monitor doesn't come on when internal dvd-rw plugged in

[johnceccarelli]

At my wit's end and hope someone here can help. I bought a Lite-On SOHW-1693S and when I plug it in to my computer the monitor never comes on. The computer boots up fine (I can tell by the sound). I booted it without the burner plugged in and then plugged it in - the computer picked up the burner no problem and registered the correct firmware, but when I rebooted had the same problem. The burner makes a weird sound when I boot up (kind of like a boing!).

I've tried the burner in another machine and it works. I've tried putting it as master, slave, alone, with another one plugged in, tried using different connector cables and power input. Nothing works.

The old DVD-ROM drive that was in there was having problems too - wouldn't read any disks and would make weird sound at startup too.

Any ideas?

[handyguy]

Usually black screens are power supply issues. Maybe another & better PS?

[johnceccarelli]

You mean power supply? Don't understand why that would matter. After all, the monitor's got its own power supply.

[hhhhbk]

just checking

the pc
the monitor
the external dvdrw

all have seperate cables to be plugged in at the mains

if so then my guesses would be

1) the wall socket they are all pluged into is overloaded
2) some kind of driver conflict
3) somehow the connector plugging the dvdrw in is shorting out something on the motherboard

[Megahurts]

johnceccarelli

Had a similar problem after installing a MyHD PCI card. When booting up there was no display (AGP). By changing the AGP aperture setting in BIOS, it worked fine.

Just a thought,

Chas

[johnceccarelli]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

hhhhbk - 1) it's an internal DVD drive, so it shouldn't make a difference in how much the computer is draining from the wall. Plus the monitor comes on (see the yellow light by the power switch) but doesn't actually show anything.

3) This is my personal suspicion, some sort of short on the connector or the motherboard, since the previous DVD drive had problems too. But I have no idea how to check it.

Chas - thanks for the tip, I'll check it out. BTW - what did you set the aperture to? higher or lower?

[BobK]

hhhhbk - 1) it's an internal DVD drive, so it shouldn't make a difference in how much the computer is draining from the wall.

You wouldn't think so, and I don't know if that's the problem or not. But you might try plugging something into a different outlet. About 2 years ago all the USB sockets on my computer quit working. Since it was only a couple months old I took it back to I bought it. They plugged it in and everything worked fine. The tech told me that it could be a power problem- I had the computer, monitor, speakers, etc all plugged into one wall outlet. He said to try plugging a few things into a different outlet. It seemed to me that it shouldn't make a difference in how much everything was draining from the wall, but it did. I plugged the printer, monitor and speakers into a power strip connected to a different wall outlet and all the problems went away.

[johnceccarelli]

just plugged the computer into one socket and the monitor into another, and it didn't work

As for a driver conflict, how would I figure out what's causing the conflict? I'd reinstall windows if I thought it would help but since I can't boot the computer with the dvd-rw plugged in I'm afraid I'd just have the same problem once I plug it in again.

[Nelson37]

This is not a driver issue, drivers do not load until windows loads and you do not even get the Bios setup screen, which should be seen if there is no boot drive whatsoever.

Test the power and data cable issue by unplugging these cables one at a time and test. Also, swap the hd and DVD data cable connections on the mobo. Test total pc power available by unplugging the power cable to the hd and boot. Your power supply could be maxed out or defective, and one more device overloads it, causing this problem.

Try a different ide cable to the DVD. This could have a short, and sounds like a likely cause of this problem.

Do you get any beep codes at boot? One is typical, more indicates some issue.

Is it possible that you are bumping the AGP card when plugging and unplugging the DVD? I have one PC where the slightest touch on the AGP card will cause the symptom you are seeing, fix is to R and R the video card, all is OK.

[hhhhbk]

i must have misread your post before for some strange reason i though tit was an external drive


with it being an internal dvdrw my suggestions/reasons for your problem would be

1) dvdrw is too much of a drain on your psu or the power connector to the dvdrw is dodgy

2) you have set the jumper on the dvdrw set wrongly

3) one of the ide channels on your motherboard or the cable is borked

-----

first off id check that your primary hard drive is plugged in to IDE channel 1 set as master and dvdrw is plugged into IDE2 as master

(unplug secondary hard drives and optical drives if you have them)

if this doesnt work id try a different power connector in the back of the dvdrw


-----

if still no luck try the hard drive and dvdrw both on IDE1
hard drive at end of cable set as master dvdrw in middle set as slave



------

if still no luck my money would be on the psu not being powerful enough or the motherboard being borked

[handyguy]

The reason I said the power supply in the computer is cause it might not be strong enough to drive that stuff. So how many watts is it?

