XP refusing to boot from CDROM drive

T

TechHead

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Okay, WinXP Pro crapped out on me this morning, giving me some crap about my system not being ACPI compliant. It keeps BSODing on me, and I decided to run setup again.I set the boot devices to CDROM from BIOS, and put a bootable CD (it IS bootable.. checked on my laptop) into each of my CDROM drives, but stupid XP goes straight to the boot menu screen, which doesn't really help.
ANy idea as to what I should do to get the system to boot from CD? If I disable the HDDs and connect only the CDROM drives, the stupid NVidia boot agent pops up, and refuses to access the CDROM drives...
 
got a floppy drive? use the microsoft 5 disk install floppy set and there ya go
 
Brando457 said:
got a floppy drive? use the microsoft 5 disk install floppy set and there ya go
Click to expand...
No floppy drive :(. I don't understand this "non-acpi" compliant crap, the memory on my system seems fine as well...
 
Specs on the laptop, be sure to include any data on a BIOS version you can find. Also invesitgate BIOS updates. Is it an older unit?
 
DougLite said:
Specs on the laptop, be sure to include any data on a BIOS version you can find. Also invesitgate BIOS updates. Is it an older unit?
Click to expand...
The problem is on my desktop, the bootable CD worked fine on the laptop, apologies for the misunderstanding. The BIOS version is 1007, system in sig.
 
I had a Giga-Bites GA-7N400 Pro 2 that would fail during XP install (gave an error in hal.dll) Updating to the latest BIOS solved the problem.

I would clear CMOS first and reenter all of your settings, try the setup again, and it setup stills fails, flash your BIOS.
 
DougLite said:
I had a Giga-Bites GA-7N400 Pro 2 that would fail during XP install (gave an error in hal.dll) Updating to the latest BIOS solved the problem.

I would clear CMOS first and reenter all of your settings, try the setup again, and it setup stills fails, flash your BIOS.
Click to expand...
Cleared CMOS, tried rebooting. No go. I can't reflash my BIOS - no FDD, and stupid WIndoze won't start due to that "NON ACPI compliant BIOS" error message..
 
I hate to state the obvious but PUT IN A FLOPPY DRIVE... ;)

then update the BIOS, set it to fail safe settings, voltage bump, and if it still won't boot do the old fashioned floppy start to get the install-ball-rolling again.
 
mattjw916 said:
I hate to state the obvious but PUT IN A FLOPPY DRIVE... ;)

then update the BIOS, set it to fail safe settings, voltage bump, and if it still won't boot do the old fashioned floppy start to get the install-ball-rolling again.
Click to expand...
Meh.. anything easier I can do? I don't have a floppy drive, and getting one is going to be a pain...
Anyways, I think that's what I'm going to do. Thanks ;)
 
Resetting the BIOS should have fixed it, but...

<capt. obvious>
Check the BIOS ACPI settings, make sure it's not disabled.
Can you boot to USB and flash from a thumb drive?
Get a floppy in the system, flash from there (floppy's dead my ass). A cheap USB floppy is good to keep around for such cases.
</capt. obvious>

If I had to bet, the BIOS is mis-reporting the ACPI level, the OS uses the wrong HAL and chokes. Re-flashing the BIOS would cure that (re-flash even if it's the current version). Re-installing with a bad report on the ACPI level will not be good.

Can you boot to other bootable CDs?

Good luck.

 
Phoenix86 said:
Resetting the BIOS should have fixed it, but...

<capt. obvious>
Check the BIOS ACPI settings, make sure it's not disabled.
Can you boot to USB and flash from a thumb drive?
Get a floppy in the system, flash from there (floppy's dead my ass). A cheap USB floppy is good to keep around for such cases.
</capt. obvious>

If I had to bet, the BIOS is mis-reporting the ACPI level, the OS uses the wrong HAL and chokes. Re-flashing the BIOS would cure that (re-flash even if it's the current version). Re-installing with a bad report on the ACPI level will not be good.

Can you boot to other bootable CDs?

Good luck.

Click to expand...
Heya
1)Tried 3 bootable CDs..no go.
2)Got a floppy drive set up, copied the bios update files over, entered Alt-F2 (Asus BIOS files can be flashed at POST). Here's the weird thing.. The flash program starts, then hangs at the place where I need to enter the name of the bios update file. The keyboard is responding (nnumlock), but I can't enter the name of the bios file, it won't accept any input from the keyboard there. WTF??
3)BIOS has ACPI on.
4)Can't boot from the USB key either. Same thing, goes straight to the boot menu.

Anything I can do, short of returning the mobo?
 
You can try disabling ACPI in the BIOS and seeing if Windows will allow installing the non-ACPI HAL.
 
TechHead said:
Heya
1)Tried 3 bootable CDs..no go.
2)Got a floppy drive set up, copied the bios update files over, entered Alt-F2 (Asus BIOS files can be flashed at POST). Here's the weird thing.. The flash program starts, then hangs at the place where I need to enter the name of the bios update file. The keyboard is responding (nnumlock), but I can't enter the name of the bios file, it won't accept any input from the keyboard there. WTF??
3)BIOS has ACPI on.
4)Can't boot from the USB key either. Same thing, goes straight to the boot menu.

Anything I can do, short of returning the mobo?
Click to expand...
USB or PS/2 keyboard? Try PS/2 if USB, who knows at this point...
Rename the file to null? ;)
Run the flash.exe BIOSver.fil? Perhaps it supports command prompt use.

Sounds like we are heading towards replacing the board. Good luck.

 
DougLite said:
You can try disabling ACPI in the BIOS and seeing if Windows will allow installing the non-ACPI HAL.
Click to expand...
Disabled ACPI in the BIOS.. system will just reboot when WIndows boot begins.

@Phoenix86: Nope, can't do that either. It just refuses to accept any input. I think I'll have to take the board for replacement,screwup there is that I leave for Delhi for 2 months Sunday, and let's just say that I'm the most computer literate geek in the house!

Why is this happening? Normally it should boot from the CDROM, right?
 
TechHead said:
Disabled ACPI in the BIOS.. system will just reboot when WIndows boot begins.

@Phoenix86: Nope, can't do that either. It just refuses to accept any input. I think I'll have to take the board for replacement,screwup there is that I leave for Delhi for 2 months Sunday, and let's just say that I'm the most computer literate geek in the house!

Why is this happening? Normally it should boot from the CDROM, right?
Click to expand...
I don't know... Karma? Did you screw you best friends woman recently? ;)

Yes, it should just boot from the CD when it's in the boot order, or give you a chance to "hit a key to boot from CD" not sure with that specific board.

If you can get them to cross-ship (they ship the new board to you first, you replace, and ship the bad board back) you may be able to replace it before Sat. You will likely need to provide a CC# to get them to cross-ship (if they will at all. The CC# is only if you don't return your dead board on the back end of the deal. Good luck.


 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but we finally diagnosed the problems!
1) 1*256MB Hynix RAM stick and 1*256MB Kingston RAM stick crapped out. Both were out of warranty. CRAP! -> This is what was causing the errors described above.

2)At the same time, my GF3Ti200 crapped out, was a nice card :(. RIP
 
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