After the Mandrake CD(s) brutally molested and raped my previous CD-ROM, I have installed a new one. Now, this one will actually open and close, and this one doesn't make a rattling noise when you shake it. It worked in its previous host PC, but it doesn't work in this one. The BIOS won't recognize the CD-ROM, and my HD is blank.

The only thing I can boot from is the floppy, and even when I do that with startup-disks, the system still can't read that a CD-ROM is attatched.

All the cables are in place, but the BIOS still will not recognize the new hard-ware as it should.

The BIOS rejects manual configuration of the CD-ROM and reverts itself back to its defeaults of no CD-ROM.

are you positive your IDE cables are correctly connected to your devices, and that they are securely in place ?
and are you sure the IDE cables are actually "good" ? did you try another one to make sure it wasn't the cable ?

#include <assumptions.h>

assuming hd and cd are on same cable:

Check the jumper on the CD-ROM & make sure it is set to "slave"

The cables have been checked and re-checked - they are fine. The original CD-ROM functioned until the Mandrake cD was booted from it. Afterwards, it refused to open/close and it was no longer recognized by the PC or BIOS.

So, I installed a new CD-ROM. Everything is good, and the CD-ROM opens/closes fine. The BIOS still refuses to acknowledge it, though.

Check the jumper(s). Make sure it is set correctly. Is the BIOS set for auto detect on both channels of the IDE controller where the CDROM is connected to?

One can only assume when the CDROM tray opens / closes is that the drive is connected to the power supply.

Reset the jumpers (on the board - not the cdrom) and take out the battery (and then obviously put it back in) on your board. This should reset the board back to default. You may have already tried that, but it has worked for me in the past. If you do get it back up and running, i would suggest using Slackware or Debian in the future.