cdrw not recognized

[adalgisa]

I'm trying to install a Benq 52x32 CDRW in a Dell Dimension 4100. The drive is recognized in BIOS, but not by Win98se. Device Manager shows an exclamation mark at the secondary ide controller, and msinfo32 says the secondary ide has been disabled. The CDRW is jumpered as master, and there's a zip drive as slave. I've tried going into safe mode, deleting the primary & secondary ide controllers, and rebooting; I've tried downloading new chipset drivers. The BIOS says the cable is "80 conductor" and I'm using 40-wire IDE cables-- could this be the cause of the problem?
Your help is much appreciated, as always!

[Jester]

what type of cable are you using ot connect the zipd drive and the cd drive. If it is an ultra ata 100 I beleive you need to set both drives to Cable select.

[adalgisa]

The drive didn't come with any cables so I'm using what was in the case already, which I don't think would be ultra ata 100. They're just 40-wire flat cables. (dorado/athens/tualatin/almodor dual klinger cable, according to the parts description that shipped with the computer in 2000...why a cable has as many names as some european aristocrat is beyond me :) )

[glc]

Dell uses cable select type cables. Jumper both drives to cable select.

[adalgisa]

I jumpered both drives to cable select, & the cdrw was recognized in BIOS (this time it said the cable was 40 conductor--), but windows didn't recognize the drives. So I unplugged the zip drive, and tried again. Now it recognizes the CDRW in windows, yea!! :) (I installed all the Nero software that came with it, and got BSOD every time I tried to open Explorer or My Computer, so I uninstalled the Nero software that had added an icon to the tray ("InCD"), while leaving the other Nero software, and that seemed to solve that problem.)
But after plugging the zip drive back in, the zip drive still isn't recognized. It doesn't show in BIOS either.

[glc]

Sounds like your Zip drive has seen better days.