DVD Drive crashing computer

[RhysAndrews]

Hi guys.
You might've seen my thread about a slow installation of Windows 7 / Vista (Very slow).

Well, I managed to get Windows 7 installed - it took about 12 hours to expand files, but once installed everything seemed to run very smoothly. This system is a HTPC, connected via HDMI to my LCD TV. All has been going well, I had my aerial go into my HD TV tuner and Windows 7's Media Center does a great job in recording, playing music / videos, and soon I will get a wireless card for the PC which will allow me to setup shares for the music and videos (and pictures), so anyone in my family can just plant stuff onto it to watch on my TV. Anyway...

THE PROBLEM
I presumed my DVD Writer was working, but never bothered to put in a DVD or Audio CD. So I tried yesterday...

The audio CD started to play the first track, but about 10 seconds in, Media Center locked up and you could only move the mouse around. I'm not sure whether the song repeated its buffer, continued to play, or just stopped. I had to restart the computer.

I then tried a DVD. Nothing happened until I selected "Play DVD" - then it just crashed just like the Audio CD.

I restarted again, and tried to close Media Center and open a DVD via Windows Media Center - explorer.exe ended up losing response and again I was forced to restart.

My first thoughts were that my burner might not be receiving enough power. So I unplugged it from the SATA rail on my (generic) PSU, and attached it via a Molex to SATA adapter. Same problem. I had also tried connecting it via another SATA port on the motherboard.

My next step is to return it to my new computer and see if the same issue occurs. If so, it's clearly the DVD Writer. If not, however, I am worried about what may be the issue, as eventually I want to get a Blu-Ray Combo for my HTPC and would hate if it didn't work.

ANy ideas what the issue may be? Your help is much appreciated.
-Rhys

 

[david90]

update your driver or try different dvd drive. Currently with your description, it could be anything.

 

[RhysAndrews]

@david90
It's not the DVD Drive - trying it in another computer worked just fine.
It worked on previous installations on the same computer, I must admit that.

 

[dude_56013]

update your driver or try different dvd drive. Currently with your description, it could be anything.

There aren't drivers for a CD/DVD drive...

Conversely, there are drivers for the a lot of other things. Make sure you have installed the chipset (mb) drivers and any other drivers required for your computer. It's obviously a software issue it seems, since it works fine in other computers.

 

[RhysAndrews]

@Dude
Unless there's something wrong with my motherboard or PSU. I will find out.

 

[dude_56013]

Nah..I've never seen a computer that could boot up fine but not run a DVD drive. They don't draw much. It's very doubtful. And, as for your motherboard, I don't think it'd be the SATA data connectors if you have any other devices. If you want to really narrow it down, get another SATA DVD drive and see if it does the same thing. Then you'll know it's something with the MB or something. Are you SURE you installed all the drivers? It shouldn't be the problem though, since Windows recognizes just about any DVD/CD drive known to man . Hmm. I'm running out of ideas. You *could* try another PSU if you want, but I don't think that's it either.

 

[winslow33]

I'm having the exact same issue with Windows XP. If you find a fix, please PM me..... Its frustrating to me without a DVD drive for months

 

[RhysAndrews]

From memory, I had this issue a number of years ago too, on a system I no longer have. I remember reformatting the machine and it worked. So it may very well be a driver issue.

-Rhys