I tink I have a problem. CDROM will not read cd's

[ille_pugil42]

Okay, I have a Dual boot Win98/Slack7.1 system. Lately my cdrom hasn't been cooperating. I'd put in a cd, it would spin up and down and up (ad naseum) for a while, but neither OS would see any files on the cd more than once. (I.E. The first time it may see files, after that it insists that no cd is in the drive). This happend with 3 different CDROMs. I removed the ribbon cable from my CDROM drive and attached it to a spare hard drive, that drive read/wrote just fine. Any ideas? The computer has been doing some other weird things, like dropping network connectivity every few minutes, not wanting to power on (having to press the power button repeatedly while unplugging and plugging in the power) as well as constant hangs in windows. My roommate thinks it may be the mobo, I think he may be right. It sometimes reports the wrong processor, just to reboot and report correctly. I'm on my way to the store later for a new mobo, just wanted some opinions on what may be wrong. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Choozo]

Well, since you have all those other problems too, I would agree on the mobo being the culprit.
If everything else had been OK, I would suspect the CD drive - especially if it were a Creative Labs drive.

Cheers :)

[YaRness]

if you got an extra box/parts, just do the standard kinda thing: swap out stuff (i'd do mobo and power suppply) and see what works and what doesn't. did you change anything in the box lately... add/replace stuff, etc etc. check ALL the power connections, make sure all yer wires and cards and stuff are fully seated, etc.

if it's as intermittent as you say, and there's no obvious cause, then it's prolly a fooked mobo or power supply... though prolly more likely mobo, just cuz i think stuff would be either more consistently, or permanently, fooked if the power supply was shot.

[ille_pugil42]

I'm thinking of getting another power supply as well, just in case.

Just curious, is it safe to remove/insert PS/2 connections while the unit is on? I've been told different things from different sources. I know the cables have been reseated while power is on.

[YaRness]

i've done it. some winderz mouse proggies even have an option to swap out the mouse while winderz is running. now that being said, i wouldn't recommend it, but i don't think it would really do much harm.

messing with the keyboard connection MAY cause things to go hooey (more likely than mouse i think), but more in a software (OS, or BIOS) sense, not like your problems.

[Molecule Man]

Actually it is indeed possible, though not likely, to fry a MOBO, or at least the PS/2 ports. It does kinda sound like a power problem though, or maybe just a flaky cd drive.

[ille_pugil42]

well not to worry. Going to get the mobo and processor tomorrow. In the mean time, things have gotten worse. While trying to fix a hangup in Windows, I was typing in "deltree -y c:\windows\gnu" (I was trying to get gimp for windows installed) - I accidently hit <ENTER> right after c:\windows because I've had to borrow a keyboard. I did manage to save it in time, tho. I'm only missing the windows command directory. :) Guess I'll reinstall as well, hopefully something goes right. BTW, I'll also be reinstalling linux. I've been having some issues getting my ATI Xpert 2000 recognized by the default install of X with slack 7.1, gonna try a fresh install.

Either way, Thanks for all the help.