Ok, long story short, pulled the DVD burner out of my pc to try and use with one of those IDE to USB connectors. It didn't work (I think this was the connector not the drive). I plugged it back in to the PC and it wouldn't open! It opened manually using the little hole, so to see where the prob was I put in another cd drive i have lying around, same deal, won't open (note that i had connected this cd drive to the IDE to USB connector as well and it wouldn't work). Tried using different cables from the power supply, and also swapped the HDD cable for another one. Still no love. There is a hard drive connected using the same HDD cable and it works fine. Device manager says the drive is working fine. But if i try to click eject in my computer it freezes up the window, as a matter of fact if i try to right click the cd drive in my computer it freezes up the window. I'm really worried because i only built this computer a month or two back now, so if its already playing up i'll be majorly cranky. Hoping someone here can help me fix it up/work out what needs replacing. It almost seems software driven. Oh one more thing, i tried uninstalling the drive (in device manager) and then restarting, it installed again fine, but still didnt open. Could the power supply that came with the IDEtoUSB have fried them or something? Im hoping the drives are just stuffed. Thanks

Since you have tried both these optic drives on the USB adaptor and they now do not function, it seems logical the USB thing is faulty and has damaged the optic drive logicboards. Either try a new known good drive in your system, or try the suspect drive in another PC. Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

Did you connect the USB cable to a KNOWN good USB port? One that has/had been in use before? If the USB port used is one that is connected to a Motherboard header the port connection may be wrong. If you incorrectly wire a USB header there will be no effect until a device is connected. At that time the USB controller or the device or both may be damaged.

Optical drives do not have to be connected to a data cable in order to open and close. They should open and close whenever the computer is running and they are connected to a power connector when you press a button to do that on the front of the drive. Rarely, it's possible for something to break or jam inside the drive that prevents the drive tray from ejecting and retracting, but that would not happen with two drives at the same time Either the optical drive's logic boards are fried, or your power supply is failing and is not supplying the voltage(s) it needs. - Check the current voltage readings in your bios Setup. If +12v, and/or +5v, (and/or +3.3v but that isn't used by the drives) are not within 10% of the nominal vale, your power supply is failing and needs to replaced as soon as possible. If any voltages are more than 10% high, do not use the computer and replace the PS immediately - it will fry lots of things in a short time when voltages are too high. If you see 0 volts for +5v, your USB, floppy drive, and optical drives cannot work. - Try the optical drives connected to another computer if you can. If they do not work on that either, they are definately fried. ..... ATX mboards are always powered in some places even when the computer is not running as long as live AC is being supplied to the power supply, the power supply is switched on, and the PS is connected to the mboard. You MUST disconnect the AC power to your power supply whenever you fiddle with any connection or plug in or unplug any component inside your case, otherwise it is easy to damage something! Did you do that? Those IDE to USB adapters probably require the IDE drive be jumpered as master - did you do that? Connecting such an adapter to an IDE drive probably cannot hurt it no matter what, as long as you didn't do something dumb such as connect power to it backwards, which would fry it's board instantly when you tried booting.

"If the USB port used is one that is connected to a Motherboard header the port connection may be wrong. If you incorrectly wire a USB header there will be no effect until a device is connected. At that time the USB controller or the device or both may be damaged." Specifically, if your Asus mboard has both firewire and USB headers on the mboard, the number of pins and the pin arrangement (one pin is missing) of the two types of headers are identical, but the circuits connected to them on the mboard are different. If you connect a USB female wiring connector to the firewire header or visa versa, nothing will happen until you try to connect a device to a port, but when you do, the device you connect and probably the circuits connected to the header will be fried in a short time, if not instantly! You are warned about that possibility in your mboard manual! If that's what you did you're on your own - the damage is your fault and the mboard warranty will not cover that. Even if you lie and RMA it anyway, the manufacturer knows what doing that does to the mboard. If you have damaged your mboard circuits for the header, if you had USB wiring connected to a firewire header, the USB circuits are probably still OK. If not, you could probably get by, by installing (an) inexpensive PCI USB 2.0 controller card(s), or if you need firewire too, (a) USB 2.0/firewire combo card(s). However, I'm not sure whether your bios would recognize a USB keyboard or USB mouse connected to a port on a card if the mboard USB circuits are fried.

You are connecting a 12 volt molex connector to the drive in addition to the data cable? BTW, you also need a 12 volt power source when using the USB cable. If you have ONLY USB to IDE cable that is intended for 2.5" laptop hard drives. They are small enough to be powered by the USB port alone.

I like Richard 59's suggestion so far but it is a bit frustrating because it means getting a new drive, I'll have to go and test them on a friend's pc and see if they run. The USB ports I tried were on two different computers and are all known to be working fine. @ TubesAndWires - The only reason I don't think your solution is likely is because they were both working before i plugged them in using the IDE to USB cable, and after trying that they were both busted. @ OtheHill, yeah I connected the power supply that came in the pack to the drives and I worry that this may have stuffed them somehow since I was in too much of a rush (so stupid in retrospect) to check the voltage and amperage output by the little transformer. Thanks guys, will let you know if they work or not on another PC. Cheers, TheDr