DVD Drive Disappears

[cgbart]

Built a new system with an Asus P4T533-C/512mb 1066 Rdram running Win98se. Primary IDE has a WD80 as master. Secondary has Plextor 401240 as primary and Artec 16x DVD as slave.
After minutes or sometimes hours of usage of the DVD, it disappears from the system! Logical drive letter gone! Device gone from Device Manager. Cannot even open its' door from pressing the button on the drive. (This is the second one). Simple reboot brings it back. When it works I can read everything, including any DVD. Sometimes just before it disappears the video blacks out and hitting return brings back the video, but the DVD-Rom drive is gone! BTW, my video is a Visiontek Gforce4 Ti4400, and audio is a SB-Live value.
Frustrated and at wits end....please help even with suggestions.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Hmmm. A couple of things you can try that arn't too complex:

Check/replace the IDE cable. Also check the molex power plug, ensure its firmly attached.

Delete the device from the hardware profile. Reboot and lett it reinstall. Also check the drive manufacturers website for any drivers.

Use some system monitoring software such as Motherboard Monitor 5 to keep an eye on your system voltages. There is a chance the Powersupply is playing up, especially if its not very powerful/generic model, and that could be cauzing the drive to essentially 'dissapear'
Note: For pentium4 users, keep an eye on the 12v line.

Finally, consider running the DVD as a master, not a slave. See if that helps.


<b>And if you gaze for long into Toms Hardware Forums, The Forum gazes also into you! </b>

 

[cgbart]

Thanks....the power is from an Antec TruePower380. Ide cable is round (for better airflow) and the cable is grounded to the chassis, but I will give switching cables a try as well as making the DVD a master and the Plextor a slave. Software drivers are what win98 provides. By the fact that it disappears from device manager then comes back means that windows does see it and re-install it.
My gut feeling is that it's a software issue with 98.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Ahhh. Gotta love windows 98

<b>And if you gaze for long into Toms Hardware Forums, The Forum gazes also into you! </b>

 

[Flyboy]

I had that same problem with My Sony 52X CD-rom drive. I have WinXP SP1, P4S8X, Antec 480True power, P4 2.53, 2x512MB Corsair PC3200. I just bought a Lite-On DVD player though and replace the Sony CDrom with the DVD player. I haven't noticed it disappearing yet.

My bet was on the IDE cable, but I'm using the same cable for the DVD player. I doubt my problem was with the power supply. If it happens again with the DVD player, then I will know for certain that its the IDE cable. That is...assuming its not the mobo's IDE controller .

Good luck!