A7N8X unable to boot from CDRom

[Shielder]

Okay, so I finally have managed to get a nForce based mobo to work in my rig (2 MSI boards died a horrible death), but I need to upgrade to XP from ME. ME died with the first press of the power button (I just get unknown hardware, unknown hardware, lots of cdminst when I press cntl-alt-del and finally a grey screen with a mouse that doesn't work!) So, I thought, I'll install XP (which is what I was going to do anyway, ME gets funny with 1G of RAM).

Into the CD drive goes the cd, modify the BIOS to have it boot from the CD and what happens? My GRUB menu appears! The damn thing has ignored the CD and gone to the HDD.

After lots of frustration, I think I know what to do (6 floppies worth of setup program from M$) but has anyone else had a similar problem? All that happens with my cd is that the light flashes briefly and then the mbr is accessed.

If I could have read from the cd I'd be up and running now (as opposed to down and running from the rolling pin wielding wife!)

Any help would be appreciated.

Andy

P.S. Full specs will appear in my sig (when I remember to do it), but the setup I'm installing now is as follows:

A7N8X Rev 2.0 (BIOS rev 1003)
1.1GHz T-bird
1Gig Crucial PC3200 (2x512 sticks)
30GB Maxtor drive
50x generic CDrom.

P.S. I have booted from a cdrom with this drive before, but it was with my old system, so I know it isn't the cd drive.

There are lies, damn lies and statistics - Mark Twain.

 

[WingDing]

Sometimes during POST you are required to strike a key to confirm that you want to boot from the CD, even if it's already specified in the boot sequence. Have you checked this?

My CPU runs so hot it creates a quark-gluon plasma

 

[Shielder]

I didn't see anything on screen last night. I'll have a look when I get back and see what I can figure out.

Thanx.

There are lies, damn lies and statistics - Mark Twain.

 

[TKH]

Yes, on A7N8X you ARE required to hit any button after POST to boot from CDROM.

Me fail English? That's Unpossible!
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[davemar14]

Yes, after it posts and you put the CD-ROM in, you have to press " any key", then it will boot from the CD. When I built my system, I could not get it to boot from the CD. I have the Asus A7N8X Deluxe also. After fooling around with it, and not getting it to boot off the CD, I got the 6 disc set from Microsoft that loads the drivers. There is a set for XP Home, and a set for XP Pro. Make sure you get the right set. I booted off the floppy, and preceeded with the other 5 discs, and then put the CD-ROM in. Now everything is fine. Here is my system:
<A HREF="http://www16.brinkster.com/davemar14/main" target="_new">http://www16.brinkster.com/davemar14/main</A>

 

[Shielder]

Tried pressing any key, still didn't boot from CDrom. Would it work if I just had the cd listed in the boot preferences and disabled "boot from other device"?

Andy

There are lies, damn lies and statistics - Mark Twain.

 

[endyen]

This is what I had to do to install xp. I took my hdd out of the bootable list, and had the cd up first. Then I set the hdd to first when xp rebooted the first time.

 

[randy66]

are you using a USB keyboard ?
try PS2 board
I have discovered that Some usb boards dont work until boot
therefore when you "hit any key to boot from CD"
its not recognized
so normal boot is followed
I've experienced this on several different systems
Just a thought

 

[TKH]

yes, it's pretty much true. I have to turn on the legacy USB keyboard support in BIOS for my USB keyboard to function during the after-POST pre-Windows period aka "press any key to boot from CDROM"

Me fail English? That's Unpossible!
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[randy66]

thanks , wasn't aware that was what USB legacy support was for in BIOS , will note for future reference. Thanks TKH
better than swapping K/boards

 

[Shielder]

Nope. It's a Ps2 keyboard. I've managed to get it to install XP, but only by getting the 6 floppy set from M$ themselves. I'm going to be putting linux on it soon, so we'll see if I can get it to boot from the CD-Rom then.

Thanks for all your advice.

Andy

There are lies, damn lies and statistics - Mark Twain.