I haven't posted in a while, and almost forgot you guys were here...

My g/fs laptop, an Advent 7204, is fitted with a TSST 632 DVD/CDetc combi drive that has begun to refuse to be acknowledged by operating systems. I've been able to install Vista and Ubuntu 8.10 on it from the respective CDs, and there's no problem there in boot time from the CDs, or prior to the GUI loading, but as soon as the OS is booted proper the drive no longer exists, in either OS.

No hardware listed in Device Manager in Windows with a hardware error, nothing. The same for Ubuntu, yet it's found by the BIOS. There' snot all that many BIOS options to work with either, what with it being an Advent....

Any suggestions, other than just junk the damned thing and replace it?