I just bought my DVD ROM a week ago and when I installed it, everything worked fine except that the sound is very erratic and choppy/jittery when I watch DVDs. My DVD ROM is a Samsung SD616 and I'm using PowerDVD. My computer specs are:
 
Windows ME
AMD Athlon 1.33Ghz
MSI K7T Turbo (VIA KT133A)
256MB SDRAM
GeForce 2 MX
SoundBlaster Live!
 
I checked the audio & ide cable; connected properly. Its currently on Secondary Master with a Ricoh 16x/10x/32x on Secondary Slave. anyone know a solution to this? Thanks.

The problem might not be your dvd-rom but your sb live plus via chipset. Any way to test this is to play some mp3s from your hard drive and then read a cd/dvd in your dvd-rom. If it still make the choppy or poppy sound then thats the problem.
 
<i><font color=blue>The only difference between 200 fps and 300 fps is the blink of the eyes.</font color=blue></i>

ahhh, but have you checked to see if UMDA is enabled in windows?  a common problem ive had with my dvd & burner is that UMDA mysteriously gets disabled when reinstalling drivers and stuff. most annoying, but easy to fix.
 
in your device manager, just check the secondary IDE channel
 
<b>Before visiting THG i was a clueless noob. Now im still clueless, but look at my nice title!<b>

thanks for the reply. the last time I turned on DMA on my old Creative cd-rom, it crashed my computer.. so I had to turn it off. but anyway, i tried to enable DMA on the DVD drive with the latest VIA drivers installed and that fixed my problem, but I still experience some choppy sound whenever I skip to a certain part of a movie. is that because the drive is too slow (ATA33)?
and I have always wondered why are slot dvd drives more expensive than tray drives? whats the difference apart from the tray and slot itself? eg, performance wise

the drive mechanics are the same, so performance is basically identical, its just a different load mechanism.  i just like the slot loader cauz its easier to handle.. just slip the disc in.  plus it looks cool.
 
 
p.s. what soundcard are you using again?
 
<b>Before visiting THG i was a clueless noob. Now im still clueless, but look at my nice title!<b>

He has the SB live. It's in his post.    
 
<i><font color=blue>The only difference between 200 fps and 300 fps is the blink of the eyes.</font color=blue></i>

The only downside to slot drives is when it blows, and you have a disc inside.
 
Most tray drives now have a manual ejection mechanism.
 
<b><font color=blue>~ Gotta question? Tried searching the boards first? Good! Ask away! ~<font color=blue></b>  

The more important downside is that slot-load drives can't read 8cm CDs or mini/business card CD-Rs. Although frankly if you're sure you won't use one of these, there'll be nothing to worry about.