!!Help with CD drive and Freezing!!

[bigballamike23]

ok well these are my specs..

XP pro. cersion 2002 service pack 2

AMD athlon 64 processor 3200+

2.01 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM...

MoBo- DFI lanparty UT NF4

CD drive- Sony CD-R/RW product # CRX230AE

ok my problem is that my CD drive will make some noises like it is trying to read a disc, can't read it. but i dont have a disc in the drive and when this happens it sounds like it trys to read a disc then like the power is cut off from it (i am not sure if this is happening but thats wat it sounds like) then my computer will Freeze and i will have to manualy restart. this only happens when i hear the noises.. when i disconnect the CD drive  it works fine... but also when i am useing I tunes and AIM it also will randomly restart when i am chating to people... but that is the only time.. i would exspect it to do this when i play BF@ but it nevers fails when ever i am playing a game.. can someone PLZ HELP ME!!!!!!!!!

[GX1_Man]

Assuming this happened spontaneously, you may just need to replace the drive. How old is it and has it had a lot of use? If you got over a year of moderate use, you may need another.

[bigballamike23]

well this happens all the time basicaly everytime my CD drive is connected it does this crap.. i bought it some time in december... so it is not that old and i bought it brand new from best buy... and my computer is basicaly brand new.

[dl65]

bigballamike23  .. Is it possible to test the drive in another machine ? Then you would know for sure if its defective or not ....... But when you say it runs when theres no disk in it , that suggests that there is something wrong ...is the led on the front indicating activity when this occurs ?

dl65