PC crashes - Is it due to a conflict?

[booj]

Hi all,


System: Athlon1400mhz VIA-236 chipset, 512MB ram, Awopen CD-RW, Lite-on DVD-RW, M-Audio 24/96 soundcard;

I recently tried to install a DVD-RW. I used the 80 wire cable from the IDE channel with the hard drive on as it had 2 connectors, and swapped the one connecting the CD-rw to the hard drive. I connected these the right way round, and correctly. The system bcame very unstable and crashed every 10 minutes or so. I tried uninstalling the CD-Rw and using the DVD-RW on its own but still the PC froze regularly.

So I have uninstalled both writers, and still the issue remains - I also got the BSOD once - 'IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL' message with a line at the bottom which said '*** atapi.sys - Address F54BDc'...etc.

So now I have uninstalled my soundcard and reinstalled the onboard soundchip - and guess what ? it works! I have reinstalled the CD-RW and its still stable.
This sounds like a soundcard issue, but the system was stable before I tried to install the DVD-RW. I have windows XP installed as a standard PC - No ACPI. My BIOS is currently set to Assign IRQs - manual.

could the drives be causing a conflict with the soundcard? I was thinking about replacing the IDE cables but guess I don't need to now!!


Can anyone advise? Any help much appreciated!

thanks guys, Andy.

[bailey]

that error is usally caused by bad ram

[booj]

You know since I ve had the PC I sometimes have issues when trying to boot. I get a long continuous beep indicating no Ram detected. If I keep pressing the reset button, eventually it does work. This doens't happen all the time though.

Ive also had other beeps such as no video card memory a couple of times.

could this be a RAM issue? Ive used programs to test it before that said it was ok. What else can I use to test it?

Why would the instability occur when installing a new DVD-RW?