Most computer CD drives are capable of playing an audio CD to a front-
panel headphone jack without ever interacting with the rest of the computer 
except the power supply.  The spin-up and read behaviour that you describe 
is not enough to verify that the IDE controller and drive are speaking to 
each other.

David Gillett


On 2 Aug 2006 at 13:38, Tim Seaton wrote:

Date sent:      	Wed, 2 Aug 2006 13:38:22 -0700
Send reply to:  	Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
             	<[log in to unmask]>
From:           	Tim Seaton <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:        	Re: [PCBUILD] OS Crash
To:             	[log in to unmask]

> The computer does attempt to read from both CD Drives when a CD is placed in them.  The light comes on, it begins to spin, and then reads for a few moments, finally ending with the CD Drive powering down.  The “Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility” message never leaves the screen during this time.  This is the reason I did not think it was the power supply or the IDE interface.  In addition, the computer is only a little over a year old.  However, I do not know all that much about the inner workings.
>    
>   Tim Seaton
> 
> 
>  		
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