hi guys,
I'm having problems getting my DVD-ROM drive to power up. I built this computer myself. I have the EIDE cable plugged in correctly to the motherboard, blue end first. Jumpers are set to master and EIDE cable end opposite to the motherboard is plugged in. i can hear something happening on the inside of the DVD-ROM drive but the green light doesnt flash and i can't get the drawer to eject. the other computer that this was in ended up with a fried mobo because i put a bad CPU into the mobo. I don't know if that would cause problems to the drive? I'm not quite sure what to do...suggestions?

Don't take this the wrong way but you didn't mention if the power connector was plugged in. Is there another device on the same cable? If so, is it set to slave?

Did you plug the power cord from the PSU to the DVD?

well what im trying to do now is isolate the problem, so the only thing on the EIDE cable is the drive. and the power is in, on its own cord from the PSU. I'm trying to approach this scientifically, so im just getting it down to one variable, but im guessing its something that i just havent thought of? no offense taken by the way. Im getting the feeling that its just broken. I've even just taken out the EIDE cable and left the power in to see if the light would even turn on, or if the drawer will open and it doesnt.

It shouldn't be this hard to get an optical drive to work. I agree something is wrong with it. Just replace it.

Alright, thanks a lot.

Replaced the drive...everything works fine. However, i'm just curious as to what killed the drive. You see i tried to replace my CPU with a CPU from another machine that was diagnosed with a MOBO fry. When i put the other CPU in, the computer would not boot up, so i put my CPU back in. The computer booted up once, and then shut down on its own and would only produce the blue screen of death momentarily, and then it would restart itself. the optical drives ceased to work at this point. I'm just wondering, is it possible that the "broken" CPU cause some sort of a short in the optical drives? because i had 2 DVD-ROM burners and an EIDE HD that all do not work now. Just curious as to the cause of death so that i know what to avoid in the future. Thanks

It does seem like too much of a coincidence doesn't it? Whenever the motherboard fries, other components can be damaged too. It's hard to say for sure but evidently that's what happened here. Just be careful of installing parts from PCs that have died.

At least you finally solved your problem.