Lost my cdrom drive running Ubuntu 5.10

[elemental666]

ok all the sudden I get spammed about packet failures during my boot process and can't mount the cdrom drive anymore:

sudo mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /media/cdrom

mount: block device /dev/hdc is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdc,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

sudo dmesg | tail

[4295684.539000] ATAPI device hdc:
[4295684.539000] Error: Not ready -- (Sense key=0x02)
[4295684.539000] No reference position found (media may be upside down) -- (asc=0x06, ascq=0x00)
[4295684.539000] The failed "Read Cd/Dvd Capacity" packet command was:
[4295684.539000] "25 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "
[4295686.547000] ATAPI device hdc:
[4295686.547000] Error: Not ready -- (Sense key=0x02)
[4295686.547000] No reference position found (media may be upside down) -- (asc=0x06, ascq=0x00)
[4295686.547000] The failed "Read Cd/Dvd Capacity" packet command was:
[4295686.547000] "25 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "

it will also not longer boot from cd

[chubes]

Hmmm. Can you see the CD-ROM drive in BIOS? Try re-seating it (take out and put back in) as well.

[elemental666]

I looked around in the BIOS but didn't see where it would be listed, I tried reseating to no avail.

I'm gonna try putting another drive in from one of the TPs as work tonight. Hope its not the bus...

[elemental666]

ok, that was goofy, it just started working again for no apparent reason...

is there a way I can test the IDE bus and/or the device itself to see if either are going out on me?