I have a pre-pentium compaq presario that has a CD-ROM that doesn't work. When i replaced the CD-ROM with a working one a drive letter doesn't appear in windows (95).
The BIOS is completely bare and doesn't even have boot sequence options nor any options for hardware like CD-ROMS
How can I get the working CD-ROM to work in this system??
Contact the manufacturer for the CD-ROM to find if they have a driver install program for Windows 95. If you can, move away from Windows 95 to some later flavour such as XP since your time and effort with debugging Win 95 problems is probably better spent on spending the money to upgrade.
The bios in the pre pentium (486 or K6) probably will not support a CD drive over a certain speed.
My suggestion is to think about upgrading the system. As you already have a monitor and other periphials the cost would be amazingly low to upgrade to a board which has intergrated sound and 3D graphics and Celeron or Pent 111. As long as the CPU runs at 500 mhtz.