Pismo freezes when optical drive is in expansion bay

I have a PowerBook G3 Pismo/2000/Firewire with OS 10.4.11 installed. Suddenly, it won't boot up with the Optical Drive in the bay. It boots fine without the drive.
With the drive, the grey screen comes up and the Apple logo appears. The rotating circle never appears and it just freezes.
If I boot with the drive out, and then insert the drive the computer freezes and is totally unresponsive.
Has anyone experienced this problem or have any suggestions. I was going to run the Hardware Test disc, but since the Optical Drive cannot be used that is a problem.

esqjd,
I am glad you had the use of another Pismo for testing; my analysis was obviously wrong, and I thank you for replying with additional info.
Regarding your HD: I did not mean to suggest it was the source of the problem, only that a bad HD can cause similar problems.
First, I should have suggested you reset the PRAM to cover all bases:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
If the PRAM reset does not help, I would run another test: Shut off the Pismo and install the optical drive > open the tray by pushing an opened paperclip into the little hole next to the button > place a bootable CD or DVD in the tray and close > power on while pressing the 'option' key > if the Startup Manager appears, select the CD or DVD > select the 'continue' arrow > see if it will continue to boot.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106178
The purpose of this procedure is to test for a hardware or software problem. Starting to the Startup Manager all occurs in firmware until you select the CD or DVD, then the software begins to load. If your Pismo will perform normally and boot to the optical drive, then you probably have a software problem on the HD.
If you reach the Startup Manager but the CD or DVD will not boot, double-check the optical drive on the other Pismo by following the same procedure.

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