CD Writer Slows Drop-downs in Win2k

[MSOL]

Got a new computer with Win2k Pro & installed my old Acer 1832a CD
burner as a slave to the CD/DVD drive. After a half hour or more of
use, access to "look in" drop-down lists and the drive tree display in
"my computer" would slow. Eventually, access would hang altogether,
giving me a "not responding" error. Also, start-ups slowed
considerably. Everything worked fine if I disconnected the writer.
Reformatted the HD, reinstalled Win2k pro, got service packs, tried
new cable, messed with PIO/DMA settings -- nothing worked. Last night
I noticed that the CD writer casing was warm even though I had not
been using it. Perhaps, it has a short that is causing it to heat up
and give the access problems. Yet the thing still burns CD's fine and
it worked without problems on my old win98 machine. Any ideas would
be greatly appreciated.

Mark

 

[kony]

Got a new computer with Win2k Pro & installed my old Acer 1832a CD
burner as a slave to the CD/DVD drive. After a half hour or more of
use, access to "look in" drop-down lists and the drive tree display in
"my computer" would slow. Eventually, access would hang altogether,
giving me a "not responding" error. Also, start-ups slowed
considerably. Everything worked fine if I disconnected the writer.
Reformatted the HD, reinstalled Win2k pro, got service packs, tried
new cable, messed with PIO/DMA settings -- nothing worked. Last night
I noticed that the CD writer casing was warm even though I had not
been using it. Perhaps, it has a short that is causing it to heat up
and give the access problems. Yet the thing still burns CD's fine and
it worked without problems on my old win98 machine. Any ideas would
be greatly appreciated.

Mark

Different writers (especially the older ones) can vary a lot in how
hot they get, even given same airflow/cooling. Since it still works
I'd suspect the heat isn't the issue, but instead it might help to
move to a different IDE channel or master/slave or single
configuration for it OR the CD/DVD drive. It might help to set the
CDRW to Master, unplug the CD/DVD for testing, and see if the problem
is still present.


Dave

Dave