Acer Aspire 5742z will not boot with internal CD/DVD drive connected.

[otherdreams]

My Acer 5742z laptop (usually) will not boot with the internal CD/DVD drive plugged in.

3 out of 4 times it will reach the acer splash screen and then hard reboot (in a loop).
When I slide the SATA CD/DVD drive out it runs through startup with no issue.


SOMETIMES it will turn on with the drive in, and then the drive functions just like it should.

When I use a SATA HDD tray instead of the CD/DVD it acts exactly the same way.


I improved the working:nonworking ratio (instead of 75% failure, now about 20% failure) by changing the BIOS SATA option from IDE to AHCI, rebooted, and then back to IDE.


Any ideas??

 

[hang-the-9]

Since anything plugged into that port causes issues, there is an issue with the connector, either the physical interface or the motherboard connection.

 

[otherdreams]

Since anything plugged into that port causes issues, there is an issue with the connector, either the physical interface or the motherboard connection.

How would you recommend checking that connector?

Thank you!

 

[hang-the-9]

Since anything plugged into that port causes issues, there is an issue with the connector, either the physical interface or the motherboard connection.

How would you recommend checking that connector?

Thank you!

You already did by trying different things on it. Next step would be trying to replace it if possible.