What do you mean by "It works fine with the cable out"? Your ODD needs its IDE/SATA cable and also Molex/SATA to work properly. If one of them cables is out then it won't work properly. You mentioned ribbon cable so I am assuming you mean IDE. There is a certain way you need to connect IDE cables.
The blue plug on the cable goes into the motherboard, then the FIRST grey plug you come across goes into the disk drive. No the one at the opposite end of the IDE cable than the blue one. It's about half way up. After you know the cables are all set up properly, have you checked the jumper on the drive is correctly set up?