i have the aptly named(for me)SUSE 10.0 for Dummies CD that i've managed install on 2 different Thinkpads(A20m and R50)in the past few months. i cannot get this Dell Inspiron 5000e to recognize the CD in order for it to boot or install.
i'm running XP currently. the Dell has a Pentium III with 383M RAM and about 11GB free space using NTFS files system. The CD-ROM is a Toshiba XM 7012B and is interchangable with other assorted modules (batteries,Zip,CD). the C: drive is a Hitachi DK23BA-20 and "removable"? changing the BIOS to boot from the CD has no impact on XP booting itself. it tells me the CD is in an unrecognized format and may contain a virus. i tried making a bootable floppy but my understanding of the ins and outs of DOS or making floppys work is nil. XP then told me to remove all disks before booting itself again.
the Linux for Dummies book that the CD came in doesn't address the possibility of not booting from the CD at all. are there any explicit "Dummy" instructions anywhere on the web i might use ?

Just a guess but I'd say you need to update the BIOS on that machine.

thanks but apparently the BIOS 06 is the latest available. would there be some way to "fool" XP into reading the CD ? it doesn't seem to have any issues with any other installations.

Could be a problem with acpi support. Try using the kernel option noacpi. When you see the linux boot prompt type in
linux pci=noacpi