CD drive problem

Ok, this one is weird. I load winders on this computer (PIII@500) and setup loads just fine. Then when I get inti winders the CD drive is next to inaccessable. I double cluck something that shouls auto play, and it doesn't. I try to explore and I can't. I already tried a different drive different IDE cables, and am in the process of installing with minimal components.
If this doesn't work I'm going to try to put both devices on the primary chain and do it again as the only thing I can think of is a bad IDE controller. Any thoughts? I suppose a BIOS flash wouldn't be out of order, but it's an old board, and IU've got no floppies, or drives for that matter.