heya folks, the name's adam and i'm from bonny scotland ><

i'v actuallly got two problems, i'll keep them together even though i dont think they are related (just incase)


Problem A) i recently purchased an external usb powered seagate hdd ( http://wehavethings.com/uk/product.php?xProd=15118 ) but when i plugged it in using both usb connectors, after some time the lilght went off on the front, my usb mouse died, and my computer crashed. Since then, WITH or WITHOUT the drive in, windows takes twice as long to load up, wont play video files without stuttering and eventually causing degraded sound quality, as well as general lower performance across the board. My audio is onboard (sorry i cant give the specific model type, im using another computer atm - its an ASUS, socket a, 266 fsb based board). It's been really reliable till now. I ran scandisk and it found and fxed about 100 errors created by the first crash. I spoke to seagate about the usb drive and they said:

**Since the unit will copy data to and from it with no errors and that you
are not receiving a read or write failure this would appear to be a bus
issue. The fact that the USB mouse fails would lend further data to show
that this is indeed an issue with the usb port in question.
The only other thing that could cause it would be the usb driver or
chipset driver for windows.**

Although writing to and from it doesn't actually work either without it cuting power and system crashing

Interestingly as well, removing my 2nd internal hdd from the equation results in a lot less stuttering and power loss (though still miserably bad).



Problem B) While testing my various computer parts i put my 2nd hdd (logical/non bootable only) (and let me make sure you dont think this is the same seagate drive, its just a 2nd internal drive - heh) into my girlfriend's pc to make sure no hdd stuttering occured outside of my system. I put it on the same ide cable as her existing hdd, and as a slave. Took a power cable from 1 of her DVD drives (unplugged that relevant ide cable plug) so the other dvd-rw drive was still plugged in as normal.

I booted and there were no problems so I was naturally very happy - all good so far.

I took my hdd back out, put the cables back in her DVD drive exactly as it was (not a hard thing to do is it??) to find that the DVD drive that was still connected during my quick test now decides not to read disks . . .

the drive ejects with windows right click>eject option (which suggests its cabling is good?) It's light go on like its trying to read, the disk whirrs about like normal, but nothing is found after windows hanging for a while.

I've tried replacing her dvd drive with another in the same place and power cable used and it isnt even picked up at all.

I've tried swapping the power cable and ide conenctor around between the 2 dvd drives, resulting in the one that works still working and the one that doesn't still doesn't *sob*

I even tried both using different power cables and tried replacing the ide cable on the off chance it had something to do with it.


- cries -

- sos! -

Hi there and welcome to PCHF!

Looking at the issues above, the first thing that occurs to me is that there is a common denominator (the second HDD). I mean it was present in the first system (that went wrong) and it was introduced to a perfectly (?) healthy PC that has susequently gone wrong.

I can't really put my finger on the exact problem, maybe someone else can, but it does kinda point to the fact that this drive is messing with/breaking the IDE controllers. Especially as you have replaced the DVD drive and it's not even recognized now. Did you use the same IDE cable connected to the slave drive when you moved it from the first PC to the second (your GF's) ?

Does the new DVD drive work on the first PC if you connect it up?

thanks for the welcome Hengis,

its only maybe 6 months old so i hope it isnt messing systems up already :/

i used the ide cable which her currect hdd is on, just set my drive as slave

if i put her dvd drive back in now(taking out the replacement), its still recognised but not working, and the replacement drive isnt picked up, how bizarre is that?

as for her dvd drive, i havent actually had chance to test her dvd drive in my computer, will let you know what happens (hopefully later today) with that

thanks for the help so far

In responce; her dvd drive doesnt work in my computer either (then i changed MY dvd drive back to my computer and it still works - so being in her machine didnt do anything to my dvd drive) :-o :cry: :|

Lets troubleshoot..

Disconnect all other cd-roms except for the problem one. Set the jumper on it to Master.

Boot into Windows safemode and see if it works.
If yes then boot into normal windows and see whether it works.

interestingly when i changed the jumper to master and booted normally, her system said, "new hardware detected dvd-rw 4x blah blah", but no luck. I then booted in safe mode, as suggested but still doesnt work. Post picks it up right but winXP in safe mode shows it as a cd rom drive (it doesnt work with cds either) *sob* :cry:

oh and on top of this i looked at the drive and one of the 4 pins in the power port is half the size / pushed in?
could this have something to do with it?

but!
if so -> why wont my perfectly working dvd drive work in her machine as a replacement? :-o