When i turn on the computer the cd rom lights up and I can open and close it, and the device manager sees it but does not give it a drive letter and I can't access (use) it... should I delete it and re-install it? I have run a virus check, checked and re-attached cables and also have an extra cd rom drive - should I just install the extra cd rom? sheesh, i am confused...but I have always received excellent answers here on computing.net, so here goes...thanks to all.

Try booting to the CD drive using a known good bootable disk. Also watch the POST screens to see if that drive is identified by model in the POST screens. If both are OK then you may have an issue with the ASPI layer files. Post back.

Thanks for the fast response OtheHill, just one thing...how do I boot to the CD drive? I have a windows 98 diskette (copy) and a cd (original). what is a post screen? (boy do I feel dumb lol) Thanks again!

If the boot order in the BIOS screens is not currently set to boot to the CD drive before the HD then you would need to change that. If this is not something you wish to tackle right now don't worry about it. The POST screens (Power On Self Test) are the screens you see before the computers starts up Windows. If the CD drive shows up in those screens it may not be necessay to bother with the boot thing.

You would boot with a floppy bootdisk, choose cdrom support and then see if it reads a disk in dos. To do this you need to make sure the a: drive is the first boot device in cmos. When booting with a bootdisk, the last few lines that load before the final a:\> will tell you the cdrom drive letter. Some bootdisks temporarily change the drive letter. After it's booted up, put the data cd in the cdrom and type dir x:\ and enter, where x: is the cdrom drive letter shown on the screen when you booted. You should get a directory listing of what's on the cd. If you do then the cdrom is good. If you don't it's probably bad or at least needs to be cleaned. You could also try booting with your 98 cd, although not all of them are bootable. In that case you'd probably want the cdrom as the first boot device in cmos. If it boots OK then the drive is good. Check in 'my computer'. Does the cdrom show up there? If not go to PERFORMANCE in SYSTEM in CONTROL PANEL and see if anything is running in msdos compatiblity mode.

wow - thanks for the info -but I am a novice and not at all sure what to do...not even clear on how to boot to disk. And no, the cd rom does not show up in "my computer" or anywhere else. I went to Performance in System in Control Panel but could not see where I would find out if anything was runnin in msdos compat. mode... nuts...thanks all

Go to control panel system manager delete cd rom then reboot computer