Don't know if this is the proper place...

I used to be able to boot off CDs just fine. I installed FC3, twice actually. I even dlaoded several liveCDs that all worked. Right now just for practicle purposes I'm trying to boot off knpix. (I really want to reinstall FC3 -- downloaded all 5 instead of the 3 offered from linuxiso, plus I want to install two other distros -- FreeBSD and Mandrake, possible icepack latter).

Anyway, like I said, everything used to be bootable. Then my CD reader stoped working. I had to puch a little pin to get out the CD. Etc. So I messed around with the hardware, tried a couple things, then decided to set up my CD writer as the master, the old CD reader is unpluged.

Yes, I've done my research:

*Set the "pin" as master
*Have the "data cable" or whatever as master.
[Do not have the "master" power cord pluged in; the one that used to be in my old CD. But I dobt that has to do with anything.]
*Have CD as the first boot option.
*CD trying to boot will boot on other computers.

Here, I think, is the problem.

I go into my BIOS and have tried configuring the secondary master as both CD and ATAP (think that's what it is). But when I save and exit, it does not recognice the CD (after my two HDs are recognized...Mouse Initialized...Press Any Key...GRUB starts after a few seconds)....
But even though I told it CD, if I go back into my BIOS configuration, it says "none."

Type: [CD] or Type: [ATPA]

Upon reboot goes to

"Type: [none]"

I'm going to cry if I cannot boot from this CD burner.

I dobt this would work but would setting the CD burner to CS change anything?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...+not+boot+bios

Just to clarify again:
“What else could be causing this problem?”

“Check BIOS for recognition of your cd drive. If recognition is there -- auto-detection like HDs -- check the cd drive light to make sure the computer queries it -- light flashes, BIOS sees it. If no light appears or it drive doesn't spin, obviously something is wrong with the CD drive, the cable, or the IDE controller, IF it is hooked up to an IDE connection that is …”

The BIOS config for “CD” goes to “none” after I boot. And the CD burner isn’t being recognized “like the Hds“. And this is only what I think the problem is.

Hmm...
Can you boot from CD without HDD plugged in? And what was your previous Oses?
What is your system hardware configuration?
As for my BIOS, I set type NONE to my Primary Master and BIOS always recognizes my CD-ROM.

(Sorry for my English, it is not as good, as I want it to be.)

It tries to boot of my floppy with the HDs unplugged....<return> noise, floppy light flashes, "Operating System Not Found."

And for some reason when I set primary master as 'none' it says "No OS." When I try to set my HD back up it sill doesn't work -- until I restore default settings. Weird. It's like I said before, it doesn't remember my hardware settings when I try to set it up in BIOS.

However, I think I have a solution:
Find a floppy boot that will make my CD boot!

Hardware Configurations:
PM -- auto
PS -- auto
SM -- CD or ATAPI or Auto, tried everything
SS -- none

When I boot into BIOS it shows me the HD 'names' for PM and PS. For my SM it changes to none...

Off to google...

My guess is that your BIOS memory battery is either dead, or getting weak. I'd try replacing it.

If you want a nice little floppy tool to pick what you want to boot from try the Smart Boot Manager, found here:
http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm

No, no, no. On my PC CD-ROM is Primary Master. I meant that you should set type NONE to your CD-ROM (SM). I'm not sure, but try to. For my BIOS type NONE to CD-ROM is normal.
About battery. May be, may be...
What do you think about updating BIOS?

In case you don't know, the bios battery will be a small silver (often 3-volt) battery clipped somewhere on the mother-board. Simply swap it out and put another one in that is exactly like it and you should find that you can save your bios changes again.

Most bioses are "hard-coded" into ROM chips, but for standard bioses to have saveable configurations (and often to impliment basic functions too), they must employ some kind of RAM storage. Hence, the bios battery. Often times it takes a very long time for the battery to run down, but they do. I've had to replace several.

Mind you, if your mother-board is fairly new, then the battery is probably still good, and you can disregard everything I have said.

I dobt my dad will let me change the battery or install new a BIOS.

Upgrading the BIOS was my first thought (sense I think it just doesn't have support for the CD). And I don't think the battery is low. It's maybe 2 years old or something. I have 95 across the room, that to my knowledge, still has a full batery (maybe ~9 years old). It probably varies between motherboards, and I did a lot of trial and error on the BIOS before getting SBM. Maybe it is dead.

But SBM works great for getting my CD to boot.