Will a DVD drive that is not getting enough power from 1 of the 2 USB cables still power up but not play?

Yes. If the USB ports are USB 1.0, you'll need a cord like this (a href="http://importbestbuys.com/catalog/images/usb_power_cable_splitte.jpg" rel="nofollow"http://importbestbuys.com/catalog/images…/a However, if it's USB 2.0 you only need one port.