Can you leave optical drive unplugged

[Guest]

Hello,

Recently, i forgot to push in my tray from optical drive before turning off PC. When I turned it on again i got a noise from the optical drive and no image on monitor. I have a 500W PSU and 8600GT video card and have been working fine for the past 2 years. The problem arose after the optical drive incident. May I just unplug the power from the drive and restart the computer? When i first turn PC on i takes 10 seconds for the noise on optical drive to go away and then I hear the PC "beep". I get image in the onboard video card but not on the 8600GT card.

 

[treefrog07]

You can try it. Disconnect the power cord from the computer, open the case, ground yourself with a wrist strap or by holding onto the case with one hand. Find and disconnect the power cable by firmly pulling it straight back from the optical drive. Push/wrap/stow the power cable away from the board and other metal devices. Close up the case, re-connect the power cord to the computer, and power-on. Let us know if it works.

 

[Guest]

it didnt work still makes the same dam noise, i already ruled out the optical drive hard drive, and nvidia 8600 card.

Its probably the power supply but im afarid of unplugging and hookign up my old one to check its thats the problem becuase of fear i might messed up my mobo ( and i also never put a power supply before).

 

[treefrog07]

Is the noise actually coming from the PSU? When you disconnected the power cable to the optical drive, it shouldn't have been able to make noise.

Replacing a PSU isn't difficult, just remember to re-connect all the devices that require a power cable. It also gives you an opportunity to hide cables or move them from disrupting your case airflow.