I have had my computer for about 3 years now, so it is pretty old, but it has been a solid computer and so I was attempting to install a CD-RW just the other day and now my computer will not boot. I know the computer ran just minutes prior to installing the cd-rw, but after I connected the drive to the power and motherboard it will not boot. I have disconnected the drive and still nothing. I am pretty positive I didn't touch anything else inside the case. Absolutely nothing comes up on the monitor now. I know the monitor knows the cpu starts up because when I start up the cpu after the cpu was powered off and the monitor was on in sleep mode, the monitor light turns green and comes out of sleep mode. I don't think it is the video card because the computer usually beeps for me to enter my bios password and it doesn't do that now. I don't know a lot about computers, so any advice would be much appreciated.

When you installed the CDRW did you set the jumpers correctly? Also, start with the basics. Check all of your connections and then go from there. Make sure you did not knock the power cables to the MB loose. Does the CPU fan and Power Supply fan start up when you turn the power on?

First off, thanks for replying.

Yes, the jumpers were set correctly.
I have checked all the connections that I know to check and they seem secure.
Both fans did work upon startup.

My biggest question is why my computer still won't work with the cdrw completely disconnected. If you have any other ideas I'd sure appreciate them.

If you have returned the system back to its original configuration and it still does boot.
My guess is that you bumped something loose .
It doesn’t take much.

The fans on the power supply and cpu may be connected directly to the P/S and not the mother board so they will work on power up.

I’d start by shutting it down and unplugging the power supply from the outlet/surge protector
Then press the power button on the case to discharge any power in the capacitors. ( Learn this the hard way)
Then remove the side / case cover and reseat all the components
Including the video card, memory, and ALL the connectors .
By all I mean to include those at the front of the M/B where your Power switch , speaker, keyboard lock connect to the board.

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To ERR is HUMAN
To REALLY screw things UP, YOU NEED a COMPUTER !

I recently had a similar problem with a CD-RW drive. It didn't stop my system from booting up, but man, what problems I had after it got into Windows!! And yes, I still had the problems after I removed the drive. The problem could be from the driver and software for the drive and not the drive itself.

Go into Control Panel; add/remove programs; and remove the software for the drive. Keep the new drive out of your system. Power down and completely shut the computer off. Wait about 1/2 a minute and then turn it back on. As it reboots keep an eye on the monitor for any messages that might tell you a driver is being called for but can't be found.

If this happens then the driver for the CD-RW is still being requested during the boot process. The request will be either in your Registry or in the System.ini file. There are ways to remove this manually, but unless you are very computer savvy, then you should use a software program like Norton System Works to locate the problem and fix it.

I scanned my registry with Norton S/W after removing my drive and it found 424 errors in my registry!!! I do believe that will mess with the proper functioning of any computer.

Hope this helps in some way.
Big bruddah

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Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.