Comp wont boot from cd

[bigdawgfoxx]

Hey..me and mattesca are working on his moms compaq computer. We couldnt find any drivers for the other board so we just bought another one, abit something, and another 512 stick of ram.

We turn it on and it goes pretty slow...then we get to like where it says DMI pool verified or w/e...and it says boot from cd: ...then you know how it comes up with the thing right under that where it says press any key to boot from cd...well it never does that. And just starts going to the windows that is already on the drive.

I am thinking of putting it in another computer and formating it off there and trying.

Any other suggestions?

[Virtualbody1234]

Sure. Go into the BIOS an look for boot order. Set it so that the CD drive is before the HDD.

[Chewie]

Sure. Go into the BIOS an look for boot order. Set it so that the CD drive is before the HDD.
His post reads like it says it's reading the CD but doesn't offer to start from it.

Try another bootable CD - anything will do - to check it's not just a faulty CD.
If it still doesn't recognise the disc as bootable, make sure that the IDE cable is in tight, it's the right way round, the drive is on the right plug, and the jumper is set correctly for master/slave operation.

[sparsely]

yeah...i'd say prolly a bad disc.

[clocker]

Could be a faulty CD drive also.

[bigdawgfoxx]

hmm...well its only detecting one of the two optical drives we have attached, but we have it in the one its detecting. I use the cd all the time and it just worked like the day before...I have also set the boot order to cd first...i will try some of the other suggestions thanks guys

[foot loose]

Hey..me and mattesca are working on his moms compaq computer. We couldnt find any drivers for the other board so we just bought another one, abit something, and another 512 stick of ram.

We turn it on and it goes pretty slow...then we get to like where it says DMI pool verified or w/e...and it says boot from cd: ...then you know how it comes up with the thing right under that where it says press any key to boot from cd...well it never does that. And just starts going to the windows that is already on the drive.

I am thinking of putting it in another computer and formating it off there and trying.

Any other suggestions?

try taking out the cmos bat off da m-board to reset da bios

[tesco]

is the drive hooked up right? like master/slave and the jumper in right position.
Although i'm sure you've checked that.

You could try removing the drive that's not being detected, or swap the two drives around.

[Chewie]

hmm...well its only detecting one of the two optical drives we have attached, but we have it in the one its detecting. I use the cd all the time and it just worked like the day before...I have also set the boot order to cd first...i will try some of the other suggestions thanks guys
Some drives are picky about master/slave settings (I have an Afreey DVDROM that only works properly as a master with the jumper on CS - go figure LOL!) so try disconnecting the drive that isn't showing in BIOS.

[Snee]

If all you need to do is install I think there are bootable floppies to dl from MS's page, for xp installs, in case of none bootable cd drives.

[bigdawgfoxx]

ok went with removing the optical drive that wasnt being detected, reseting cmos, and formatting it on another computer...THANKS GUYS

Its finally booting from cd but taking FOREVER..like the part after it formats using NTFS, and it says setup is copying files and usually takes like 45 seconds is takin like 2 mins per percent...so like 200 miins total...and loading the windows cd to forever to so idk what thats all about... :unsure:

[tesco]

ok went with removing the optical drive that wasnt being detected, reseting cmos, and formatting it on another computer...THANKS GUYS

Its finally booting from cd but taking FOREVER..like the part after it formats using NTFS, and it says setup is copying files and usually takes like 45 seconds is takin like 2 mins per percent...so like 200 miins total...and loading the windows cd to forever to so idk what thats all about... :unsure:
then it's not reading the cd right.
either the drive is having trouble reading that brand of cd (i get that same problem with the cd-rom in my oldest computer when i install xp) or the cd is really scratched up.

[peat moss]

then it's not reading the cd right.
either the drive is having trouble reading that brand of cd (i get that same problem with the cd-rom in my oldest computer when i install xp) or the cd is really scratched up.


Don't know if its the problem here. But I would use an old win98 boot disk . I have the same old cd I,v used a hundred of times , on some systems it wont work or freezes half way thru. But the old fdisk, format ,change a: to d: or is it e: ? Might be f: setup from cdrom works every time . Drives me nuts . :)

Like this : E: / setup

[Chewie]

With XP you'd need to run
E:\i386\winnt
or something cos the setup file won't run in DOS.