ok, I have a bit of a hardware question to ask. when my past PSU died (taking a motherboard and HD with it) did it also take out the cd-rw I had in that box? the reason I ask is this: I was getting some strangeness inthe dmesg startup text (see below) and it seems, no matter what I have tried (in windows or linux) I can't get anything to write with the cd-rw (it works great as a reader). now, the failure is strange because when the PSU died, it only lost the 5 volt side (+/ 5volt was measured at +/- 12 volts). the other interesting problem is, that my large HD on the same circuit was unaffected by this (even though a smaller drive was destroyed in the same box). is it possible that only the writer portion of the circuitry was destroyed by this? someone please let me know. here is what dmesg had to say (note what my cd-rw is and note the last 50 or so lines of text): Linux version 2.4.21-0.25mdkcustom (root@leopard.rawgames.org) (gcc version 3.2.2 (Mandrake Linux 9.1 3.2.2-3mdk)) #3 Fri Dec 12 19:59:47 MST 2003 BIOS-provided physical RAM map: BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable) BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000fff0000 (usable) BIOS-e820: 000000000fff0000 - 000000000fff3000 (ACPI NVS) BIOS-e820: 000000000fff3000 - 0000000010000000 (ACPI data) BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved) 0MB HIGHMEM available. 255MB LOWMEM available. ACPI: have wakeup address 0xc0001000 On node 0 totalpages: 65520 zone(0): 4096 pages. zone(1): 61424 pages. zone(2): 0 pages. ACPI: RSDP (v000 VKT400 ) @ 0x000f6dd0 ACPI: RSDT (v001 VKT400 AWRDACPI 16944.11825) @ 0x0fff3000 ACPI: FADT (v001 VKT400 AWRDACPI 16944.11825) @ 0x0fff3040 ACPI: DSDT (v001 VKT400 AWRDACPI 00000.04096) @ 0x00000000 ACPI: BIOS passes blacklist ACPI: MADT not present Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=custom ro root=342 devfs=mount ide-scsi=/dev/hdd ide_setup: ide-scsi=/dev/hdd -- BAD OPTION Found and enabled local APIC! Initializing CPU#0 Detected 1897.514 MHz processor. Console: colour dummy device 80x25 Calibrating delay loop... 3787.98 BogoMIPS Memory: 251456k/262080k available (1523k kernel code, 10236k reserved, 1093k data, 124k init, 0k highmem) Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes) Inode cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes) Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) Buffer-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes) Page-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes) CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line) CPU: L2 Cache: 256K (64 bytes/line) Intel machine check architecture supported. Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0. CPU: After generic, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000 CPU: Common caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000 CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) stepping 01 Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done. Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done. Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK. POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX enabled ExtINT on CPU#0 ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000 ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000 Using local APIC timer interrupts. calibrating APIC timer ... ..... CPU clock speed is 1897.4944 MHz. ..... host bus clock speed is 329.9990 MHz. cpu: 0, clocks: 3299990, slice: 1649995 CPU0 mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au) mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel ACPI: Subsystem revision 20030122 PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfb480, last bus=1 PCI: Using configuration type 1 ACPI: Interpreter enabled ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing ACPI: System [ACPI] (supports S0 S1 (swsusp) S4 S5) ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00) PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 10 *11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 1 *3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 1 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKA] (IRQs 20, disabled) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] (IRQs 21, disabled) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] (IRQs 22, disabled) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] (IRQs 23, disabled) PCI: Probing PCI hardware ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKA] enabled at IRQ 0 ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] enabled at IRQ 0 ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] enabled at IRQ 0 ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] enabled at IRQ 0 PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing PCI: if you experience problems, try using option 'pci=noacpi' or even 'acpi=off' Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4 Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039 Initializing RT netlink socket Starting kswapd VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1 devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au) devfs: boot_options: 0x1 vesafb: framebuffer at 0xe0000000, mapped to 0xd0807000, size 20480k vesafb: mode is 1280x1024x16, linelength=2560, pages=24 vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:5342 vesafb: scrolling: redraw vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0 Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 160x64 fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 32000K size 1024 blocksize Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta-2.4 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx hda: QUANTUM FIREBALL CR6.4A, ATA DISK drive hdb: IC35L060AVV207-0, ATA DISK drive hdc: SANYO CD-ROM CRD-1332P, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hdd: SONY CD-RW CRX175A1, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 hda: host protected area => 1 hda: 12594960 