Eh, exactly how old is this computer? Some older ones may not have support for newer drive technologies. Also, make sure you are getting adequate power to the drive. Maybe you could try a different power splitter? Another thing is you could check the master/ slave jumpers on the back of the drive, but this probobly is not the case because the BIOS should still recognize it. Sounds like a weird BIOS not to flash. Maybe you could try removing the CMOS battery for about 15 mins and then trying an alternate flash utility to ensure you properly flash the BIOS (assuming boot record is still functional). You may be lucky the thing still works if it froze in the middle of a flash! Last but not least, you could always throw the CD drive across the room onto a hard surface such as brick, wood, or even steel. Er, scratch that last one 
