Most annoying problem I've ever had with my pc

Prelude

Guys, I'm so annoyed with my pc at the moment. I'm getting the following problem:
about 50% of the times after starting up my computer and booting into windows I start getting these hickups where my computer will just freeze for 3-5 seconds.

When this happens I see the activity light on my DVD-RW drive lighting up and, more often then not, just before this happens I hear that sound that you also hear when you just turned on your computer. (a low hum for about a second)
Usually, my other drive, a DVD-ROM drive will also join in the party and start spinning up.
When I open the trays they will close by themselves again the next time a hickup occurs.
I am also unable to access any DVD's that are in the drive when it starts doing this, not even between hickups, explorer will just say that the drive is not accesible.

At first I thought of a virus or trojan but after restoring a backup which I know is clean this still happens. I'm running ESET Smart Security.
The other 50% of the time I won't have this problem, at least, till my next reboot.

Any ideas on how to approach this? What actually makes that low hum just before it freezes?

dj_stick

first - i'd check to make sure everythings plugged in correctly - try removing/unplugging each DVD drive seperately and test your system, then make sure all cables are plugged in securely at both ends (drive and motherboard)

hopefully it's just a slightly loose cable, and not a faulty drive

kris23

thats a hardware issue, sometimes it has to do with fragmentation and bad registry entries.

but for slow computers, its simply the system trying to detect if theres anything in the drives.

Prelude

I've unplugged the DVD-RW and so far so good, will have to keep this a while longer to check if its really the problem or not...

kris23

then you just have a slow computer! your system is perfectly normal

BlueMak

What are the specs of your system? CPU, RAM, mainly.

Vikingod

My guess is the problem is with your drive. I one had the exact same issue with my old laptop. Replaced the drive and havent had the problem since.

Prelude

Yeah, still haven't had the issue since disconnecting that particular drive. My system's a E6600 with 2 gig's DDR2 on a P5b deluxe btw, so it can't be a speed issue. Had me worried about a trojan there with the tray closing involuntarily like that...

Tipstaff

Couple things:

- Double check the cables

- make sure that it's all aligned (red or whatever stripe closest to the power/molex connector on the drive)
- swap around the molex power cables going to the drive
- if you have a spare IDE cable, try it to rule out the current cable being the culprit.
- On the same note, some older drives, and some newer ones too, do not like the newer 80 wire IDE cable (the one that comes with a cut wire). If you have an older 40 wire cable, or an older 80 wire cable that has no cut wire, try using it.

- Double check that there are no bent pins on IDE connector of the drive.

- Double check that the drives jumpers are set right, being one as master, one as slave.

- Don't forget to try the suspect drive by itself, especially if it's on the same cable as the other, working drive.

- Do you have any software installed that allows for creating virtual drives, such as Daemon Tools, or Neros Virtual Drive? If so, try uninstalling them, reboot, and see if that resolves things.

One a side note, I would also check the bios to see what it lists for available drives, as well as the listings in Device Manager for what drives you have, and the listing for the IDE controller. This is just something else to help determine if the cause is software or hardware related.

Prelude

Thx for the help, tried most of those things, seems to be hardware related as it hasn't happened since unplugging that drive. Good thing DVD drives are so cheap nowadays.