Is this a power supply problem?

[Bernard]

Hiya!
(Win 98SE - Intel Celeron 3.2 ghz - 512 mb)
I'm having a problem with the CD drives on my PC. It says that they're detected on the power on self test at start up... but no blinking lights, no motor sounds, trays don't open, clicking on them in My Computer just says "drive not accessible - device is not ready". Removing them in device manager, disconnecting the cables, restarting doesn't help. It auto detects them...but they're both still dead.
I checked with a voltmeter, and there is voltage at the power plugs going into each drive. Red-Black1 5.2v, Red-Black2 5.2v, Red-Yellow 6.9v, Yellow-Black1 12.04v. Even so, my guess is it's the power supply, because it does hiccup on start up. A few seconds after power is turned on, everything goes totally dead for 4 seconds (including power supply fan)...then it starts normally. Also, wouldn't the trays operate in any event if there was power? Any possibilities I'm overlooking before I change the power supply? Thanks in advance!

 

[Slaymate]

If I'm not mistaken you are booting into Windows, right? If so, then the problem is with the drives. But as old as your PC is, it wouldn't surprise me if the power supply was weak or about to go out.

Drives are cheap, as old as your PC is you just want to make sure you buy an IDE drive. This one will read and write CD's or DVD's

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners

As for a power supply, is your PC a brand name like Dell, HP, Compaq, etc...? If so what is the Make and Model? Or is it a Generic no-name PC?

 

[Bernard]

Yes, it boots Windows from the HD.
The CD drives are old. One of them is a Sony CD ROM (must be 13 years old), and the other is a HP CD/RW (probably pushing 10 years old).
I built this PC in 2007 and just reused some hardware from what was still alive & kicking from earlier comps, so it may very well be just a coincidence that they both went out about the same time. It just seems odd to me that they'd both display the same functional symptoms. Thanks!

 

[qblake]

I don't know, but I think you should think about buying (or building), a new computer.

 

[KSoD]

Well i would consider at least upgrading to WinXP. Win 98SE has been out of updates for a few years now and there have been some serious flaws that have been patched in recent versions that affected all versions. So it could very well be that you have an infection and not that the drives died. I dont even know if things like Malwarebytes or ComboFix will run on Win98SE.

If you insert a win98SE setup disk into the drive will the PC boot from it? If so then the drives are not the issue.

 

[MindoverMaster]

If I remember correctly, the Win98 OS needs to have a floppy disk in order to start the setup. Been several years since I messed with that...