ok I have something that is Pissing me off ....
I have a fic 503+ with a amd k6-2-400

I have burned up about 3 cd-rom drives in this pc ... I mean dead, ka-put, not working .... I don';t have a clue as to what might be killing them ... they all have had the same symptom,

they work great for about 3 to 4 months ... then to warranty expires and then they die ...

I have a i8100 on the same ide line with no problems ... it is the master and my cd-roms were secondary .... and I have used different cd-rom drives thinking that it might be the brand as it was not compatible .... I have even lowered every thing to pio mode, so that it all talks the same

ok here is what goes on ...... the drive starts to have problems with some cd's then with a few more then it won't read at all .... no I have had 40x mitusmi and a 24x Toshiba, and some generic 32x that the local guy said to try .... and all three have die the same way ....

and anyone give a rhyme or reason as to why ... no one around here has ever seen this before and as far as me ... I am about to junk the whole works and start anew ....

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~Jon~
if you have to stop and wonder then you have already lost

either its the power supply or it's just another 503+ showing it's true colours. you might also want to switch IDE cables, though you have another device working on it.

My vote's for the power supply.


And your warranty is longer than 3 to 4 months.


I know for a FACT that Mitsumi and Toshiba are one year.

You might get a reman drive back, but it's better than nothing.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

ok here is a Question from not knowing much about power supplys ..

if i switch to a different connector will that make a differance ???

__________________
~Jon~
if you have to stop and wonder then you have already lost

ok here is another Question .... what should the line voltage be to the cd-rom .... just want to check it all out befor i get a new one ...

__________________
~Jon~
if you have to stop and wonder then you have already lost

my friend had a cd rom drive that did the same type of thing ... it worked ... then it would only read select cd's, then it would read a few less, then it didn't work at all. we bought a new cd rom drive and haven't had a problem since ... so this incident isn't isolated.

Switching to a different power connector should not make a difference since the power connectors all go to the same source, unless there is a short in that connector.

The CD ROM drive uses both 12 and 5V leads off the power supply. 12V for the motor and 5V for the logic board.

I would think the problem is in the 12V, since if the problem was in the 5V it would likely affect the motherboard since 5V also goes to the motherboard and is passed through a VR for I/O voltage on an AT board. 12V goes to the board but serves no critical purpose.

Here's the thing though, 12V serves ALL motors on ALL drives, so you would think that the 12V that spins your hard drive up would effect your hard drive! Then again.... stranger things have happened.

I suppose the problem could be the board since there is a small line of 3.3V coming in through the IDE cable and it HAS been known to happen in the past, so don't rule anything out. Power supplies are cheap and easy, though. Cheaper than CDROMs. Cheaper than motherboards.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

HEY,
Maybe it is what you are putting in the cd-rom?

Just wondering.. do you close the cdrom by the button or do you push the tray slightly and let it take over. My friend has gone through 3 cdroms that way. One died a horrible misserable death by smoking, the 2nd one stopped working all together, and the 3rd one worked off and on until later it stopped working also.

well to tell you the truth ... the first one that i had i use to just push the tray in, but the last stwo i was using the button on the drive ....

... but here is a side note as to the sugestion that it might be the power supply ... i hooked up a voltage tester to the line and let it run over night .... and found that my 5v line was running on avarage at 5.12v so if a stronger voltage can kill, then i found the silent killer ... system sitting onshelf now ... using older and much slower putter(urrrrr.. getting more grey hair) .... well thanks for all the ideas .... i think i found my problem ....

__________________
~Jon~
if you have to stop and wonder then you have already lost

I had a similar occurence with an FIC 503, AMD K6-233MHz and a generic 40x CD-ROM. My drive lasted 13 months (just out of warranty)- but the replacement is still going strong... Consumer electronics are built down to a price, not up to a standard...