its prob the hdd, maybe its dying, and wants to drag the cd-rom with him,

jokes aside, this is weird, a cdrom opens with only the power plug in it, so even if the hdd is busted and ****s up the ide signal the drive should still open/close


maybe its the cd rom ....don't know :(

[xRyokenx]

If you have any other CD drives, you should probably try those. If that doesn't help, look through the BIOS for anything that might interfere, although I don't see why there would be anything in there, but my keyboard and mouse would stop working, and there was something in the BIOS that was messing it up... so... or it might could be your motherboard or CPU, there might be something wrong there.

This kinda blows my mind, but then again, I've seen some really strange stuff happen to computers... although, this is a first...

-Anthony

[Mitternacht]

I say its the CD drive itself. Got another drive to test with?

[Bucko]

Both CD drives are affected by the same thing?
Well, it's unlikely to have both drives fail in the same way at the same time.
I think it's something simple. I'll guess they are both getting the power from the same lead, with just a couple of plugs or a double adapter.

A CD drive has both the 5V and 12V input off the molex. I don't know what operates what internally, but try switching the power lead with a different one of the PSU, then see what happens. Perhaps either the 12V or the %v isn't working correctly on that lead due to a broken lead, dodgy connecter or similar.

[nil8]

Could the old psu have damaged the 2 optical drives?
The freak occurence of both of the drives having the same issue isn't probable.

I would say get the old psu tested that it's putting out proper voltage and try another cdrom.

[Dem Pyros]

This seems to me like the CD drives are off of the gear tracks......

[simon275]

This seems to me like the CD drives are off of the gear tracks......

Yeah that sounds likely.

To me I think the PSU is screwy.

[xRyokenx]

It could be either the PSU, drives, or both... try swapping out both of them (or all three if you count them quantity-wise), and seeing how it works.

[SgtM]

Make sure you have master/slave/cable select jumpers set properly.

[isunktheship]

Yeah, what I don't get is that the computer was my main rig, and then I took out a 250Gb HD. I mentioned before that I took out a graphics card, not that this matters, but turns out I didn't, it uses the same one that the old rig did.

On more important detail:
I had an old motherboard, which I switched out. So the rig was the same, but with an old motherboard. When I "upgraded" i took out the HD, put in an OLD HD, and put in a NEW mobo. Kinda confusing..
New HD out, Old HD in.
Old mobo out, semi-new HD in.

Possible Problems
1.) Somehow the problem lies with the CD drives. Which I have yet another that I can put in to test the theory.
2.) PSU may still be an issue, fortunately I have a 550 Watt one that I can test out. (It's a crappy stock case one, but meh.)
3.) BIOS might be causing issues, in which case I will just restore them to the presets. If that doesn't work I will fiddle with it some more...
4.) Cry myself to sleep.

Chances are the problem will be fixed before step 4, +rep to all of you so far, and thanks for the help.

I won't be seeing my little "server" for a week, but I'll give updates! This weekend I may be messing around with soldering for the... first :( time. Well.. I've soldered before, just not with something that I've paid good money for.

[xRyokenx]

Good luck with the soldering and thanks for the rep. Hope you get it figured out when you get it back.

-Anthony

[isunktheship]

Okay, first, I found an awesome site that you should all bookmark:
http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/cdfaq.htm#cditrbchr
(That just happens to be the page that I need, but the site has loads of other stuff).

Here is what I found:
# Problem: Drawer does not close (or open) completely.
Possible causes:

1. Worn, stretched, oily, flabby, belt.
2. Dirty mechanism or gummed up lubrication.
3. Foreign object like toy, rock, or runaway disc blocking drawer.
4. Stripped gear or other mechanical damage.
5. Gear timing is messed up.

Problem: CD changer jams when selecting or ejecting CDs.
Possible causes:

1. Bad belts, dirt or need for lubrication.
2. Foreign objects, chipped or broken gears, or other mechanical damage.
3. Messed up gear timing.
4. Defective sensor (microswitch or opto-interrupter.
5. Defective motor, driver, or power supply.
6. Logic or microcontroller problem.

Problem: Drawer operation is erratic.
Possible causes:

1. Dirty sense switch contracts or bad connections.
2. Worn, stretched, oily, flabby, belt.
3. Dirty mechanism or gummed up lubrication.
4. Defective motor or bad connections to motor.
5. Stripped gear or other mechanical damage.
6. Missing/bad voltages from power supply.
7. Defective microcontroller or other logic.

(These are basically the top 3 things wrong with it, kinda similar too...
Here are all of the possible problems, some of the above were doubles, so here is the real list:

1. Dirty sense switch contracts or bad connections.
2. Worn, stretched, oily, flabby, belt.
3. Dirty mechanism or gummed up lubrication.
4. Defective motor, driver, or power supply. (or bad connections to motor.)
5. Stripped gear or other mechanical damage.
6. Missing/bad voltages from power supply.
7. Defective microcontroller or other logic. (etc.)
9. Gear timing is messed up.
10. Foreign object like toy, rock, or runaway disc blocking drawer.

Basically they say either the drive is effed, or it's my PSU.

Solution 1: Swap in another cd drive, this one I just took out of my new computer, so I know for a fact it works.
After this I will boot up the beast, and check for similar issues.

if(similarIssues)
PSU.swap();

... err.. if there are still problems, I will exchange PSU's... *sigh* I've been coding too much today.

Time to study for a midterm now.

[progbuddy]

Probably a fried transistor somewhere along the line... Any power surges or outages lately?

[isunktheship]

Heh, probably, I live in fricken California, I dunno if you've heard about our power problems, brown outs, black outs, and more.

Quick question, I just want to make sure that this works:

On mobo's there are both blue and black IDE connectors, I'm 99.99% sure I'm right, but you can have cd drives on both right?

I should really delete this. Matter of fact, I'm probably going to go back and edit it out after someone answers that, I'm so ashamed.

[GT40_GearHead]

of course you can, just be sure to set the jumpers to the right settings master/slave

[nil8]

Yes, both work. The color is to indicate which is channel 0 and which is channel 1. It doesn't really matter.