@dnelsonfl
Just a thought; are you sure the new drive isn't busted as well? I have used several CD drives throughout the years, and have never experienced anything like the faults you are mentioning.
Maybe make a backup of your current OS installation, and install OS3.1 from disks, and try installing the CD drive with the IDEfix package. If that works, you would know that there is something on the current OS installation that is buggy, at least with the new drive. I know it's a long shot, but might be worth a try.
