From: "Roger Herbst" :Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 9:58 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Cdrw / Cd Rom problem


> I purchased, and installed a Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32A CDRW. It is
> set up as the master on my second ide port, with a Kenwood 72X CD Rom
> drive as the slave.
>
> The problem is this. When the computer is cold booted, the Kenwoods
> caddy tray immediately opens up and only can be closed by manually
> pushing it closed [ it reopens itself a few seconds later, again]. When
> windows98 is fully loaded, I have no use of the Kenwood drive at all,
> the light just flashes on the drive but the button that opens and closes
> the caddy will not work. Of course, windows shows that I have only the
> Plextor drive at this point. Here is the kicker, if I then select
> "shutdown & restart the computer [ no cold boot] the Kenwood drive works
> perfectly. The drawer doesn't pop open on "restart", the drive is now
> recognized by windows, as is the plextor, and everything works fine.
>
> I have tried everything I know, from using different power connectors to
> even trying a new ribbon. I even unhooked the plextor, jumpered the
> Kenwood back to master, and cold booted the machine only to find that
> the Kenwood 72X cd rom drive functions perfectly. I am sure the drives
> are jumpered right, the red line on the ribbon lines up with pin 1 on
> both units etc.
>
> What is causing the caddy tray to open up by itself on cold boots? I am
> totally lost on what to do about all of this. I figured you experts out
> there could point me in the right direction.
>

Roger,

Since the Kenwood works when it is the only CD  or from a warm boot, but
does not work on cold boot when the Plextor is attached too, I would look to
your power supply.  You may have too much load at boot up so the drive is
not initialized on a cold boot when there is the largest power drain.  You
may want to upgrade your power supply or check that it is operating
properly.

Mary Wolden

            Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to
                    Digest mode - visit our web site:
                    http://nospin.com/pc/pcbuild.html