[nickyboy]

I have a Packard Bell PC that runs on Windows 98. I've had an internal aftermarket CD burner installed for a while and aside from initial setup problems, I've had no problems with it. Last week, my system got really screwy so I did a reformat of my hard drive with the Master CD that came with the system. This wiped out the recording software which was loaded on the system. I misplaced the CD which I needed to reload it the recording program so I decided to upgrade the burner altogether and get a new one. I installed the recording software (NERO) and the new burner (the original CD-ROM is remaining installed too). However, no matter what configuration I use for the CD-ROMS (master/slave - slave/master - master/master - slave/slave - cable select/cable select), the computer locks up when I open the NERO burning rom application or the CD player accessory. However, when I disconnect the CD-ROM burner and just leave the original CD-ROM installed, the lockup problems go away.

I never had this problem before I did the reformat of my hard drive. I even tried hooking the old burner back up with the same configuration and I get the same thing with applications locking up. I can't even do a Ctrl, Alt, Dlt to close out the application which isn't responding. Therefore, I believe the problem lies in something that was reset when I reformatted the hard drive to it's orginal out-of-box settings.

If anybody can provide any insight or solutions, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Nick

 

[nickyboy]

Thanks for getting back to me.

They've been hooked up a number of ways. I've tried the original CD-ROm as master and the burner as slave, vice versa, both on cable select, etc. I think I've tried every configuration possible. I was able to get it to the point where the system recognizes both CD-ROM drives in My Computer and they both respond. But when I open an application like the CD Player, the entire system locks and cannot be backed out of, even with Ctrl, Alt, Dlt. I deinstalled just the burner and left the original CD-ROM hooked up. With this setup, I have no problems but the burner isn't hooked up and cannot be used. So then I tried deinstalling the original CD-ROM and hooked up just the burner as the master. The system recognizes it but it locks up again. Out of curiosity, I hooked up my old burner, both in tandem with the original CD-ROM and just by itself. Now, even that burner makes my system lock and I never had any problems with it before. The bottom line is the only CD-ROM that does not make my system lock now is the orginal one that came with the unit. Adding any additional CD-ROMs now locks my system up making the CD burning application useless.

This all happened after I reformatted my hard drive. Prior to the reformat, I had no problems adding anything. Is it possible my motherboard went on the fritz at the same time when I reformatted and can no longer support a new CD-ROM drive? Would a new motherboard correct this problem?

Nickyboy