Well, part of the problem is that I have no idea where to find any hardware information for this computer (one of the reasons I wanted to boot with Knoppix was to see what Knoppix auto-detected); when I asked for suggestions, I was hoping to learn about some generic hardware detection tool that would help me answer hardware questions about the machine.

FWIW, if I right-click the "My Computer" icon and select Properties, under General it says

System: Microsoft Windows 98

Dell Computer Corporation
GenuineIntel
Pentium(r) II Processor
Intel MMX(TM) Technology
128.0MB RAM

In the Performance tab it says that "No PC Card sockets are installed."

Under the "Device Manager" tab, if I expand the tree, I don't see any entry that looks to me as having anything to do with the CD-ROM. Instead I see things like (under "Plug and Play BIOS"):

Dircet Memory Access controller
PCI bus->Cinemaster C WDM Main Driver->Cinemaster C WDM DVD Driver
PCI bus->Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller->Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
PCI bus->Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller->Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
PCI bus->Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller->USB Root Hub
PCI bus->Intel 82371EB PCI to ISA bridge (ISA mode)->IO read data port for ISA plug and Play enumerator
PCI bus->Intel 82371EB Power Management Controller
PCI bus->Intel 82443BX Pentium(r) II Processor to AGP controller->ATI Xpert98 AGP 2X (English)->Dell1028L
PCI bus->Intel 82443BX Pentium(r) II Processor to PCI bridge (with GART support)
PCI bus->TBS Montego Multifunction PCI Platform->TBS Montego PCI Audio->TBS Montego Gameport Interface
PCI bus->TBS Montego Multifunction PCI Platform->TBS Montego PCI Audio->TBS Montego MPU-401 Interface
PCI bus->TBS Montego Multifunction PCI Platform->TBS Montego PCI Audio->TBS Montego Sound Blaster Emulation
PCI bus->U.S. Robotics 56K Voice Win (V.90)
Programmable Interrupt controller
PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Standard Floppy Disk Controller->GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK
System board extension for PnP BIOS
System CMOS/real time clock
System speaker
System timer


kj