An IDE (most likely really and EIDE) has two separate "channels," each of which can connect two devices. Typically, your bootable hard drive (C:\) will be on the "Primary" connector of one channel. Your floppy drive (A:\) will use another connection, typically the "Secondary" of either EIDE channel.

If you got something like a ZIP drive, fairly common in 2000, it would use another connection, either of the two left available, leaving only one connection available for other devices.

To connect both a CD and a DVD, you would need 2.

Even if you don't have the ZIP, using all the available connections would leave you no place to hook up an add-in like another hard drive, so it would be good practice for Dell to add a second EIDE card even if connections for both the CD and DVD were available.

The "main" EIDE controller is often "built in" to the motherboard, or is on a small "plug-in." The added EIDE controller will almost certainly be in one of your "expansion slots," basically a row of connectors provided for adding components.

Next to cables and cable connectors, the expansion slot connectors are probably the prime suspect when something stops working. (That's assuming no one has messed with the software setup.) If Dell put both the CD and the DVD on the "added" EIDE controller, it might explain why they both quit at the same time - there's a problem with the card(?).

If you can get local assistance, it should be fairly simple (although perhaps tedious) to track down the problem.

John