I have an old 486 that I picked up from my old primary school. It had a cd rom drive that no longer worked so I recently installed a cd rom from an other old computer that had a burner as well as the cd rom drive. I connected the cd rom up and installed the Drivers for it and the cd rom worked perfectly. I then took the cd rom out to connect it in properly but now I cannot get it to register that there is a cd rom installed. If I leave the cd rom unconnected of the connecter in upsidedown the computer will say no cd rom detected and go no further. I have tried using differnt cables reformating my whole computer and then installing the drivers, using larger hard drives but nothing seems to be working.

Not enough information. Where was the original CD drive connected? Where was the CD drive when it worked perfectly? Early BIOS's didn't necessarily show the CD drive.

"reformating my whole computer and then installing the drivers, using larger hard drives but nothing seems to be working."

None of that would have any useful effect - if it worked in one position, but not in another (that's the gist, right?) then it would have to be a hardware problem - maybe something has come loose?

Try another, assuming this is an IDE drive & interface

Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home

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'I then took the cd rom out to connect it in properly'

Sounds like you had it in properly the first time.

If at first you do succeed don't try try again lol.

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There is so much room for error here, that it's hard to even sort out the errors.

FIRST, how do you/we know what kind of interface the two CDROM's are using, and therefore, how do we know that either CDROM was either properly connected, or operational.

For basic CDROM operation, all you need, really, to "test" a newer IDE connected CDROM, is a Windows 98 boot floppy, which you can download from bootdisk.com

READ THE ABOVE AGAIN

Let's say you have an IDE CDROM:

It must be properly jumpered, as to slave/master

It must be properly connected to an IDE cable, --slave or master as to the jumpers

The hard drive must be either GONE or properly connected and jumpered.

The EASIEST way to test, would be to set the CDROM as master,

DISCONNECT the hard drive

TEMPORARILY connect the CDROM to the master IDE where the hard drive came off,

and start the computer with a W98 boot floppy.

Pop a known good CD in the drive, and test by typing "DIR"

HOW DO WE KNOW

What kind of CDROM you have?

Is it in fact IDE, or some old proprietary drive?

HOW DO WE KNOW

what connection you are hooked to?

Many old 486's used proprietary drives, hooked to a "sound card" interface-----I have some old sound cards here that have 3 or 4 different CDROM connectors.

I don't understand your "upside down" statement.

""If I leave the cd rom unconnected of the connecter in upsidedown the computer will say no cd rom detected and go no further.""

I do not understand what you mean, there.

I ended up getting the cd rom to work when i tried another hard drive from another computer that I had. It had a larger capacity then the hard drive that was in the computer and the bios settings where different then the hard drive that was originally in the computer and had.

The cd rom that I put in is and IDE. It came out of a computer that had a CDROM and CD Burner. The computer originally ran windows 95 and was upgraded to 98.

The original cd rom was one that connected to the sound card.

When i said that "I then took the cd rom out to connect it in properly" I didn't have the cdrom sitting in the cdrom slot because It is really fiddley to connect things up and I had two other cd players that I was fiddling around with.

When I was said upside down I was connecting turning the cables the other way to test if it was that.

Wizard-fred asked a key question. Let me answer and then please confirm our understanding:

1. You have an old IPEX 486

2. You added a CD-ROM drive, with the drive on the bench outside the computer box.

3. You made the power and IDE cable connection and loaded drivers.

4. The CD-ROM drive works fine (Important fact!)

5. You disconnected the the IDE cable and power to the CD-ROM drive

6. You installed the drive in an available bay in the box

7. You replaced the connections from step 5

8 Now the CD-ROM does not show up as a drive in DOS or in File Manager in Win3.11

Please confirm that all these 8 points are correct. If so, step 4 is key! Things to check:

a) Are your power and IDE connectors tight?

b) is there power to the CD-ROM dirve - can you open the tray by pressing the open button?

c)Try name's test of changing jumper on the CDROM drive (to master) and connecting to the HDD IDE connector. If the CD-ROM drive is recognized from a Win98 startup disk, you have a bad or just damaged IDE connector. In this case make your CDROM master and put it on the secondary IDE channel. If that's the way you had it before, make it a slave and put it on the primary IDE channel.

"i tried another hard drive from another computer that I had. It had a larger capacity then the hard drive that was in the computer and the bios settings where different"

Completely irrelevant - the hard drive is not really involved, and the BIOS settings from one machine don't 'transfer' over

Quite the story - I'm nearly as lost now as the OP appears to be.

Try and be methodical

Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home

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Now jboy, the OP can't afford to lose you!;) So look at my #6 - I'm pretty sure that's what OP is trying to tell us. If so, what tests do you recommend?

The pins on an IDE connector (mobo or CD-ROM) are not difficult to damage. I think I've done it myself once..

OP is good at dropping red herrings.

I've been lost from the beginnning of this one, and it just keeps getting muddier.

Maybe another format'll do the trick

Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is not more a science than a heap of stones is a home

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Let's all not forget, also, that ANY electrical device can fail, and this includes such complicated devices as a major failure with the drive, down to a broken solder pad on the power/ IDE connector, and MOST CERTAINLY an intermittent cable /connection on the IDE cable.

(I just got through fighting what I thought was a failing hard drive, and evidently, it was an intermittent power connector on the power supply. I switched the drive to another pigtail, and it's been flawless for a week)

True, but experiments can narrow down the list of suspects. For example, putting the CD-ROM on a separate channel with a new IDE cable should tell us if we can rule out the IDE connector. Similar test with the power connector can tell us if the power connector is OK.

We should also remember that the CD-ROM worked fine when it was first connected.

"""We should also remember that the CD-ROM worked fine when it was first connected."""

Exactly my point---the last time it got disconnected, the uh, "technician" could have broken the last tiny bit of solder on that one pin, that important power connector, could have damaged the IDE cable in that last little bit of torque.

I once had a "pig" computer that I used for copying hard drives, troubleshooting, and experiments, it NEVER got the case side cover installed. After about 1 whole day of screwing, I found that the IDE cable--a fairly new one---had gone intermittent at one of the connectors.

So one time it works, and the next time-----

Intermittent problems are more difficult to solve as it takes longer to test a "trial". But the methodology is the same. Feball3001, time to run experiments..