Cd Rom problems.

ALSO, not sure if this is of any help but a differnt hard-drive was added also and this displays the wrong values when you look at its' properties. humm.

Not sure what this exe file is...
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There are no drivers required for modern optical drives. (Made in the last +/- 6 years maybe.)
They've FINALLY standardized -something-....
Everyone is finally making drives that fully comply with the ATAPI standard and they don't need drivers.
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You do need software to burn CD's (included in XP for CD's but there is better software.)
Some drives have firmware that can be updated. Shouldn't need it just to run.
That's mostly to correct issues with burning CD's and burning software compatibility.
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In device manager, right click the device and select "uninstall". Then click the "action" tab and select "scan for hardware changes". Does your drive re-appear?

Has the new HDD been recognised in the BIOS? Go into "standard CMOS settings" and set the HDD to "auto" so the BIOS can detect it. While you're there, do the same for your CD drive.

Any change?

As PCBONEZ says, drivers for a CD rom drive is not the issue.
Try uninstalling the drive in device manager, then reboot and let Windows detect and install it.
Is there still a question mark against the drive in device manager?

and also try another IDE cable

OK **update:

-hard drive and cd-rom drive are set to auto in the bios
-I tried uninstalling from device manager and then scanning for it and it detects it but says there could be a problem and shows it with a yellow exclamation.

I am about to try some of the other solutions.

**update:

-Checked to see if the power supply could handle the load and that looks fine.
-Downloaded xp_cd_dvd_fix and ran it/rebooted but no difference and still no cd-rom drive.
-Ran hijackthis (I highly doubt it is a software problem) here is the log -- http://www.hijackthis.de/logfiles/ecf29d91592be6e56cd68b9bd86bac84.html

Is this the complete log? Can you use msconfig to disable drivers and startup programs that aren't absolutly necessary?

That was the complete log, I CAN use msconfig to disable drivers/programs on start up, what exactly should I be disabling ?

thanks rindi.

Things you don't need, startup items like InCD or other such tools which would want to access the drives. You can actually disable most things and if it then works start enabling them one by one until you have found the culprit.

***UPDATE

OK, I also have a sound card: Trident 4DWave-DX which I cant seem to install !

Same problem, exclamation mark in device manager !!

Reinstall your motherboard chipset drivers then run windows update.
I'm thinking your -specific- motherboard drivers are not there and you are running on genaric MoBo drivers.
After you install them windows will likely need some updates.
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OK that makes sense ^

One small problem .. well two actually .. I dont have any software for the motherboard ? AND I cannot connect to the Internet [for windows to update]!

Is it possible to download chipset drivers ? AND can you download windows update anywhere also ?

Many thanks.

The manufacturers of the chipsets used on motherboards make the critical motherboard drivers.
The mainboard manufacturer generally has those and all the rest of the needed drivers.
If not, you can do it the hard way and figure out what's needed by the numbers on the chips installed on the board.

What is the make and model of the motherboard?

If you can't tell then give me the BIOS string (on the first screen you see when you start it):
You can use this:
biosagent.zip --  Bios Agent 3.45 reports BIOS string, model#, chipset, cpu, memory - Win98 to XP
http://motherboards.mbarron.net/download/biosagent.zip
It should even let you print it out.
BIOS strings will usually ID the manufacturer if not the model.

Note: These little BIOS reader programs can be pretty iffy. Sometimes you have to try 2 or 3 to get the correct info. One of the popular one's is by SiSoftware Sandra which tells you lots of things (even the chip part numbers on your RAM) but in my humble exerience, it only gets the motherboard make/model right on about 1 in 6 motherboards...
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The current windows update basically scans your PC and tells you what's needed for your OS and hardware.
Then you can pick what you want to install. If you haven't done it there will be a bizzilion security patches so plan on not using the PC for a while. You may have to do it two, three, more times because often and update needs another update. [Remeber, this is Microsoft....]
~ You need to do windows update after you have your MoBo drivers or you may end up doing it again because windows update looks at your installed drivers in some cases to determine what you need.....
~ This will also offer you updated windows 'built-in' drivers if any exist.
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if you want to identify your motherboard, use Everest :

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads9.html      

you can also test the drives and cards on another PC, to be sure      

**Update

I wiped the drive clean and re-installed windows xp, initially the cd-rom drive was installed and working ok but after a few re-starts it was coming up with an exclamation mark like the above scenerio. This is from a clean install of xp !!! I tried a different cd-rom drive and im getting the same thing !!! This is also the same with the sound card.

HELP !!

Did you install other software or just XP and the necessary mainboard drivers, servicepack and updates? Are you connected to the LAN and internet after the reboots?

it can be the ide controllor on your motherboard is dying. connect the cd drive to the other connector.
did you try another IDE cable ?

I just installed XP, nothing else, no servicepack or updates. I didnt test any connections because I couldnt.

Strange huh ?

Also .. I tried a different power supply and tried a different cd-rom. I also tried removing the sound card, but there is still no joy.

Oh I tried a different ide controller too ;-(

then probably your mother board has a problem.
 you can still try a separate PCI IDE controller, but i would rather try a new motherboard

Check the capacitors on your motherboard.
http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

**Update,

OK this is really strange but I installed XP without the sound card plugged in. I then added another sound card once XP was installed and it works fine along with the cd-rom drive !!!!! How about that ? Could it be that the soundcard was causing problems during the installation ? Because I tried removing it completely the first time around but with no avail.

Just one thing tho, I now have to hold down on the off switch for 6 seconds to turn the compuet fully off !!!

thanks for your help guys, hopefully this is the end of my headache and I can start to award people with points.

Check your BIOS, you can probably set it up so that it turns off immediately or wait a couple of sec. Is this an old soundcard by any chance which you tried using? Some such cards had their own CD Drive interface, maybe that interfered with the actual drive?

"hold down on the off switch for 6 seconds"
Is normal on some systems. As rindi said sometimes you can change the setting in the BIOS.

Check your caps anyway.
This is a BIG and common problem with older systems and bad caps can cause random problems the don't make any sense at all.
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I will check my caps in the morning and the sound card was a Trident 4Dwave dx.

Check the caps on the dud sound card too.
Bad caps ended up in everything.
Motherboards just get all 'the press'.

Caps look ok to me, its a puzzle, but it works now so im not going to question it anymore !