can't boot from cd-rom

Printable View

April 15th, 2004, 08:55 AM
Ronin

can't boot from cd-rom

Motherboard: PC Chips M810L
hard drive set to primary master
cd-rom set to secondary master
cd-rw set to secondary slave
256Mb pc-133 sdramm

I'm trying to install Windows onto this pc but the cd-rom isn't detecting any disc I use inside of it. The motherboard sees everything but will only boot from cd-rom or floppy. I tried cleaning the cd-rom & that failed. I tried replacing the drive & that failed. I even cleared the cmos, installed the latest version, & that failed. I tried replacing the cables & that failed.

What am I doing wrong?
Would I be better off with a different motherboard and what would be the better motherboard to buy?

Thank you.

P.S. Does anyone know why I would no longer receive responses via email notification? Seems like that feature died on me many months ago. Anyhelp would be appreciated.
April 15th, 2004, 09:09 AM
gazzak

Just to cover the basics here but...

1. Is the CD a bootable one, (which OS by the way)

2. Have you tried the CD in BOTH drives?
April 15th, 2004, 09:16 AM
Ferrit

Sometimes a board will get confused and not boot from either cdrom. Try disconnecting 1 of the cdroms and then see if ti will boot
April 15th, 2004, 09:21 AM
Stalemate

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronin

Motherboard: PC Chips M810L
hard drive set to primary master
cd-rom set to secondary master
cd-rw set to secondary slave
256Mb pc-133 sdramm

I'm trying to install Windows onto this pc but the cd-rom isn't detecting any disc I use inside of it. The motherboard sees everything but will only boot from cd-rom or floppy. I tried cleaning the cd-rom & that failed. I tried replacing the drive & that failed. I even cleared the cmos, installed the latest version, & that failed. I tried replacing the cables & that failed.

What am I doing wrong?

Try to use a boot floppy which will load CD-Rom drivers (www.bootdisks.com).

Of course, if the light doesn't spark up on the faceplate, than you're looking at a possible hardware failure, or the IDE selector is incorrect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronin

Would I be better off with a different motherboard and what would be the better motherboard to buy?

Thank you.

Anything else, really, besides PC Chips. Gigabyte is good. I like Asus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronin

P.S. Does anyone know why I would no longer receive responses via email notification? Seems like that feature died on me many months ago. Anyhelp would be appreciated.

You may have to enable that feature again in your options, as it probably got disabled during upgrades.
April 15th, 2004, 09:39 AM
Ronin

The operating system is Windows XP Professional. Get this: I tried using a Windows 98 disc and it detected that just fine.
April 15th, 2004, 09:53 AM
gazzak

If the actual CD is faulty then you'll only find that out by trying it in another system, is that possible?
April 15th, 2004, 10:18 AM
freddy

there,s a bloody lot of "xp proffessional" disks out there,??

still beats me why the "single mome user" would bother to buy such an elaborate program ,,,when xp home outright/upgrade ,,,,,,,,,,,is so much cheaper.

So the question is : is this disk an origional ,,,,,or a copy???

if win98 works ,,,,but xp don,t ,,,,send it back for a replacement

freddy
April 15th, 2004, 11:23 AM
CrucialLabs

Maybe we should kick him in the junk!! hehe. I am not too sure if you want to tell everyone if the CD is a copy or not but like A D E P T said try to use a boot floppy to load cd-rom drivers. The CD-ROM maybe having a hard time initializing the CD. Also double check to see if the first boot device is the CD-ROM drive you have the CD in.
April 15th, 2004, 08:06 PM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrucialLabs

Maybe we should kick him in the junk!! hehe. I am not too sure if you want to tell everyone if the CD is a copy or not but like A D E P T said try to use a boot floppy to load cd-rom drivers. The CD-ROM maybe having a hard time initializing the CD. Also double check to see if the first boot device is the CD-ROM drive you have the CD in.

The XP disc is an original and works in my other computers just fine so we can scratch the faulty disc theory. I replaced the cd-rom drive and that same problem occurs so I guess we can rule out the drive. I tried a different cable and that made no difference. Strange part is that I can insert any disc into the cd-rw slave drive and all the discs I used recognize fine in there.

