EXTERNAL CD-BURNER WON’T WORK

I’M TRYING TO INSTALL A BACKPACK 4X EXTERNAL BURNER TO A DELL LATITUDE CPi NOTEBOOK,USING THE PARALLEL PORT.THE NOTEBOOK IS RUNNING WINDOWS NT 4.0.AFTER INSTALLING THE BACKPACK SOFTWARE,AND UPDATING THE ASPI32.EXE TO THE LATEST LEVEL,I FIRED UP THE BURNER SOFTWARE, WHICH IS EASY CD CREATOR 4.0. WHEN I TRIED TO BURN A SMALL FILE AS A TEST,THE BURNER EJECTS THE CD,TELLING ME THERE IS NO CD IN THE DRIVE,EVEN THOUGH THERE IS. I’VE TRIED SEVERAL DIFFERENT BRANDS OF CD-R’S,WITH NO HELP. I’VE ALSO FLASHED THE BIOS ON THE NOTEBOOK TO THE LATEST LEVEL, STILL NO HELP. WHAT ELSE CAN I CHECK?