anthony,
It's hard to tell what is the source of your problem. These issues can be
clouded in mystery, sometimes. I can only suggest that you peruse the
comments made on this forum to determine whether some of the recommendations
for fixing similar issues work for you. You can try some of them, such as
removing upper and lower filters in registry, for example, to address the
issue with the CD/DVD-ROM drives. There are a lot of comments about optical
drives on this forum.
The same approach would apply to the power issue you have. Moreover, make
sure your power settings in Control Panel are properly set. Take a look at
the following Microsoft article to determine whether it applies to your
situation:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929734/en-us
In addition, download and install all the updates available at the Microsoft
update website, if you haven't already done so. You might get lucky and
install a fix for one or more issues.
Another approach is to peruse the Internet using google search to locate
fixes. There oftentimes are people posting issues and resolutions on many
places out on the Internet. Using good search criteria is key to getting
hits.
Additional steps that can be taken include reviewing BIOS settings and/or
updating BIOS to address power issues. Also, determine whether there is a
correlation between having made and change to the system and the onset of the
power issue. Then, removing the change. You get the idea.
Also, look at a report where Vista records errors: Start > Maintenance >
Problem Reports and Solutions. Peruse the report for any errors and focus on
any recommendations made to resolving them.