Member Avatar for starsinhereyes

Wow..2 in one day.
Windows 2000...everything functions normally. The CD-Rom is hardly used. The other day a cd was inserted and the system restarted. It happens everytime the CD-Rom is in use. No viruses, spyware, etc. Tried a new CD-Rom..same thing. However! When the computer is in safe mode...it works! Thinking there might be something in the start up. Any suggestions? :-|

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— the fact that the machine boots fine into Safe Mode but restarts whenever the optical drive is used is a very useful clue. Safe Mode disables third‑party drivers, most shell extensions and autorun handlers, so the problem is most likely either a software/driver/autorun conflict that only runs in normal mode, or a hardware/power fault that Safe Mode doesn't trigger. Both angles mentioned by and are plausible; the checklist below orders quick, low‑risk diagnostics first and moves toward hardware traces last.

Start with diagnostics you can do from Windows: disable "Automatically restart on system failure" so any STOP (BSOD) code is visible, then reproduce and note the STOP number and any driver name shown. Check Event Viewer (System/Application) for errors at the crash time. Try inserting a disc while holding SHIFT (this suppresses Autorun) — if the restart stops, an autorun or shell extension is implicated. Use msconfig (selective startup) to disable non‑Microsoft services and startup items in groups to find the offending component. If possible, boot from an alternate environment (a known good boot CD or Linux live CD) and try reading a disc: a restart outside Windows points strongly to power/short/hardware.

Hardware and deeper software checks: swap the IDE/power cables and try a different Molex/SATA power lead (or different rail), and remove nonessential drives/cards before testing. Test the drive in another system or a known‑good drive in this box. Look for third‑party filter drivers and back up the registry before editing the CD/DVD class key (the UpperFilters/LowerFilters values under the CD/DVD class) and remove only non‑Microsoft entries if identified. Update chipset/IDE controller drivers and BIOS where available. If a STOP code or dump names a driver, focus on uninstalling or updating that driver. Persistent failures after these steps make an intermittent PSU rail, a short in the drive bay or a failing motherboard the most likely culprits; those require swapping the PSU or testing the drive on another machine.

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Member Avatar for just_a_nobody

Do you have Easy CD Creator installed on that computer? This can be anything, a software, or hardware issue. Tell me more about this computer. Have you installed any new hardware recently? How about new software? Go into Device Manager, and find the pesky CD drive, and click on it and click on uninstall, then reboot your computer, to see if windows finds it again, now try it.

If that didn't work, try this: Can you open your computer up, disconnect the power cord, touch the metal, on the case, to discharge any static, and disconnect the cables from the faulty CD drive. Then reboot your computer, turn it off normally, then reinstall the CD drive cables and reboot.

Member Avatar for starsinhereyes

Like I said, it's a head scratcher. No Easy CD Creator.... nothing new installed....everything else is running fine. I'll take your advice....as soon as I can remove my hands from it's throat. (the computer of course) Thanks...I'll keep you posted.

Member Avatar for jwenting

Sounds like a power problem.
Any new hardware installed recently? Could be your CD-ROM player is pulling enough power when used that your powersupply can't keep up and your system goes down as a result.

Had something similar when installing a DVD writer, had to disconnect 2 of my 6 harddisks to get it enough juice to run stable.

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