Can't boot to cd. exclamation point. screenshot

[ejames82]

hi,

i hope it's ok that i also post my problem at other forums. just being forthright (upfront).

i recently had a computer, hp pavillion 510c, given to me that was the victim of "rootkit activity", but now the computer is clean. the OS on the hard drive is XP. the computer with xp works nicely. there doesn't seem to be any hardware problems. i can use it for hours and it works flawlessly. there's no dust in the computer. plenty of fans.
what i have planned for this computer is adding a second hard drive as slave and putting a different OS on it (the second hard drive) so that i can have a dual boot system, but i can't get the system to boot from cd. there are two cd decks, but neither will boot any cd. i've tried numerous boot and utility disks and i get the "operating system not found" message. no number to go with the message.

the first thing that needs to be mentioned is the fact that in the bios>boot tab, the CD-rom has an exclamation point in front of it. i don't know how to remove the exclamtion point. obviously this is an eye-opener. a screenshot is included.
i've tried disconnecting the HDD (and the floppy) , nothing was connected but the master cd drive (the jumper on the cd-rom is on master, and it's on the last connector on the ribbon cable, and i've tried other cables). i've tried everything in the bios that i can think of, but i am in no way an expert (that's why i'm here).

the bios is phoenix core version 4.06

bios revision 3.05
12/04/01

the motherboard is a Mat,NO: 126708 LOMITA 011110
i have never heard of these motherboards, but it's all the reasonably identifiable info i can find.

i have never reset a bios back to defaults, so i haven't done it with this one. i have not flashed the bios either. it may need that, but i know that to be a risky endevour, so i won't look into this without guidance.

i have included a link that shows three screenshots.
one is the exclamation point that is probably causing the problem.
one is boot-time diagnostic and quickboot screen, and one is the main tab.

http://tinypic.com/4duk6dna

i am not in a hurry to get this computer working, and i have it completely disassembled, so there is nothing i am not willing (able) to try. i have all the time in the world.

thanks.

 

[steevyp]

hi,

i hope it's ok that i also post my problem at other forums. just being forthright (upfront).

i recently had a computer, hp pavillion 510c, given to me that was the victim of "rootkit activity", but now the computer is clean. the OS on the hard drive is XP. the computer with xp works nicely. there doesn't seem to be any hardware problems. i can use it for hours and it works flawlessly. there's no dust in the computer. plenty of fans.
what i have planned for this computer is adding a second hard drive as slave and putting a different OS on it (the second hard drive) so that i can have a dual boot system, but i can't get the system to boot from cd. there are two cd decks, but neither will boot any cd. i've tried numerous boot and utility disks and i get the "operating system not found" message. no number to go with the message.

the first thing that needs to be mentioned is the fact that in the bios>boot tab, the CD-rom has an exclamation point in front of it. i don't know how to remove the exclamtion point. obviously this is an eye-opener. a screenshot is included.
i've tried disconnecting the HDD (and the floppy) , nothing was connected but the master cd drive (the jumper on the cd-rom is on master, and it's on the last connector on the ribbon cable, and i've tried other cables). i've tried everything in the bios that i can think of, but i am in no way an expert (that's why i'm here).

the bios is phoenix core version 4.06

bios revision 3.05
12/04/01

the motherboard is a Mat,NO: 126708 LOMITA 011110
i have never heard of these motherboards, but it's all the reasonably identifiable info i can find.

i have never reset a bios back to defaults, so i haven't done it with this one. i have not flashed the bios either. it may need that, but i know that to be a risky endevour, so i won't look into this without guidance.

i have included a link that shows three screenshots.
one is the exclamation point that is probably causing the problem.
one is boot-time diagnostic and quickboot screen, and one is the main tab.

http://tinypic.com/4duk6dna

i am not in a hurry to get this computer working, and i have it completely disassembled, so there is nothing i am not willing (able) to try. i have all the time in the world.

thanks.

do the cd drives both read cd's/dvd/s at the windows desktop?

 

[p1n3apqlexpr3ss]

When you put and just after main POST stuff, does it ask you where you want to boot from?
Disabling quick boot mode on my older PC enabled me to choose what drive/device to boot from, so try that maybe?

 

[ejames82]

it works!

it's hard to say exactly what, if any, changes had any effect, but these are the things that i did between the moments that it wouldn't boot from the cd and when it did boot from cd.

i unplugged the power cord to the psu and pulled the cmos battery for about 15 minutes to reset defaults.

i disabled quick-boot mode. i don't know if this had any bearing on the solution. i would sure like to know specifically what quick-boot mode does.

i set the correct time in bios>general tab and pressed f10 to save changes.


steevyp,
the disk drives (all of them) have always worked during normal windows xp mode. this is part of the reason it was so confusing. i will revisit the boot-up issue with each deck now. basically i will try each deck to see if they boot to cd with this computer.


pineapple,
i tried your suggestion and i am not sure if it helped, but i can difinitively say that it didn't hurt. as i said earlier, i would like to know what disabling quick-boot does.


thanks for the replies.

 

[p1n3apqlexpr3ss]

Im pretty sure quick boot, asks you what drive is wants to boot from, with it disabled it just takes info straight from BIOS settings of what drive is set to boot first, im pretty sure quick boot disables that, and you get a nice box asking what drive to boot from

 

[ejames82]

pineapplexpress,

i will have to try it and see what it does. i am a bios newbie, so this info could benefit me for some time to come.

thanks.

 

[p1n3apqlexpr3ss]

So am i really, just played around with different settings and then it came up with the choice of what drive to boot from lol

 

[HTRN]

Just some FYI - In some BIOS , if you use the "help" feature on the screen showing that " ! " it will tell you how to get rid of it. The " ! " in front of that device means the BIOS will bypass that device ( note- this is NOT applicable to all BIOS )

 

[cg88]

Apologies for resurrecting the dead on this post, but I just had this problem on an older Toshiba machine with a Phoenix BIOS. The exclamation mark next to a boot device means it's disabled. Selecting the device in the list and pressing Shift + 1 will re-enable it.

On my particular machine, the hard drive was disabled somehow. Able to install an OS to it, but never able to boot it. Re-enabling it using Shift+1 allows it to work.

Hope that helps someone else in the future!

 

[silkysosoft]

Went to bios>Boot and have a !DVDrom/CDrom.

After trying "Disabling quick boot mode" it still had a ! point before the dvdrom drive.

I Enable quick boot mode.

Then followed cg88 directions below and it worked.

"On my particular machine, the hard drive was disabled somehow. Able to install an OS to it, but never able to boot it. Re-enabling it using Shift+1 allows it to work. "

Thanks for the help.