Wii unable to read disk after optical drive replacement

Hello,
My Will had an issue where the optical drive would make clicking noises and then produce a read error in the main menu. After doing some research I decided to replace the optical drive. Upon replacing the drive it made similar noises and now the Wii black screens with an error "eject the disk... /power off". I have tried reseating the power and ribbon cable on both the drive and mobo sides. I have tried cleaning the old drive and reinstalling it with no success. I have inspected the ribbon cable for damage and have found nothing alarming. I have also checked the mobo for possibly blown components (with naked eye so take with a grain of salt). Im at a complete loss for troubleshooting and could use some help.

I should also note that after going all the way down to the motherboard are reseating the ribbon cable the Wii will now spin the disk, make some kind of happy noises, then start clicking, fans will kick and then the drive will stop spinning/attempting to read but no error will be produced. If I try to insert a disk the second time then it will error out. (I have tried with plenty of disks).

Please help I want to keep this thing alive, and would like to not fully replace it.
I will take all the help and suggestions I can get. Thanks for reading all of this <3

Update:
After reassembling the Wii (with new drive), it was temporarily able to read disks. I had booted the console with the disk in the drive and it worked just fine. I then ejected the disk and put in a different one to test and the it failed again (without error). I then tried putting in the first disk again and it errored w/black screen.
(Same as before with the first read attempt always resulting in nothing while the second attempt black screening the device.

This inconsistency leads me to believe that there may be underlying software / firmware issues, the only reason I have my reservations with this theory is the fact that the Wii has likely been running this firmware for the past 16ish years without fail.
I also checked the drive hardware and all of the processing components have identical model numbers (this does not rule out possible firmware incompatibility but does probably rule out hardware incompatibility).
Granted if it was a firmware issue then that wouldn't explain the failure of the original drive (especially after receiving a thorough cleaning) as having two issues (one hard one soft) simultaneously appear is unlikely (but not impossible).

At this point I'm just using this thread to sound things out for myself, so while answers are appreciated I feel like this will just be a block of text depicting my sad incoherent journey of spiraling into madness while taking to a wall that some poor bastard will stumble across in 4 years. (if that's you then cheers lad I wish you only the best). Well on to more testing!