Toshiba Tecra 500CDT does not detect CD-ROM drive

[3lectr1c]

I have a problematic Tecra that fails to detect its CD-ROM drive. It does not show up as a drive letter in Windows. I can't boot from it either, but I believe these Toshibas just don't support that.
Drive itself is known-good and works perfectly in my Satellite Pro 430CDT.
I did see the access light come on once while it was passing post, but it doesn't do this every time.

I tried a Windows reinstall thinking it was that, but it wasn't.

Any ideas? BIOS battery is dead and removed, so settings should be at their defaults. Nothing obvious related to the CD-ROM in the BIOS.

 

[JamieDoesStuff]

Perhaps a flaky connector on the motherboard? Are these bay drives or do you have to take the machine apart to remove them? If so, there could be a matter of cold solder joints.

 

[3lectr1c]

It’s a modular bay. I could take it apart to check for anything obvious but this thing is so brittle I’d worry about it falling apart, lol.

 

[JamieDoesStuff]

Since the exterior is shoddy, so might be the electrical connections. Use a guitar pick, it helps a great deal.

 

[3lectr1c]

Yeah that's what I already use.

 

[3lectr1c]

Some of these just fall apart no matter what. There are several stress cracks all around the laptop's body that have just formed themselves, I worry if I took it apart at all I'd have chunks falling off. This thing is my only laptop that is genuinely going to fall apart in the next few years. Shame, it's a really nice system.