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ok durwood, can you make doubley sure that the cable is not connected upside down or back to front? If it's has three connectors, then the two connectors closest together with be primary and secondary, so use one of these to connect to the device. Also, notice the notch at the top of the cable which will indicate which way the cable should be connected. Hope this makes sense.

Well, I'm at work right now so I can't check but I believe I've got it connected right. In fact, the cable came w/ the mobo and both the IDE connection on the mobo and one end of the cable are both blue so I connected the blue ends. I believe the other 2 leads on the cable are closer together as you described being the primary and secondary. I have the drive connected to the lead on the end of the cable (rather than the middle one).

Earlier today I was reading the specs for the mobo more closely and it says it is compatible w/ PATA 100 IDE devices. I went home for lunch and was looking to see what spec the drive was but it just says ATAPI/EIDE - no detail such as 100 or 133. I was thinking maybe the drive just isn't compatible but can't confirm.

Here's my mobo btw.

Newegg.com - Foxconn A7VMX-K AM2+/AM2 AMD 780V Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

What I would do is make sure all physical connection are connected properly. Since your HDD is using a SATA interface you don't have to worry about slave/Master configurations as it has a dedicated line to the controller. Trey switching the sata controller in the BIOS to IDE Mode.
If that doesnt work try doing what JellyBean said before. BArebone the system by taking away uneccessary devices. IF you have another system in your house try connecting the IDE drive to verify it works properly. A driver issue is not the problem as that layer doesnt come into affect until an OS loads. BEfore that the BIOS should have the neccessary tools to communicate with devices.

The two devices are compatible durwood

Okay, thanks.

I'll double check all connections again. I remember that the SATA controller is set to Native IDE mode in BIOS so that should be okay.

Well, I rechecked all connections and think that I might have an issue with the power connections/cables not being very consistent. I don't think the Ultra case/psu is very good quality. However, it still seems to me that if the dvd drive is getting enough power to light up the LED that the mobo should be able to detect it. I think there must be something wrong with the IDE controller on the mobo or else the IDE cable. I'm going to take both the IDE and SATA drives to a local shop and have them tested. I tried everything I could think of in the way setttings in BIOS and different configs for the IDE drive but nothing worked so I'm still stuck but I I'll know more what to do next once I test the drives.

ok durwood, keep us updated dood.