Techra 8000 laptop DVD-Rom drive won't read DVDs

[Dougpeplow]

I am reprogramming (Win98SE) a second-hand tecra 8000 laptop, without the advantage of configuration build CD. I did succeed (by trial and error) in getting the DVD-rom drive to play DVDs by downloading and installing a number of 'shareware' players. I then found several references on the Toshiba site for their player, drivers and software and managed to get it to work as well. I thought a ‘clean rebuild’ would be in order and re-formatted the hard-drive and re-installed all the software, with the exception of all the ‘shareware’ programs. At one point in this, the Toshiba player was working, but as I continued to adjust drivers etc for other applications, the DVD drive will not now even recognize a DVD disc when inserted (windows explorer reports ‘drive not ready’ when DVD is inserted, player won’t start). I have checked that the ‘sound video and game controllers’ recognize the decoder 2.1 drivers.
Before I start another re-build, can anyone suggest the proper way to install and configure the Toshiba DVD-Rom and player please?