My windows freezes up 2 or 3 times a day for about 20-30 seconds.I cant move my mouse or do anything else and when it does it disables my
printer untill i reboot and i get this error message in the event viewer.

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\CdRom0.

it tells me to replace the cable and i will when i can but i dont think that
will solve the problem. I reformatted my HD and it still does it.I also noticed a 100% cpu usage spike when this happens. any
thoughts?

windows xp home edition sp2
AMD XP 2800+
gigabyte 7n400-L
msi geforce 6600gt
msi cr52 cd/RW
120gig samsung spinpoint
sound blaster audigy gamer
corsair value select 1gig pc3200 RAM
enlight 420w PSU

I would replace the $10 cable before making any grand assumptions. If there is feedback from a shorted IDE ribbon cable, it could cause the CD-ROM to send such a "damaged" signal and any time a variant happens in the electricity of a system, or error signals like that occur, you are lucky if you are not blue-screening, let alone your computer just freezing, your CPU going into freeze-mode (where it goes to overdrive at 100% and tries to send out data, but can't because the system is no longer requesting it because the system is frozen) and it gets over it. Obviously if you have reformatted & reinstalled XP, it is not your hard drive or anything to do with XP - it is hardware. I would even venture to say it could also be the CD-ROM itself if the cable replacement doesn't go well. Trust the errors to tell you what is wrong. It's when they don't that it's time to worry.