computer won't boot from cd

garyozzy · 09-25-2005, 01:00 PM

this computer's always booted from a cd fine.
it's a gateway 1100MHz AMD Processor
256 RAM but now it won't boot from cd
i've looked around in the bios, but i haven't found anything that will let it boot from cd

thanks for any help

debianmike · 09-25-2005, 01:08 PM

during boot, do you get a message saying "Hit f2 for boot menu"?...if so, hit it!

Also, alot of those Gateway/Compaq/HP/HomePCsbought from Best Buy disable alot of things that could confuse a home user (like booting from CD)....so I'm sure it is buried somewhere in your BIOS settings.

Also, if you are just trying to install a linux OS, you could boot from a floppy to start the install....but thats a different story.

Oh, even simplier....you sure its a bootable CD?

free_ouyo · 09-25-2005, 01:10 PM

Hello,

Is it possible to read a CDRom we the computer is runnig ?
Maybe you cdrom drive is defect and it's time to search a new one.

Have you tried other cd to boot from ?
Some old cd are damaged and no more readeable. A to hight burning speed may leed to non readeable cdrom in older drives.

A other solution is the softly clean the drive to remove dust and give a second chance.

good luck.

--
free_ouyo

garyozzy · 09-25-2005, 01:55 PM

debian mike - i'm sure it's a bootable cd, i've booted from it before. i've looked in the BIOS and it says it will boot from cd. i've booted from a cd before, i have linux on there now, i just want to change distros.

cds don't show up when i have the computer running. they did yesterday tho.

free_ouyo - how do you clean the drive?

free_ouyo · 09-25-2005, 02:04 PM

you can try to clean with
- a dvd/cd drive cleaner
- a dust remover (comprimed air spay)

maybe it's end of live for the drive. (I had similar 2 weeks ago with 4 years old cd-writer)

good luck

free_ouyo

garyozzy · 09-25-2005, 08:58 PM

it's a dual-drive

do you think i could switch the order of the drives or take one out?

it's setup as master-slave

free_ouyo · 09-26-2005, 01:56 PM

Hello garyozzy,

I don't really understand what you want to do.
Do you mean you have 2 HD master-slave and want to remove 1 ?
It's not a problem to remove or add a HD but you need a hd with a booteable OS and you may have some troubles with removing a hd of the system (links, mountpoints ...)

--
free_ouyo

garyozzy · 09-26-2005, 02:08 PM

sorry for not being specific. it's a dual CD-ROM drive that's set up as master/salve.

if i switched the master to the slave and the slave to the master, would that change anything.

also, if i took one drive out and left one in, would that create trouble?

free_ouyo · 09-26-2005, 03:43 PM

hello again,

I don't think the change, remove of a cdrom drive will create some troubles. It's a good solution to replace the deffect one by the other so the /dev/hdx is preserved and no problems should happen
--
free_ouyo

davcefai · 09-27-2005, 12:42 AM

I'd take it step by step. Check that you can read the CD. Try other bootable CDs. Try booting from the boot menu, if necessary try a boot floppy.

I've had many cases where a CD drive has problems reading a "home burned" CD and even where the CD is readable but will not boot. A solution which often has worked is to lower the PIO mode in CMOS setup.

I have concluded that older CD drives don't like CDs burned at faster than 2 or 4x