Freddy, I use XP Pro because I detest XP Home Edition. I work as a cable modem support tech and see too many problems with XP Home so that's what influenced me to buy XP Pro. If it's any consolation to you, I got it at a student's discounted price. For the same price as Home Edition, I can have something better. Who wouldn't make that decision differently?
April 15th, 2004, 09:28 PM
InTheWayBoy

Okay, this is a long shot...XP has the five second timeout on the bootable CD's, so I'm thinking maybe your monitor is not adjusted right, so you don't see the little message pop up at the top...or bottom...depends on mobo. I only bring this up cause it happens to me quite often at customers houses. Use the OSD to adjust...also, I didn't catch it but if this is XP Corp (Warez), then it's very easy it's a pooched image file that isn't setup for booting. If it's retail then that's not the case...if it is XP Corp then you could try downloading the XP boot disks from MS and doing it the hard way. Hope you get it fixed!

P.S. PCChips is the devil...stay away...very far away!!!
April 16th, 2004, 10:36 AM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by InTheWayBoy

Okay, this is a long shot...XP has the five second timeout on the bootable CD's, so I'm thinking maybe your monitor is not adjusted right, so you don't see the little message pop up at the top...or bottom...depends on mobo. I only bring this up cause it happens to me quite often at customers houses. Use the OSD to adjust...also, I didn't catch it but if this is XP Corp (Warez), then it's very easy it's a pooched image file that isn't setup for booting. If it's retail then that's not the case...if it is XP Corp then you could try downloading the XP boot disks from MS and doing it the hard way. Hope you get it fixed!

P.S. PCChips is the devil...stay away...very far away!!!

Yes, PC Chips seems to be at the very bottom of the motherboard ladder for a reason. As for the cd-rom caper, I believe to have solved the issue.

In the CMOS, there's an option listed under the booting sequence labeled as "Try other boot devices." After I disabled it, everything was back to normal.
April 16th, 2004, 01:17 PM
ilovetheusers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronin

Yes, PC Chips seems to be at the very bottom of the motherboard ladder for a reason. As for the cd-rom caper, I believe to have solved the issue.

In the CMOS, there's an option listed under the booting sequence labeled as "Try other boot devices." After I disabled it, everything was back to normal.

I was just going to mention that. My old PC-Craps board does the same ting to me. You need that setting on to be able to boot from floppy even if boot from floppy is selected.
April 16th, 2004, 02:38 PM
Ronin

I got my cd-rom to work. Yaaaay!!! Yaaaay!!

I wanna go to Hawyee!!! Yaaay!! Yaaay!!

Sorry, that was childish.
April 18th, 2004, 11:43 AM
NooNoo

How Ronin?

I was going to suggest if the cd will boot in the cdrw drive, this is a master/slave drive booting issue.
April 18th, 2004, 01:55 PM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooNoo

How Ronin?

I was going to suggest if the cd will boot in the cdrw drive, this is a master/slave drive booting issue.

All I did was compare the CMOS settings with my other computer and I saw a different setting. "Try other boot devices" was enabled and my problem was gone after I disabled this feature.
June 27th, 2004, 01:56 PM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovetheusers

I was just going to mention that. My old PC-Craps board does the same ting to me. You need that setting on to be able to boot from floppy even if boot from floppy is selected.

Well, well, well, the same problem happened again but with a twist this time.
Here's what I'm working with:

Same motherboard
IDE-0 connects to my hard drive(master) & dvd-rom(slave).

IDE-1 connects to new cd-rom(master) & cd-rw(slave).

All jumpers are correct and I have disconnected everything except the hard drive & cd-rom in question. Still, I am unable to boot anything from the cd-rom.
Call me crazy but I think the motherboard is just a p.o.s. I'd love to replace the motherboard with an Abit or Asus but my financial consultant, E.F. Nuttin', says no. Any ideas? Thank you.
June 27th, 2004, 02:30 PM
NooNoo

ok, if it will only boot from cdrom, then it is possible you have lost the boot files from the hard drive.

