Win98SE won’t recognize CD-ROM

At my office for some strange reason my CD-ROM is no longer recognised by Windows.

I have tried using the Win98SE startup disk and choosing the ‘load with CD-ROm support’ option but it keeps saying ‘drivers not found’. And I still can’t access the CD-ROM, and Windows won’t start up, but all files are listed.

Otherwise Windows loads fine with out the startup disk, but no CD drive is available. The CD-ROM is a Sony CDU4011. Drivers downloaded from Sony when installed prove fruitless.

I’m considering that I may have to go inside the machine to investigate the cables. Any and all advice is appreciated.