Pc will not cold start

Double check the jumper to be sure it is set
properly. Also, if you just have a hard drive
and one other device, seperate them as the
hard drive master on the primary interface, and
the other device as master on the secondary interface. Sometimes optical drives don't
have jumpers, and that may confuse the interface
if they are cabled together.

the jumpers are set to cable select but also have tried master/slave. There is a hard drive but it is a sata and they are on seperate channels

It might be the Power Supply as quite a lot of the HP Power Supplies are marginal at best and when you start adding additional things they play up.

I had one on my work bench that I was told by HP that it had work perfectly for 8 months with an additional Optical Drive in it and then it started performing this way. They had changed the Power Supply several times the M'Board both Optical's and had drawn a blank.

When I plugged in an Antec 500 W PS it worked perfectly so I sent it back to HP with a note that it was the PS and I think that they kept changing them over till they found one that worked. I don't know what they would have done if it wasn't UG as it had a propriety PS in it and it couldn't be replaced with anything but a HP PS of the same type.

Col

CS works OK but not all devices support it properly it seems. If you've tried specifying settings via jumpers then it sounds like a wonky power supply to me as well.

One thing I'm curious of, though. It sounds as though you added a second optical drive but you're not completely explicit on that. If you added another, have you tried unplugging the old one so you've got the same number of devices? That could help identify whether it's power supply or the specific optical drive that's throwing it for a loop.

Try running the drive alone without the other ones set on master and see if the drives could be swapped.

If you disconnect one of the drives will it work? You Power Supply may not be able to handle the current load.

I have tried running a Pioneer, sony and a Samsung optical drive in the machine but all fail on a cold boot ( all running by themselves) have just reinstalled the original hp burner and all is fine. Does this mean I have to run this burner only, and if so what happens when it dies do I have to go and buy another of the same type (when I have 3 burners sitting at home) any help appreciated

That's a bit odd, I agree. I'd look into trying a different power supply; the HP ones do go weird and perhaps that HP drive just uses a little less juice.

It does look like a dodgy power supply, because now it won't do a cold boot with any optical drive in (including the original HP) the current power supply is a Bestec 400w which is in a HP pavilion M7299a Media Center PC, is there a better supply that will bolt straight in? I ask this because I have been told that the Bestec might be an odd size so you have to buy from HP.

Well, from the service manual HP's site has the power supply appears to be in the standard location. That's not a guarantee it's not a "custom" unit but it's a good sign. The odd power supplies I've seen from HP were always mounted midway in the case, not up top like "normal".

You could try a standard power supply but make sure the connectors aren't wired differently; some OEMs like to have standard connectors with different pinouts. Just keep that in mind; it's a risk. Of course, if the PC is still under warranty I would strongly urge you to contact HP for a proper replacement.

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