I have a CD-Rom drive that worked normally. I had to reset the BIOS for some reason. After the reset, the CD-Rom would not appear in the systems devices, and it is not recognized by the bios (using Win 95, and I need the CD-Rom to install Mandrake 8.0). I know this drive works because I have put it in another computer and it is fine. I figure I need to change a setting in the BIOS. What setting needs changing? Or is there another solution to the problem?

I can't remember what the section is called in the BIOS, but I think you have to get the BIOS to find all the connections on the IDEs.

Will have a look what it is in mine and tell you.

I couldn't find anything in my BIOS about auto-detecting the IDE devices. If there is a manual way to set it up, what would it say?

I think your best bet is to look in your Motherboard manual if you have one or check out the manufacturer's website. Its hard for someone who isn't at your computer to guess where those types of settings would be at or under, since most BIOS settings or displays are totally different from one another.

Well, the problem with motherboard/BIOS documentation is that I have none. American Megatrends (the BIOS manufacturer) says that the BIOS is supported by the computer maker, which is no longer existant. I was wondering if there was a generalized type of setting that was used. Or would anyone know where to get documentation for the AMI BIOS?

Isn't there an area called:

hdd ide <blah blah etc..>

something like that??

There is a part like that, but there is not a setting in there has fixed anything. Unless there is one that I am overlooking. Is there one in particular to pay attention to?

I just go into IDE HDD AUTO DETECTION and my IDE drives get auto-detected.

Also, if your CDROM drive is not detected, then make sure that the correct settings are made on the drive (i.e connected, master or slave, etc...).

Is it not found in win95?

Well, I have tried switching IDE cables that I know work. I have also tried changing jumper settings. I have tried the device as slave, master, and cable select. It works in the primary IDE Channel. Also, another hard drive won't work on the secondary IDE channel (The channel The CD-ROM will not work on). This suggests the the entire secoondary channel is fried, although this makes no sense. All thath I did to cause this was reset the BIOS. I never touched the secondary IDE channel to risk shocking it, even though I always ground myself. That lead me to believe that there is some obscure BIOS setting that needs to enable the secondary IDE channel. This does not make sense.

From your last post it sounds like the on-board secondary IDE controller is disabled.

Your CD-ROM works in another PC, another HDD doesn't work when plugged into the secondary IDE controller. You have changed the IDE cables. The common element when things don't work is the secondary IDE controller.

Since your CD-ROM stopped working after you played with the BIOS I suspect that the on-board controller was disabled. Enable it and see what happens.

How do I enable it?

Each BIOS is different but you should have a section called something like 'Intergrated Periphals'. You should see two lines that says something along the lines of:

On-Chip Primary IDE: Enabled
On-Chip Secondary IDE: Disabled

Change the second one.

Well, my problem is that I can not find anything in the bios that looks similar to that.

Open your case and have a look around the middle of the board there should be some numbers silk screened on to it. Those numbers would be your model number.

Go to www.google.com and type in motherboard and your model number. You will find a hit that takes you to some documentation somewhere. You may even be able to find a BIOS update for it.

As I said each BIOS is slightly different but you should have the ability to disable the on-board IDE controllers.

The IDE cables plug straight into the motherboard right? If they plug into a card you haven't got on-board IDE controllers.

Yes the IDE cables plug right into the mothreboard. The hardware is so old that I wouldn't want to mess with flashing the BIOS. I am just trying every option before I give up and be satisified with the possible yet unexplainable answer that the secondary IDE failed. One more thing to try I guess.