Computer won't boot from optical drive?

S

SexTreX

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 15, 2007
Messages
316
Dear [H],

So I'm visiting my parents, and their desktop (a Dell Dimension 8110) is in desperate need of a reformat.
I backed up all the data with my external HDD and popped in an XP boot disc, but for some reason it won't boot from the CD. I've tried several other CDs, including my windows 7 boot disc, with no luck.
I thought it might have been the drive, so I tried using an IDE optical drive from my rig that I know works, and still nothing.
I thought it might have been a problem with the motherboard, so I flashed the BIOS... still nothing.

Its been almost a day, and I can't make heads or tails out of this problem.:confused: Anyone have any ideas?
 
Cable? Set to boot from CD in bios? Have you selected to enable "load OS" in bios? Have the cd set as a master rather than a slave?
 
gwarren007 said:
Cable? Set to boot from CD in bios? Have you selected to enable "load OS" in bios? Have the cd set as a master rather than a slave?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response warren...

I already tried changing the boot order in bios, and the drive has the jumper set to master.
The drive is visible in Windows, so I assumed the cable isn't the problem, I'll try another one for good measure.... any other thoughts in the meantime?
 
For Dell computers "one time boot options",

1.With the computer powered on, insert a bootable CD into the CD or DVD drive.

2.Restart the computer.

3. Press <F12> during the first few seconds.

4.Select the appropriate response to continue.
 
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