the werid part was that the cdrom led light was flashing like it was doing something
so i just ignored it because it didn't do it too much...until this week
were it did so much i though there was a virus running around corrupting my windows core...
so i whipped the hard drive and loaded up mandrake linux (i had downloaded the ISO and burned a cd before this got to bad because i though windows was having fun corrupting it self...but i never got around to installing it) there was only a few problems installing, were it couldn't read from the cdrom so rebooted and it worked fine, in linux all was fine except i had not Internet (becasue i have a usb network that doesn't exist *cough* Intel *cough)
so i resized the partion to load windows so i can do my browsing there
well windows didn't like that so i removed linux and installed windows
after that i got into activation part and the windows crashed in the same way like it did before (with the cd-rom led flashing)!
and i thinking to my self maybe my cdrom is (the living) dead
so i unplugged the power cable to it and tryed to try again
works perfectly no problems.
it kinda funny i didn't even think that it was my cd-rom dying or anything...
so i install all drivers and stuff
then i rember that Intel (my mother board manufacturer)may have a mother board bois flash never thinking about that before i deceded to try it to see if it fixed my cd-rom
i found it did have a fix with dvd-roms (which i had)
so i get that on a bootable floppy and load it up it starts cheacking the bois image and this red message box with error as the title comes up and my eyes praticly fell out of my head... then i read what it said then i had relif that it wasn't accally flashing the bois it was verifying that it was a the right image so i reformatted and try again and it worked
after that i shut the computer down (note that i didn't turn off the power to the powersupplie and everything was still standby aka no fans running)
i decide to try the cd-rom again and *try* to plug it in.
this is late at night and the only thing lighting up the room is the lava lamp on the desk
it was bright enough to i could see what cables got to which one, so i go to put the cable unto the socket of the cd-rom power,and BBBBZZZZZZZZAAAPP! a huge spark jump a considerable distance that illumiated the desk in a nice electrical blue the fans also jumped as a cause to the spark...
so after that i think to my self "omg i just fryed the motherboard..."
i try the power button.......nothing... i try turning off the power supply and wait about 30 seconds and turn it back on i push the power and everything starts working i bring up the bois and it still there and i try to boot windows
and the screen flickers a few times like normal and BAM! "BOOT FAILURE SYSTEM HALTED" and then i scream "WHY GOD WHY!"
so the next day i turnt he computer on and cheack my bois and nothing seams wrong everything is there until i go to the boot priority list it reads:
1. floppy
2. disabled
what happen is that the seconded on was disabled because it was the cd rom and i when the cd-rom was disconnected it bbumped up the harddrive unto the disabled and there was no floppy in to drive it gave a boot error so i renabled it and tryed again windows booted!
yippie!
so i disconnect the power from the old hard drive (while it off... and it only had 250meg of total space on it O_o) and put it in the cd-rom power plug and no sparks (thank god) and boot it up and configure the bois so it is re-enabled and boot it up no problems and i try watching a dvd in it good
i split the windows partion and load mandrake good...
and now i am here to day everything working with one power cable completely bad (short or something...)
interesting that these surges have been going on for months and nothing damage and everything still working...
crazy huh?
Previously a Athlon.
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