cant boot with optical drives

Question

i was playing around with my optical drives yesterday, trying to figure out why my audio CD's were covered with noise (audio noise, that is) and now my PC wont boot with my optical drives plugged in. this happened after i booted with my secondary drive hooked up to the cable my primary drive is usually plugged into, and some other configs i was trying to get to work. now this isnt a windows problem, with both drives plugged in (the way it used to work) the BIOS loading bar fills up and just stays there. pressing F12 for boot menu gives me a keyboard error, and pressing F2 for setup doesnt do anything (i see the entering setup line, but nothing happens) this is a dell, so i dont know where to find a BIOS, nor do i know how to flash a BIOS (which might be required)

i can still enter my PC and access my files, but I CANT BURN. which is EXTREMELY critical as i have 6gb of free space left and DL upwards of 4gb per day.

i didnt change any settings in my BIOS, and i cant check because i cant enter it with both drives.i can enter with 1, but i might not be getting the same results.

my secondary drive cant burn without my primary drive plugged in, CD tray still works, but it isnt recognized by windows and the BIOS recognizes it as an unknown device.

i played around with a couple configs before this, and while only my secondary drive was plugged in, i was making a nero img file (it wouldnt start the burn) and had to force shutdown while it was aborting the procedure (the "aborting" wouldnt stop...if that matters.

osprey4 · Answer

You should set both hard drives as primary, both optical drives as secondary, and all devices to cable select. Then reset your NVRAM. If you don't know the procedure, please post your system model.

DTTNBguy · Answer

dimesnion 2400, and sry, but i dont know this procedure.

and heres some info (including my configuration) i didnt include in my first post

config
1st IDE cable hooked to HD, 2nd IDE cable hooked to floppy, 3rd IDE cable hooked to CD-RW (primary) and DVD-RW (secondary). i DID NOT take any drives out of there cages, disable things in device manager, etc etc..now they (im talking BOTH drives) went from working perfectly (reading, writing) to the state they are in over the course of 30 minutes with NO erratic behavior or physical abuse.
which is why this problem is so hard to figure out.

osprey4 · Answer

The procedure is here. Your floppy is a different controller and has a different cable, so don't try to swap that to other drives.

DTTNBguy · Answer

what could go wron if i went through with this? i just want to know thx for you advice

osprey4 · Answer

Dude, believe me, I've been doing this a while.

DTTNBguy · Answer

sry if i offended you, its not that i dont trust your experience, its that i dont trust my own, if theres a problem that arises, I might not be able to find a solution. i just wanna be prepared for this sort of thing.

osprey4 · Answer

So have you tried it, or are you sitting there anxiously awaiting my further advice? :)

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cant boot with optical drives

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