I have been struggling for months (off and on) to get my K62-300 system to run Windows 98SE, using a Startech ICD2CF adapter.
Usually I get partway through an install from CD, and it crashes hard.
I was using an 8GB Transcend industrial CF... the other day I got bad sector errors on it.

I switched it for a 32gb Sandisk ultra. I burned, with great difficulty, an image of Win98SE onto it.
It seemed to work, but needed some drivers... except my CDROM was not being found in the bios.
I could have it cable select or slave, on it's own separate ide cable on the secondary IDE channel... no dice.
I noticed just recently (which means it could have been happening for some time), that on the startech, sometimes the red light would be on at boot... sometimes both red and green lights would be on.
I further noticed that sometimes neither light was on, and of course the computer couldn't find the drive.
After some experimentation, I discovered that the power adapter for the IDE2CF was loose; if I move it, the lights would pop on and off.
Before discovering this, I tried firing up the computer with just the CDROM... it found it just fine.
I tried firing up the computer with both connected to power (the system has a 400watt AT switching power supply), but with the ide2cf disconnected from IDE, it couldn't find the CDROM.
I tried with both connected to the ide cable, and the startech not connected to power... it found the cdrom.
I've tried connecting different power cables to each... no improvement.

I'm at a loss as to what could be happening?
Has anybody else encountered a problem like this?