Help with a computer shutting down

katana_3

Well my old computer (AMD 2000+) seems to have gained a problem. When I use the dvd drive to either write on a blank disc or get data off a disc it seems to crash the computer. Or what I should say the computer just reboots.

The computer runs two DVD burners (an LG and a pioneer), even with one unpluged from the power and the cable it still seems to do the same thing. I replaced the 350 watt power supply with a known good spare but it still seems to have the same problem. All that is powered is the motherboard (with a zalman flower) and one hard drive and the two burners and a floppy drive.

I've tried rejigging the memory chips, taking them out and checking the seating as well as putting them in different bays and tried unplugging and plugging all the cables and I'm still getting the same problem.

There is nothing in the event logs and I'm at a loss what has caused this.

Anyone know what i should do to try and find/solve the problem as it really annoying. Thank you for your help

David_Forrest

Does the problem only occur when you burn a dvd?

katana_3

Hello

No it's when it tries to copy a CD/DVD contents to the hard drive.

Wondering if the problem is the 350W power supply.

David_Forrest

If you only have a standard computer with power only going to the motherboard, hard drive and disc drie should be no need for massive amounts of power.
What graphics card do you have, as that may bump the power up quite a bit

katana_3

Well the card is a Nvidia geforce2 MX/MX400, the motherboard is a gigabyte7zxe 1.0 and the hard drive is a western digital.

David_Forrest

Hmm this is certainly a really weird problem. Cause nothing looks like it should be causing any problems since its not relaly that high a spec computer.

I would try another, more powerful power supply, but I can't guarantee that, that is the fault. It is also weird that it only happens when copying data, and that the problem is still there when one of the drives is disconnected.

Have you tried disconnecting both drives, and testing both of them seperately?

katana_3

David_Forrest wrote: »

Hmm this is certainly a really weird problem. Cause nothing looks like it should be causing any problems since its not relaly that high a spec computer.

I would try another, more powerful power supply, but I can't guarantee that, that is the fault. It is also weird that it only happens when copying data, and that the problem is still there when one of the drives is disconnected.

Have you tried disconnecting both drives, and testing both of them seperately?

Yep and I tested a third drive too. Is was fine for one burn then put the machine back together and it did the same thing.

Oh well I'll go for the slightly more powerful spare 400 watt and see what happens. But was wondering if there could be something that I'm missing

vyseyboy

Jumpers set correctly on IDE drives (hard disc and DVD drive) ?

Make sure there's no pins missing on the IDE connectors on both devices too, and that they're both detected properly in the BIOS settings.

One pin missing on an IDE connection can cause really strange symptoms indeed.

katana_3

Well the dvd copiers are
Pioneer DVR 1108k, Lg GSA 4167b and finally a third pioneer DVr 106d.

All are not connected at the same time, now with one connected and two programs running it seems to crash.

Will try the 450w power supply to see what that does.

katana_3

vyseyboy wrote: »

Jumpers set correctly on IDE drives (hard disc and DVD drive) ?

Make sure there's no pins missing on the IDE connectors on both devices too, and that they're both detected properly in the BIOS settings.

One pin missing on an IDE connection can cause really strange symptoms indeed.

Hello

The jumpers are set as master and slave. All the pins seem to be there both on the mother board and the drive side.

latecomer

Did you change anything around the time that the problem started occurring? Have you tried updating your motherboard drivers to the latest version?

To me it sounds like it might be a problem with your IDE channel and hence could be a motherboard issue.