IDE CD ROMs Both dead.

[eXistenZ]

It all happened so sudden! I'm not sure about the problem here, but both my CD Roms are dead. My only guess is virus. When I turn my computer on after about 20 minutes of cooling time the cd roms are detected, after the computer is running in Windows XP for about 3 minutes they disapear without a trace. When I go into my computer when the computer first starts there they both are, 3 minutes later there gone. It did that up until recently when they both decided not to work at all anymore. No more cooling time. My most recent problem solved was a bad Power Supply, after I set the Vcore up to 10% 2 days later it died, and I figured it was a bad CPU, but it wasn't obviously. Could this have to do with anything on my CD Roms? IDE cables are in, and changed. IDE is in correct order because my motherboard won't let me switch them. Jumpers are in properly. Both have power, but undetected. (They both can be opend and closed) IDE cables are in securly. This has been going on for about 5 days. No virus found using 2 different anti-virus programs. ANY thoughts or ideas greatfully appreciated.

If worse comes to worse, I'll just use a spare hdd, and xfer everything over and start fresh, But if the cd rom isn't detected in the BIOS... I might just screw myself over without a computer at all *gasp* :eek:

-eXistenZ-

[jwenting]

Virusses don't cause hardware to fail.
My best informed guess would be you have either a bad cable (maybe it's become partially disconnected?), your powersupply isn't up to the load (you say it can handle it for a while until your machine starts to get hot, this might be because the powersupply is critical and starts to fail when it needs to run more fans), or (most seriously) one of your harddisk controllers is dead or nearly so.

Try disconnecting one of the drives and reseating the IDE connector on the remaining one.
If that works OK and the drive stays online, bring the other one back and see what happens.

[eXistenZ]

Done and done. No such luck. IDE are in fully, and I changed them. Power supply is the same type as before after I changed it I replaced it with the same one from a working computer. I had tried to change one of the CD Roms, and that one has the same problem. They both have power though. There has to be a solution.

[eXistenZ]

What are the chances that maybe my motherboard is going dead? One problem that temproarly worked but just recently wore off was making a new account on Win Xp and do my work on there. It took a lot longer for the drives to disapear, approximately 3 hours. When I went to reset the computer rarely I would get a message that says ATAPI Incompatible, but rarely.
NOTE: These cd roms did work together before for about 3 years.

Lastnight before they failed I was able to copy a cd directly using both drives, so something internally must be going on.

-eXistenZ-

[Catweazle]

Sounds to me like the drives are dying, eXistenZ. In your situation, I'd be trying new ones.

[eXistenZ]

Sounds to me like the drives are dying, eXistenZ. In your situation, I'd be trying new ones.

Well the problem is solved! See I figured that something was wrong when they would open and have power, but not be detected it had to be the drivers, right? It was! I disconnect the IDE cable completely suspended from the computer, logged into windows and went into device manager, and deleted all IDE controllers. Then I put the IDE cable back in and they have worked perfectly ever since. I had to re-update the firmware for my Lite-on, but thats no big deal.

-eXistenZ-