Member Avatar for IamConfuzzled

About 2 weeks ago, hubby opened the case & changed the master & slave on the burners. Since then the computer will start booting up & will shut down before everything has finished loading up. It always gets to where we can see XP logos, often the entire desktop. Sometimes it takes another 1 or 2 times, but it will completely load & will not shut off after this point unless you intentionally shut it down. He reopened the case & there are no loose connections, which was my first thought. The hard drive is older, so I'm wondering if it could just be time to replace the drive---or if it might be something else. We built the desktop within the last 6 months (I think), so the case, power supply, motherboard & processor were new at that time. Just thought I would try to get some input before we try anything.

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Dani AI

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Intermittent shutdowns during the XP boot sequence after a recent optical-drive jumper change are best handled by isolating hardware from software and testing in a fixed order. The goal is to confirm whether this is a power/initialization problem, a master/slave/IDE conflict, a failing hard drive, or a Windows-level crash. The steps below expand on s observation and give a practical, low-risk sequence to follow.

Start with a diagnostic split between software and hardware:

  • Use F8 at boot and choose "Disable automatic restart on system failure" so a blue screen (if present) stays on-screen instead of powering off. This tells whether Windows is crashing or the system is losing power.
  • Try Safe Mode. If Safe Mode is stable, suspect drivers/services; if it still cuts out, hardware is more likely.

Isolate drives and power:

  • With power off and unplugged, disconnect the optical drives (both power and IDE ribbon) so only the hard disk and essential components remain. Boot several times. If the machine becomes stable, reattach drives one at a time to find the culprit.
  • Swap the IDE ribbon and Molex power lead for the hard disk to a different cable/port to rule out a bad cable or connector.
  • Test with minimal hardware (one RAM stick, onboard video if available, no PCI cards or USB devices).

Check HDD health and the power supply:

  • If Windows boots, check Event Viewer for unexpected shutdown entries and run chkdsk /r. Use a SMART-capable diagnostic (bootable manufacturer tool) to read the drive's SMART attributes. Backup immediately if SMART shows reallocated or pending sectors.
  • Power-supply sag at optical-drive spinup can cause a shutdown. If possible, try a known-good PSU or boot with drives disconnected to see if the symptom disappears.

BIOS and physical checks:

  • Reset CMOS to defaults, confirm the drive is detected in BIOS, and inspect the motherboard for bulging capacitors. When changing jumpers or cables, always power down and ground yourself.

If these steps do not isolate the fault, prioritize a full backup and consider temporarily swapping in a known-good PSU and/or hard drive for further testing.

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Member Avatar for digitalocksmith

Do you mean that you re-configured the jumper settings on the back of your CD drives or have you interchanged IDE channels with your hard drive(s)?

I am assuming the internal drives you are running, are doing so with an IDE interface?

If so, it is advisable to run your hard drive(s) on your primary IDE channel.....and your CD drives on the secondary IDE channel.
Interchanging this can lead to conflicts for resources within your system!
I may be way of track here, however your problem description sounds suspiciously like a resource conflict!

Member Avatar for IamConfuzzled

Hubby changed the settings on the 2 burners switching which one was master & which one was slave. He didn't touch the IDE settings. All drives are IDE.

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