major ide problem

[froggystyle]

im having serious ide problems....namely this.

1) My cd rw and dvd drives have seriousl problems reading cds that have been burnt.. (iomega 12x4x32) (creative 12x)

2) dvds start skipping hard about a quarter through movies i try to watch

3) my computer will restart when i attempt to access disks without warning. it just shuts down and restarts

4) seek time is real slow in most everything each drive reads


ok so heres my system.. tbird 900mhz @ 900 mhz, msi kt133pro 2a , 256 megs pc133 ram , wd 7200 rpm 20 gig , sb live platinum, creative dxr3 card , 3dfx voodoo 3 , coolermaster case with antec 300 watt psu, the two cd drives listed above.

now i know that there are fixes for the sblive problem but i have run all the via 4 in 1 progs in win 2k with no luck

i also have another problem....sometimes when I play back vide in win 2k or win 98 the video becomes choppy and the audio slows down hardcore...

im wondering if the two problems are related


im open to all suggestions, please help

[Grimm]

Have you tried cleaning them?
A Cleaning kit should set you back about $15 to $20.

[Bires]

Have you tried running diagnostics system by system, like Sisoft's Sandra?
Are your crashes consistent, in any OS?
Do you have more than one type of memory?
How hot is your bus master/chipset on your mobo?

[Bandito]

I have had intermittant problems with a built-on controller so I know how you are feeling.

How are the drives set up. Are both the hard drive and burner on one controller? or the dvd and the burner?

Try switching it to the opposite configuration. Try just using 2 of the devices on the same controller. Try to pin point if it happens more on one controller or the other.

What I ended up having is an Abit mobo with a bad secondary controller. If anything was hooked up on the secondary the computer would do strange things like make coasters @ 99% completed, spin up continuously but sometimes for no reason? Just strange stuff.

What I ended up doing is getting a promise controller card (ata66) for less than $20 and things have been fine since. I should also say that I updated every device to the latest driver and firmware for every device.

[hapoo]

Its 99% probable that its NOT one of these but thought i'd post them anyway:

are you using good ide cables?? kinda stupid to ask but if they're crappy quality they can have bad effects. And if you rule out the controller as being the bad part... it might even be your power supply... if your computer is trying to start up a hard drive after its spun down it might cause a restart.