using the cdrom freezes my machine

Ive stared to have this real odd problem lately
it just started out of the blue like all the othet problems i have been
having with this compute
my machine is as follows

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Thoroughbread
Jetway N2PAP400 nforce 2 Motherboard bios release is 9/12/03
20 GB ATA133 Maxtor Fireball harddisk
32x16 DVDROM
52x24x52 CDRW
Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440se Graphics clocked at 339 mhz core 416 mhz memory
tested and seems to be stable
300 watt Mercury powersupply

i have added 2 case fans to my case, one blowing in at front one sucking out
at back...
the processor is not overclocked and running on 1.7v vcore it has a stock
heat sink & fan on it

my problem is that whenever i use my cdroms to read or write cd's after a
couple of minutes my computer always freezes
it never freezes at the same spot each time... sometimes a cd will burn to
1% and freeze sometimes to 80-90% and freeze...
sometimes part of a game will install perfectly fine and then suddenly a
freeze...

im wondering if my PSU is inadequate?? everything else seems fine but
reading/writing to a cd in either drive causes a freeze
its driving me crazy and i dont know what to do

can anyone shed some light on this?
thanks so much
alan

"Alan" wrote in message
...
Ive stared to have this real odd problem lately
it just started out of the blue like all the othet problems i have been
having with this compute
my machine is as follows

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Thoroughbread
Jetway N2PAP400 nforce 2 Motherboard bios release is 9/12/03
20 GB ATA133 Maxtor Fireball harddisk
32x16 DVDROM
52x24x52 CDRW
Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440se Graphics clocked at 339 mhz core 416 mhz memory
tested and seems to be stable
300 watt Mercury powersupply
snip
i for got to mention im using windows 2000 proffesional edition SP4

alan

Inexpensive 300 Watt power supplies are NOT actually able usually to put out
300 Watts continuously, as tests have shown. There's a reason why they are
so cheap. Get a decent power supply.

--
DaveW



"Alan" wrote in message
...
Ive stared to have this real odd problem lately
it just started out of the blue like all the othet problems i have been
having with this compute
my machine is as follows

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Thoroughbread
Jetway N2PAP400 nforce 2 Motherboard bios release is 9/12/03
20 GB ATA133 Maxtor Fireball harddisk
32x16 DVDROM
52x24x52 CDRW
Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440se Graphics clocked at 339 mhz core 416 mhz memory
tested and seems to be stable
300 watt Mercury powersupply

i have added 2 case fans to my case, one blowing in at front one sucking
out
at back...
the processor is not overclocked and running on 1.7v vcore it has a stock
heat sink & fan on it

my problem is that whenever i use my cdroms to read or write cd's after a
couple of minutes my computer always freezes
it never freezes at the same spot each time... sometimes a cd will burn to
1% and freeze sometimes to 80-90% and freeze...
sometimes part of a game will install perfectly fine and then suddenly a
freeze...

im wondering if my PSU is inadequate?? everything else seems fine but
reading/writing to a cd in either drive causes a freeze
its driving me crazy and i dont know what to do

can anyone shed some light on this?
thanks so much
alan

"DaveW" wrote in message
news:spXSb.200650$na.332460@attbi_s04...
Inexpensive 300 Watt power supplies are NOT actually able usually to put
out
300 Watts continuously, as tests have shown. There's a reason why they
are
so cheap. Get a decent power supply.

so do you think like i think that my cheapo psu wat came with the case just
simply is not adequate??
is £70 ($110) enough to spend to get a good enough powersupply?

ive seen an antec true power 550 watt powersupply with some kind of front
controll pannel for voltages any good??

alan

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 00:28:47 +0000 (UTC), "Alan"
wrote:


"DaveW" wrote in message
news:spXSb.200650$na.332460@attbi_s04...
Inexpensive 300 Watt power supplies are NOT actually able usually to put
out
300 Watts continuously, as tests have shown. There's a reason why they
are
so cheap. Get a decent power supply.

so do you think like i think that my cheapo psu wat came with the case just
simply is not adequate??
is £70 ($110) enough to spend to get a good enough powersupply?

ive seen an antec true power 550 watt powersupply with some kind of front
controll pannel for voltages any good??

alan


That'd work, but is overkill. Any decent power supply won't need the
voltages adjusted. Most often users will be trying to ajust voltages
incorrectly anyway, since it's necessary to use a voltage meter to
take readings instead of the motherboard's voltage monitor.

A good 300W PSU should power your system fine. To have more reserve
capacity you might even consider 350-420W, but there's nothing to gain
by buying that 550W Antec. The best value for your needs might be a
350W Sparkle/Fortron.

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 00:28:47 +0000 (UTC), "Alan"
wrote:


"DaveW" wrote in message
news:spXSb.200650$na.332460@attbi_s04...
Inexpensive 300 Watt power supplies are NOT actually able usually to put
out
300 Watts continuously, as tests have shown. There's a reason why they
are
so cheap. Get a decent power supply.

so do you think like i think that my cheapo psu wat came with the case just
simply is not adequate??
is £70 ($110) enough to spend to get a good enough powersupply?

ive seen an antec true power 550 watt powersupply with some kind of front
controll pannel for voltages any good??

alan


As a followup to my last reply, I'm not certain it's your power supply
causing this, it could be but since it's soley seen by use of the
CDROMs, it could be an IDE issue, cabling or jumpers or ...

Are you overclocking any components?
How about your video card?

"Alan" wrote in message
...
Ive stared to have this real odd problem lately
it just started out of the blue like all the othet problems i have been
having with this compute
my machine is as follows

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Thoroughbread
Jetway N2PAP400 nforce 2 Motherboard bios release is 9/12/03
20 GB ATA133 Maxtor Fireball harddisk
32x16 DVDROM
52x24x52 CDRW
Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440se Graphics clocked at 339 mhz core 416 mhz memory
tested and seems to be stable
300 watt Mercury powersupply

i have added 2 case fans to my case, one blowing in at front one sucking
out
at back...
the processor is not overclocked and running on 1.7v vcore it has a stock
heat sink & fan on it

my problem is that whenever i use my cdroms to read or write cd's after a
couple of minutes my computer always freezes
it never freezes at the same spot each time... sometimes a cd will burn to
1% and freeze sometimes to 80-90% and freeze...
sometimes part of a game will install perfectly fine and then suddenly a
freeze...

im wondering if my PSU is inadequate?? everything else seems fine but
reading/writing to a cd in either drive causes a freeze
its driving me crazy and i dont know what to do

can anyone shed some light on this?
thanks so much
alan