So I picked up a new (too me) laptop Dell Laditude C640, Tried to install Ubuntu 9.10 on it, won't boot, all bios setting correct. Couldn't figure it out. Went through my stack of distro CD's Oddly I found It WOULD boot FC12, and a Debian Lenny Netinst CD (But not the full install one). Even weirder. Assumed bad CD, re burnt with new;t DL'd iso, Nothing. Tried on different media, Nothing. Burned it on my GF's laptop (Win7) WORKED! WTF kind of crap is that? what can it be doing that K3b / Brasero isn't.

Was it burned as an image or as a file ?
Brasero definitely asks how you want it done.

If it was done as an image then it's hard to say really.
What happens when you try to boot ?
OS not found ?
Bootable disk not found ?

The CD will spin up like it's about to boot then keeps skipping out like when a CD is completely unreadable, it does that 2 or 3 times then continues on like it's not in there at all.

It can't find a boot sector on the disc.
Usually caused by burning as a file rather than an image.

It can't be the iso as you have tried burning it on windows which works.
Do you get any messages from the burning program on linux ?

Did you burn it as a data disc or a disc image?

I only use the black cd's and always set speed to the slowest burn setting. Go buy a few black cd's and burn it again at the slowest speed. It usually works.

Alternate Ubuntu Iso install CD might be the way to go also.

Simple test - can you boot from it on the machine you burned it on ?
If you can then it's the laptop.
If not, then it's the disk.

Yup, Always burn as an ISO, and yes the machine that burns it, as well as my GF's laptop WILL boot the CD's that the laptop won't, I'm starting to think maybe older laptop maybe it's an Filesystem issue (not sure if they've changed or not), maybe the way there burnt to CD has changed in the last couple years has changed??? Like I said, never seen anything like it. Maybe just a picky pain in the a$$ laptop.

Have you burning it using cdrecord and a very low speed?

It is often hard to work out what guis are really doing. Best to avoid them when troubleshooting.

Evo2.

Hi Snatalel:
As someone has said, make sure that you have burned an ISO image to the cd or DVD. If any of the install comes on the screen, then you are partly booting. It could be in this case that the install cannot install because the hardware is not recognized in the kernel.
It is hard to tell with out seeing what is happening.
Back to what was mentioned first, make sure that the disk has had a ISO image burned on it. Otherwise if it is a data, nothing will boot.
Make sure that the burning software being used on the Linux machine(s) is up to date with the latest burning program.
This is easily done with nearly all distros now. The disk readers/writers now in all newer machines will come with DVD burner drives. So for that fact alone, you should use up to date software to burn your disks, if it makes any diff.
Just to test your new laptop, try to boot a Windows install cd and see if the install comes up. If it does, then some problem exists with the way you are either burning the disks or the medial or both. I have had problems like this in the past and discovered it had to do with the disk drive itself.
If the disk drive can boot at all, I think the problems are with your way of making the disks or the media.

Try the black cd's.