Cdrw drive not recognized in BIOS

Computer info: Gateway 2000, Pentium 400 MHZ, 192 RAM, Windows 95

I have a Philips 1200 series (can't remember exact model) cdrw drive. I''ve had it for a year or so with no major problems. But now when I start the computer and the BIOS does it's rundown of components, it usually doesn't recognize the cdrw drive and it pauses for at least 10 seconds or so at the point where it previously recognized the drive. Every once in awhile the BIOS will notice the drive, but then the computer freezes up after it gets to Windows, something that doesn't happen when the drive isn't recognized in the BIOS. Weird, huh? I hope this makes since to someone and you can give me some suggestions. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I don't want to trash this drive if I can avoid it. Thanks.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Halo, but I still haven't solved the problem. The problem does definitely seems to be with the connection in some way. On two different occasions I disconnected and reconnected the IDE cable at the drive and at the motherboard. Both times when I started the computer, the drive was recognized and it worked fine for a few minutes but then the computer would freeze up again. Then I restarted the computer and it was unrecognized in the BIOS again. I can't make any sense of it. I hope you or someone else can give me some other suggestions. Thanks again.

 

It did the same thing with the new cable. And as you suggested, I replaced the cdrw drive with an old cdrom drive that I had lying around. It was recognized and seemed to work fine. I guess that means the problem is with the drive itself, but wouldn't it still be recognized in the BIOS even if it had mechanical problems? What doesn't make any logical sense is that the cdrw has been recognized temporarily every time I've screwed around with unplugging and plugging the cable. I'm getting pretty frustrated over this piece of crap, so I guess I'll just go buy another drive even though I was hoping I wouldn't have to. Thanks for the help anyway.

 

FYI - This could also be related to a BIOS upgrade. Check your vendor's website for all system updates. Also check jumper settings of the CD-R/W and of other drives in the machine to make sure that is correct.