Hi- Putting together a custom built computer and I've run into this problem. When only plugged into the power supply and i turn on the computer, the cd-drive will power up and can be opened and closed. however, when i go to plug it into the motherboard via the ribbon cable, when i power on, the cd-drive does not power up. i cant understand for the life of me why this happens. Any ideas?

Now, I may look kinda stupid here, but it is my understanding that the ribbon cable is only carrying the signal information, and you still have to connect the drive to the power supply by the molex connectors....or don't I understand your question correctly ? I wonder what'll happen if I do this ?

If this is not a new drive, your drive motor may be dying or dead. See my posts in this: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/147149.html It could also be the board on the drive has been damaged - e.g. from a bad power supply that shorted or put out too much voltage, a power surge or spike if the computer wasn't protected from that, or from too much heat inside the case because of a failed cpu or power supply fan.

sterling, the power cord is still attached. in a nutshell, the cd-rom drive doesnt operate once its connected to the motherboard (and the power cord plugged into it)... when i disconnected the ribbon connecting the cd-rom drive to the motherboard, and boot, the cd-rom drive operates, and can be opened and closed. its extremely strange... ive never seen anything like this before. i figured it was some kind of mechanical or electical fault, but i cant determine if its either a problem with the disc drive, the motherboard, or a BIOS or internal setting that independently determines the usability of the drive.

Make sure the signal cable is not in upside down (at either end). Sorry, I do not check for private messages

"Make sure the signal cable is not in upside down (at either end)." As in ...... We like to assume the CD drive is connected properly, but it might not be ....... - if the data cable does not have an external tab on its connectors, they will go onto the drive or the mboard header pins either way - the stripe on the data cable is usually next to the power connector on the drive, or whichever is the pin 1 end (often it is marked on the back of the drive) - on the mboard the stripe on the pin one end - if its not clearly marked (with a 1 or an arrowhead, or similar, the stripe usually is on the same side as it is for the data cable for a hard drive, or look in the mboard manual if you have no other IDE connected drive. If both ends have the stripe on the wrong side, it will also work that way - you just can't have the two ends opposite ways. If you have that right, and it still doesn't work right, try another data cable - a 40 wire one is fine for a CD/DVD drive, unless a UDMA66 or higher hard drive is connected to the same data cable, in which case it must be 80 wire (rated for UDMA66 or higher). If it still won't work right, one of the other things I pointed you to is wrong.

We're also assuming you have the jumper on the drive in the right position: - master, or cable select and on the end connector of the data cable if it is by itself on a data cable or the primary drive on a data cable, - or slave, or cable select and on the middle connector on the data cable, if there is another drive on the data cable that is master. Personally I never use cable select.