Dvd burner sata computer freezes on boot

[granpa4075]

I am working on and Acer s285 system. MB has 2 SATA connectors. I just purchased a dvd-rw burner with SATA interface and installed.

Problem is this. When turned on the computer sits at the screen where I should have the option to "del" to enter bios setup or F12 for boot options, but neither on will accept any key strokes. After about 30 seconds, the computer re-boots and the whole process begins again.

Computer will boot fine if the data cable is unplugged. So far, I have tried another dvd burner, but results are the same.

What bios settings should I be looking at. I have moved the HD cable to the other connector and bios display shows it fine and the computer will boot this way too. Drive is an LG

Dave

 

[netyoda]

Dave, I'm not familiar with Acer M/B's or BIOS but what you might try is boot system WITHOUT hooking up DVD drive, go into BIOS and check to make sure the Drive Interface setting is not set to IDE but should be SATA. It sounds like the M/B can't communicate correctly with the drive because one is speaking IDE and the drive speaks SATA. Make sure the drive Type is set to Removable or CD/DVD. Also make sure the Boot order is set to DVD-RW drive is first followed by HDD. Hope this helps.

 

[granpa4075]

Thanks for your input. However, I started out with the boot order as 1. cd 2. HDD and results were the same. The computer will boot, no matter which of the two connectors I plug into. What I haven't checked is the status of removable media. I will do this later today, as this is an office computer, and they can't afford to be without it while I work on it.

 

[granpa4075]

ok, I have pulled the data cable and booted into the bios. here is some info
ACERPOWER s285
Main Board : EY661FXM
Bios Vers: R01-B1
SMBIOS : 2.3
bIOS RELEASE DATE : DEC 16, 2005
AWARD BIOS : 1988-2003

I set the bios to process of being able to watch the boot messages.

I then plugged in the SATA cable again, and turned on

I watched as the memory was checked

And saw hard drive detected, and also dvd burner detected as "HL-DT-S5 DVRAM GH2 4N550 XP01.

While this screen was up, there were also prompts accross the bottom to "DEL" TO ENTER SETUP, "F12 TO ENTER BOOT SCREEN" but these choices were dead.

Again after a few seconds, the system re-booted itself and started over at this process.

Should I be thinking about flashing the bios, and if so , how do I do this or should I spend another $35 and buy another ide dvd burner and accept my losses.

 

[pjmelect]

I have seen this before were the cause was not the DVD drive but was in fact the power supply. If you change the DVD drive and you still have this problem consider this as a possibility.

 

[granpa4075]

Thanks all for your input. I have decided to simply order an "IDE" type burner. I was able to return the SATA to my supplier. Consider this thread ended now.