XP not booting when SATA CD/DVD Drive attached

Hi,

I am new to this so hopefully i will get the desired results.

I have 2 brand new Dell Vostro’s which have both failed to boot. After the XP Splash Screen goes off the screen goes black and just stays there. I can get into safe mode, but a system restore & good known last config does not fix the problem. The PC’s run on a network for apporx 2 weeks without problems. I found that when i unplugged the sata cable from the drive the PC boots! Plug it back in and i get the black screen again. I uninstalled the device in device manager, but it still black screened.

Any ideas please?

Thanks