PC refusing to boot from CD - why?

[juliaattoms]

Hi,

I have a computer to be fixed and the problem is baffling me very much.

It was working fine until the computer was powered down suddenly - since then it tries to load Windows, but won't get past the list of "startup options", none of which work.

The built in CD drive is working (power wise) and is seen by the BIOS - but inserting a boot CD does nothing as it ignores this and goes straight to the Windows startup options which is pointless. I have checked the BIOS settings and they show the CD as a startup option, but no matter which order they're in the computer still ignores the CD during startup.

I have even plugged in a USB CD drive to see if it will boot from that - but the system ignores this too, even though it's seen in the BIOS as a possible boot device - and it works normally on another system running Windows.

Can you suggest what is causing this problem ?

Regards,
Julia Evans

 

[gaborbarla]

Perhaps in the BIOS there are more than one settings, one which you are missing.
There could be a boot from CD option, and another boot drive order that you need to set.

Sometime you have to press a button like f2 to boot from the CD as instructed on the screen but is only available for a few seconds.

Hope this helps,
Gabor

 

[brucehot]

you need to be sure that the first boot option is the CD drive; period

Get into the Boot Menu by pressing F8 (or F9?) on the posting cyle - it will ask you for the desired first boot device

also be sure that cable to the Cd drive is good - they are NOT designed to be moved around a lot.

 

[brucehot]

also-what do you think made the system shut-down suddenly as you say? This could also be a virus or trojan horse that causes that - some of these viruses do almost anything

If you have a floppy drive try to boot the system with WIN 98; maybe you can google this on someone else's computer and get a boot floopy fast

then, disconnect the hard drives so Windows is not available-it may force itself to boot from the cd

 

[T_T]

also verify that the cd is in fact a bootable OS disc, and not just bootable because of Auto Start (a function available in the OS environment). Similarly, ensure that the disc isn't damaged.