Optical drives on main IDE?

[romligina]

I am having issues with my optical drives getting part of the way through the burning process and then rebooting the computer. I haven't been able to decipher the problem and I'm wondering if maybe the IDE port is bad. Can I connect the cd/dvd to the main IDE since my hard drives are on SATA? And does anyone have any other suggestions as to what the problem might be? I'm running WinXP home SP2, all updates, Athlon 64/3200, 1GB ddr, and trying to use Nero. This is the 3rd brand new dvd-rw I have installed with brand new cables. Jumpers are set correctly. I need assistance, please! 

[patio]

You should have no issues with the burner on IDE 1.
The only time you don't want to do this is when an IDE HDD is installed.

Try it with only the one burner installed...leave the others disconnected for now.

I would also try another brand of blank media as well.

[romligina]

Okay, I disconnected the other drive and now it burns fine. However, I want both drives available. Is there something I need to do to make that work? Would it make a difference if I put one on the main IDE and one on the second IDE? Then they could both be configured as master, correct? Would they play nice then?

[patio]

Yes . This would be the most workable solution now that we've determined it's not an issue with the burner...

How old and what wattage is that PSU in that machine ? ?

[romligina]

The PSU is a 450 watt and is about a year and a half old. It's got plenty of power, I think, and doesn't seem to be affecting anything else on here.