DVD drive recognised by Windows XP, not BIOS

[anderxale]

Hey,
I can't tell if it is a driver problem but maybe you can point me in the right direction.
I have a Fujitsu Lifebook s6231 Laptop and a few months ago the computer would take 20 minutes to boot. The DVD drive has a quick-release and one day I found that the computer would boot fine if the DVD drive was disconnected from the computer. I figured replace the drive and all will be well.
My old drive was a UJ-830B (a slim drive) and I tried replacing it with a UJ-831B. When it came in the mail the drives looked identical, just move the harness and install!
The drive installed perfectly! sooooo easy, the driver loaded right from the drive and everything. I was playing dvds within minutes! but........
The next time I turned the computer on the drive didn't show in "My Computer" or even the device manager. I did a lot of reading and found that it wouldn't be compatible if it wasn't recognized in the bios so I checked that. No cd rom in the bios!!!!
It worked though, so I was confused. Remembering my old problem I started the computer without the drive connected. Then after Windows completely loaded I connected the DVD rom again. IT WAS THERE!
Confused, I called the company who sold me the drive, he had never heard of my problem. He asked what the drive firmware was, it is 1.00 and so he asked me to send it back and he would replace it with one that had newer firmware. I did
Same problem with now the UJ-840. If I want to use the DVD drive I need to wait until Windows XP boots completely and then connect the drive. BIOS still doesn't recognise the drive, I am sooo confused.
I have looked for firmware updates for my Fujitsu s6231 Laptop and found no new updates.
Are there any suggestions you might have? Any forums I might have better luck asking? Is it a driver or firmware issue?
OH! one last thing
the old drive UJ-831B still WORKS!!. I used it to reinstall windows during all of this! The drive is just really old, makes a LOT of noise and makes my computer take forever to boot.
I appreciate any advice!

[Quantos]

I would suggest backing up all of your documents and files, then reload the OS fresh.
Then try the new drive, it won't solve the bios issue, but it may allow it to boot with the drive connected.

The problem actually sounds like bios, have you tried updating the bios?

[anderxale]

Sadly yes, when this happened I reinstalled the operating system with the original drive.  When it didn't work after I installed XP again I tried replacing the drive again (the seller said maybe the firmware on the drive and replaced the dvd writer for free ^^)
The BIOS is Phoenix and I tried updating that too, it said I have the same version =S

THANKS FOR THE QUICK REPLY!

I thought maybe is a Slave/Master drive issue, but... how would you check that on a laptop drive? (Windows loads it on primary installation.  But after restart BIOS doesn't and then in turn Windows doesn't load it after already installed)

[Quantos]

It may be wrong on your optical drive, but the hard disk should be fine.

[neelchauhan]

You should make sure the IDE and the Molex connections are tight. Also, check if the jumper is correct.

[Quantos]

There shouldn't be any Molex connections, he says it's a Lifebook.