[phreeek]

I've had this problem for a few months now. Whenever I need to change disks when I'm installing a program with multiple disks it causes my whole system to freeze. Alt-Ctrl-Del doesn't help. I have to manually kill power and restart. After I restart, the disk will work but it doesn't do me any good because I need to restart the install with the first disk. Insert disk #1 (freeze) kill power restart retry to install Insert disk #2 (freeze) rinse repeat. It's EXTREMELY frustrating. Anyway, I thought it might be the drive so I went from a Toshiba to a brand new Sony DVD+-RW/+-R/CD. I'm thinkin problem will be solved. Installed the new drive as master. Same problem first time I try installing a program. So I set up the drive as a slave. Same problem. I checked BIOS. Both drives are set to AUTO. My knowledge on PCs are limited so any help will be appreciated.

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This will probably be a power problem. Usually when a system just stops like that, its due to one of two things:

1) Memory.
2) Underperforming power supply.

CD units draw quite a bit of power once they start spinning and reading and writing and so on, so it doesn't take long with an underpowered PSU to confuse the system due to lack of power. They use little power when idle though, ironically.

If you have a spare power supply (big rectangle thing at the back top of the inside of the case), try swapping that out with the one in there and see if things improve.

[Neil Jones]

This will probably be a power problem. Usually when a system just stops like that, its due to one of two things:

1) Memory.
2) Underperforming power supply.

CD units draw quite a bit of power once they start spinning and reading and writing and so on, so it doesn't take long with an underpowered PSU to confuse the system due to lack of power. They use little power when idle though, ironically.

If you have a spare power supply (big rectangle thing at the back top of the inside of the case), try swapping that out with the one in there and see if things improve.

[phreeek]

Thanks for the response. I dont know if its any help but my power supply is 420W. Is there a way to check if I'm stressing it? Also I have 1gig of ram.

[Neil Jones]

Just because it's rated at 420W doesn't mean its providing enough power on the appropriate channels. Yes it might give 420W overall but if its not giving enough amps down one channel then you have an issue with the components powered from that channel.

This is a common symptom of cheap generic power supplies which promise the earth and then deliver very little. Either that or the unit is reaching the end of its natural life.