sectors (6449 MB) w/418KiB Cache, CHS=784/255/63 hdb: host protected area => 1 hdb: 120103200 sectors (61493 MB) w/1821KiB Cache, CHS=7476/255/63 Partition check: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4 < p5 > md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27 md: Autodetecting RAID arrays. md: autorun ... md: ... autorun DONE. NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0 IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768) Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0. VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly. Mounted devfs on /dev Freeing unused kernel memory: 124k freed Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs usb.c: registered new driver hub usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 20:14:47 Dec 12 2003 usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xd000, IRQ 11 usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 hub.c: USB hub found hub.c: 2 ports detected usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xd400, IRQ 3 usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 hub.c: USB hub found hub.c: 2 ports detected usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xd800, IRQ 10 usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 hub.c: USB hub found hub.c: 2 ports detected usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver ehci-hcd 00:10.3: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 ehci-hcd 00:10.3: irq 5, pci mem d1c63000 usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4 ehci-hcd 00:10.3: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2002-Dec-20 hub.c: USB hub found hub.c: 6 ports detected usbdevfs: remount parameter error Adding Swap: 530136k swap-space (priority -1) Linux video capture interface: v1.00 i2c-core.o: i2c core module version 2.7.0 (20021208) i2c-algo-bit.o: i2c bit algorithm module version 2.7.0 (20021208) bttv: driver version 0.7.100 loaded bttv: using 4 buffers with 2080k (8320k total) for capture bttv: Host bridge is VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400 AGP] Host Bridge bttv: Bt8xx card found (0). bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 00:08.0, irq: 11, latency: 32, mmio: 0xec100000 bttv0: detected: AVerMedia TVCapture 98 [card=13], PCI subsystem ID is 1461:0004 bttv0: using: BT878(AVerMedia TVCapture 98) [card=13,autodetected] bttv0: Avermedia eeprom[0x4002]: tuner=2 radio:no remote control:no bttv0: using tuner=2 bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found tvaudio: TV audio decoder + audio/video mux driver tvaudio: known chips: tda9840,tda9873h,tda9874h/a,tda9850,tda9855,tea6300,tea6420,tda8425,pic16c54 (PV951) tuner: probing bt848 #0 i2c adapter [id=0x10005] tuner: chip found @ 0xc2 tuner: type set to 2 (Philips NTSC (FI1236,FM1236 and compatibles)) bttv0: i2c attach [client=Philips NTSC (FI1236,FM1236 and ,ok] bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 ... ok bttv0: registered device video0 bttv0: registered device vbi0 hdc: ATAPI 32X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12 hdd: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00 scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices MSDOS FS: IO charset iso8859-1 MSDOS FS: Using codepage 850 MSDOS FS: IO charset iso8859-1 MSDOS FS: Using codepage 850 via-rhine.c:v1.10-LK1.1.17 March-1-2003 Written by Donald Becker http://www.scyld.com/network/via-rhine.html eth0: VIA VT6102 Rhine-II at 0xe400, 00:0d:87:50:20:5a, IRQ 11. eth0: MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x786d advertising 05e1 Link 45e1. eth0: Setting full-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 45e1. Via 686a/8233/8235 audio driver 1.9.1-ac2 via82cxxx: Six channel audio available PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:11.5 to 64 ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: VIA97 (Unknown) via82cxxx: board #1 at 0xE000, IRQ 10 spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7. inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-0.25mdkcustom Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077 Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 203M agpgart: Detected Via Apollo Pro KT400 chipset agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xe8000000 [drm] AGP 0.99 aperture @ 0xe8000000 64MB [drm] Initialized radeon 1.7.0 20020828 on minor 0 [drm:radeon_unlock] *ERROR* Process 1537 using kernel context 0 via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11 via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11 bttv0: PLL: switching off via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11 parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE] parport0: irq 7 detected lp0: using parport0 (polling). eth0: Promiscuous mode enabled. device eth0 entered promiscuous mode device eth0 left promiscuous mode via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11 SMB server not responding smb_get_length: recv error = 5 smb_trans2_request: result=-5, setting invalid smb_file_read: Evil Dead 1/Evil Dead.avi validation failed, error=4294967291 smb_retry: successful, new pid=1675, generation=2 via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11 hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 " hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 " hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 " hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 " hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 " hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 " hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 " hdd: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: packet command error: error=0x54 ATAPI device hdd: Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05) Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00) The failed "Mode Sense 10" packet command was: "5a 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 " via_audio: ignoring drain playback error -11