[johnceccarelli]

all right, some crazy stuff happening...

i plugged it in to the same ide cable as the hard drive as slave, and it started up fine, found the driver, everything's great. on the next restart, it's not working again. that's what happened when i plugged it into the optical drive ide cable for the first time too.

something tells me it's not the power supply, just because it manages it when it comes on the first time, and because with the other CD-RW drive unplugged that should provide enough power to run just the one drive, right? (maybe not)

i'll try putting the drive in a second computer to see whether it starts up again after it's installed. last time i just put it in and started it up, figured all was OK when it saw and installed it on the first start. may be a defective drive after all (sure hope so)

[Nelson37]

Something is definitely flaky, these are often heat-related. Test warm restarts and cold restarts, after letting it sit for an hour or so. I would suspect the drive or the power supply, to some extent because these are cheaper and easier to replace than the Mobo. Usually if this were a Mobo issue there would be other indications.

Did you swap the IDE cable or try a new one? Could have a pinched wire, but typically that would flake while running as well. That it changes upon reboot is telling.

If under warranty or you can exchange it do that now without even waiting. It certainly won't hurt, and will eliminate one possibility.

[johnceccarelli]

Hi I'm back

Exchanged the drive and the new one is a bit better but the problem's still there. You were right about warm vs cold restarts - when i boot the computer cold it usually happens. if i let it sit on for a few minutes then force a restart the monitor comes on. What does that mean? Power supply? I swapped the IDE cable and it didn't seem to make a difference.

[TooLFooL]

not meant to be insulting... there's not a disk in the drive during startup, is there?! this could cause problems.
or, try going into bios and select 'first boot device - HDD'

[AngusMacGyver]

I've already seen a problem like that. I put CD-ROM drive on 1st IDE (slave) and it worked fine. It's not a good choice. I think CD-ROM must be on 2nd IDE, but if it's the only choice...
As you said you've put it on 1st IDE and worked just once... I don't know what you can do. Maybe a MB firmware update.

[INFRATOM]

Start your computer in safemode (hold F8 while booting) go to device manager check IRQ on display adaptor and 2 IDE channels see if there are any conflicts. Then just to be sure put your Hard drive on IDE master1 channel 1and your cdrom on master2 channel 2 , if you have dvdrom put it as master2 if you have more put them as slave. Check the ide cables if you have new motherboard use 80 wire cable for all make sure they don't have kinks. make sure all your cables and video card are seated well. The pins on the master slave setting must be set correctly double check again if you have new motherboard set them on cable select. If you can reinstall your ide drivers would be a good thing can do it in device manager. if you still have the problem you have to give very detailed description on what you have in the computer eg video card pci or AGP any info. check even when you place the drive is it pushing your video card video card could be close to drive wires or something could push it out of seating ... good luck let us know

[Nelson37]

OK, john, you are getting some misinformation here. For those of you not trained in analysing such problems, pay attention.

The PC does, in fact, boot. Not every time, but sometimes. Just once is enough to determine that the jumper settings, etc. are OK. CD or any other drive can be on any IDE cable on either connection, no difference.

The basic configuration is correct and this is NOT your problem. Do NOT compound your issue by messing with the drivers at this stage.

Now, a language problem. You state that after a "cold" boot, "it" usually happens and after sitting for a few minutes, the monitor is OK.

Do you mean that when you reboot, immediately after the PC has been running and all components have been on for several minutes, that it works OK?

And that if the PC has been sitting for a half hour or so, and all components have cooled off, that it does not boot OK?

I would expect the exact opposite of this situation, that the Power Supply, once cold, works OK and that after getting hot, does not.

ISOLATE and IDENTIFY. Repeat this again and again.

Unplug all power to all but boot hard drive, test warm and cold reboots. Plug in extra drives one at a time, test warm and cold reboots. Note this will take an hour or so per device. Do not cut this time short, or nothing will be learned.

A new power supply is $40 or less. Easy to put in, and certainly would not hurt. Since the drive has been replaced, and thereby almost certainly eliminated as the source of the problem ( note this is not an absolute - it is possible you could have gotten 2 defective drives in a row, I have seen this happen) The power supply is most likely the cause of the issue. Also the only other thing would be the main board, this is not economical to test and leads to a whole bunch of other questions if replacement is necessary.