More details skaltpunk.
What is on the secondary channel, just a CD or a CD and another device?
Check the jumpers as Rwhite suggested.
Or try a quick test, plug the hard drive into the secondary controller with nothing else on the ribbon but it.
Without knowing what 'fluked' means, lets speculate.
A. The CD drive doesn't appear at the POST level.
B. The CD drive doesn't appear as a drive letter in the operating system.
If it's A, you can check the following:
1. In BIOS, the secondary master and/or slave are set to AUTO or CD-ROM. This rarely matters for CD devices, but something to check.
2. Your CD-ROM is fluked and there is nothing wrong with the secondary controller at all.
3. You have two devices on the same ribbon that don't like each other. This can happen, even if it's jumpered right and supposed to work, it doesn't always.
4. The jumpers are set wrong, or maybe the jumper is missing.
5. The cables are defective, or pluged in backwards.
6. The power lead of the P/S is toast, does the CD light come on, can you open the tray?
If it's B, you can check the following:
1. That you have drivers loaded for your CD-ROM, this is OS dependent and too lengthy to get into with so few details provided.
More than one, but provide more info, there is an answer to this. The following would be helpful for people here helping you.
- Whether it the drive is identified on the boot up screen, and as what.
Try plugging your hard drive into the secondary controller though (and put nothing on the primary) for a quick check, if you haven't done so already.
Re reading I see you have DVD on their as well. Assuming you jumpered everything right.
So back to my original question, what exactly is happening?