What windows? 9x/me, get a boot diskette and fdisk/mbr followed by sys c:

2k/xp boot from the cd - repair console, fixmbr and fix boot.
June 27th, 2004, 02:32 PM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooNoo

ok, if it will only boot from cdrom, then it is possible you have lost the boot files from the hard drive.

What windows? 9x/me, get a boot diskette and fdisk/mbr followed by sys c:

2k/xp boot from the cd - repair console, fixmbr and fix boot.

Possibly I mispoke but my problem is that I can't get the cd-rom to boot anything upon startup. The hard drive is running fine. I wonder if there's a way I could wipe out the bios and then install the latest version.
June 27th, 2004, 03:03 PM
NooNoo

ok the bios for the motherboard or the firmware for the cdrom? And no you didn't - long weekend here, I misread it.
June 27th, 2004, 03:22 PM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooNoo

ok the bios for the motherboard or the firmware for the cdrom? And no you didn't - long weekend here, I misread it.

I believe the problem stems from my motherboard because I've read many reports from other PC Chips M810 owners who claim their motherboards are flakey. Once Windows is loaded, that cd-rom works fine. I doubt there's a problem with the cd-rom firmware. Last time I altered the cd-rom firmware, I ruined my brand new cd-rom drive. Also, the cd-rom in question is a new Sony cd-rom from www.newegg.com and I know they're decent drives because I've built many computers with them without a single problem.

As much as I can't afford it, I'm willing to bet a replacement motherboard would cure the problem. Anyway, I appreciate the responses and I'm well aware of the long weekend scenario. Question is: weekend of too much fun or too much work. Mine's always the latter. :^(
June 28th, 2004, 12:34 AM
Ronin

Get a load of this. I went to start my computer and it couldn't find the hd until I set the jumper to Cable Select. Sometime ago while on vacation, the temperature dropped inside of my house and froze everything. It was so cold that my pc couldn't start. There was a power light but the drive wouldn't spin.
I'm wondering if I have a bad hd & mobo combo. If that's true then I have to wait because E.F. Nuttin' says that I'm broke.
June 28th, 2004, 04:34 AM
NooNoo

sounds like a logic board is misbehaving then.
June 28th, 2004, 10:01 AM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooNoo

sounds like a logic board is misbehaving then.

Time for a new motherboard?
June 30th, 2004, 04:28 PM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooNoo

sounds like a logic board is misbehaving then.

What do you make of this?

The hd wasn't detected by the mobo at all until I switched the jumper to Cable Select then back to Master.
July 1st, 2004, 05:17 AM
NooNoo

It could be either the hard drive or the motherboard. I have seen faulty hard drives stop a computer from posting.... as well as faulty ide ports producing apparent hdd errors. Even a bad cable between them can do it.

You have to test the hard drive in another machine. Replace the ide cable etc. Narrow it down.
July 1st, 2004, 10:03 AM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooNoo

It could be either the hard drive or the motherboard. I have seen faulty hard drives stop a computer from posting.... as well as faulty ide ports producing apparent hdd errors. Even a bad cable between them can do it.

You have to test the hard drive in another machine. Replace the ide cable etc. Narrow it down.

My computer is equipped with a removable hd tray and my other drives work fine with the newly installed round ide cable. I took my hd and tried it in my other computers and it posts fine. All I know is that I was unable to get the hd drive seen as the master until I moved the jumper to cable select then back to master. Keep in mind that this is a 5 year old PC Chips motherboard. I'm willing to bet that a new Abit motherboard would work better.
July 1st, 2004, 02:04 PM
NooNoo

hey if it gets another pc chips board out of circulation, I am all for it!
July 4th, 2004, 07:45 AM
Ronin

Quote:

Originally Posted by NooNoo

hey if it gets another pc chips board out of circulation, I am all for it!

O.k., I think I have this one solved. The hd and the motherboard need to go because posting behavior changes but not that often. I tried a different hd in this pc and it posted fine so this 5 year+ hd should probably be replaced.
In addition, I'll swap the PC Chips with a real motherboard but of course, I have to wait for available funding. :sad:

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:21 AM.