CD ROM Keeps disappearing

[coatesville]

Hi
I have a 56X CD ROM says Max on the front and thats it. Anyway I had to get a new computer kit and it came with case and everything all I had to add was the hard drive CD Rom and Floppy.
I had to format my hard drive to get rid of all the mess on it and restart with a clean hard drive. So when I reloaded windows after I got in and CD Rom went back to D drive I keep losing it I go to load something and than all of sudden the CD Rom is not reading look in my computer there is no CD Rom listed I have no idea who makes this so I just install what I think is the CD Rom unfortunatley windows doesn`t have generic CD ROm but think thats what it installed with at first.
My question is what is happening and how can I correct this. I am using windows 98. I f I don`t know the brand how can I get drivers for it

[ranchdog]

Windows will load it's own drivers for the
CD-ROM. Upon recognition of the CD-ROM after
operating system installation.

Recognition of the drive is the problem.

CD-ROM needs to be on the IDE-2 ribbon
cable, preferably at the end connector.

Harddrive will use IDE-1 ribbon cable
also plugged to the end connector.

The ribbon cables for both devices will
only fit properly if plugged in correctly.

Please make sure these connections for both
devices are secure and the power connection
for the CD-ROM is secure. Especially at the
rear of each device.

The ribbon cables need to be plugged into the
Mboard in thier proper place. ie: IDE-1 and
IDE-2.

Sometimes a faulty ribbon cable can cause these
recognition problems. The plug on the end of
the cable doesn't want to maintain a decent
connection to the rear of the CD-ROM.

I had a CD-ROM that seemed to "disappear" every
time I needed it. So I would stop and remove
the side panel, power down, shake the ribbon cable
and re-boot. CD-ROM would re-appear as normal.
The pins on the rear of the CD-ROM were funky. So
it went to the dumpster.


RD.

[coatesville]

Thanks thought it might be a connection problem although I had changed cables but helped some but still lost CD Rom. Will try some new cables on it and than see what happens it could be the connection on the CD Rom the motherboard is new. I know I have the cables in right. Anyway will check it all out.

[mjc]

One other thing, are the drives set up to auto detect in BIOS?