PC wont boot from CD

ferry

Cant get my head around this one.
Installed XP CD fine but cant seem to get my PC to boot from anything else.
I have burned an ISO image to a DVD trying to load Linux as a dual boot OS and set BIOS to boot from it but Just errors saying drive not available? Even tried noting CDc Drive as the only drive available to boot from.
Tried the USB method, same issue.
Older PC maybe? Dell Dimension 4700.


Any ideas..?

Cheers

Neil_Jones

Can you see any DVDs at all with a DVD in the drive under Windows XP?
If not, the laser's gone in the drive.

ferry

yes both drives present and dvd inserted too

ARandomMiser

Is the dvd definitely bootable (maybe try in another computer

hans_2

USB or PS2 keyboard ?

esuhl

ferry wrote: »

Cant get my head around this one.
Installed XP CD fine but cant seem to get my PC to boot from anything else.
I have burned an ISO image to a DVD trying to load Linux as a dual boot OS and set BIOS to boot from it but Just errors saying drive not available?

Probably a silly question, but you have definitely burned the ISO image to the CD, rather than the ISO file itself...?

ferry wrote: »

Older PC maybe? Dell Dimension 4700.

A quick search suggests that people have had problems booting if the optical drive is set up as an IDE slave device. You could try setting the jumpers on the drives so that the optical device becomes the master, or (if the jumpers are set to "cable select", swap the drive connections over.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-drives/f/3534/t/19134750

esuhl

Also, is there a BIOS update available for your PC? On the POST screen when you boot the PC, it should tell you which BIOS version you are using. The latest one is A10 with a release date of 27 Jan 2006. (Wow! That is an old machine!)

You can download it here if necessary:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukdhs1/product-support/product/dimension-4700/drivers

ferry

hans_2 wrote: »

USB or PS2 keyboard ?

Keyboard and mouse both USB

ferry

esuhl wrote: »

Also, is there a BIOS update available for your PC? On the POST screen when you boot the PC, it should tell you which BIOS version you are using. The latest one is A10 with a release date of 27 Jan 2006. (Wow! That is an old machine!)

You can download it here if necessary:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukdhs1/product-support/product/dimension-4700/drivers

Will check & download if necessary also will try the slave/master setting. Will report back

Thanks as uausl

NiftyDigits

ferry wrote: »

Keyboard and mouse both USB

Just had a problem with a customer’s Dell Dimension 4700 that I was trying to do a system rebuild on. It would not boot from the CD, despite reseating cables / swapping the drives, etc. I could access the F12 boot menu, and tried swapping the boot order in the BIOS, but it just ignored the Dell XP Home restore CD when I selected to boot from CDROM.

Turns out it’s because I’m using a USB keyboard and mouse. Swapped these for good old PS2 ones and it boots from the CD no problem.

Computers never cease to surprise me with their little fussy ways!

..........