Looking for suggestions for setting up an old PIII-450 to boot from
the CDRom/DVD.

Have tried setting the AmMegTrends to boot CDRom/A:/hardrive.

A CD that will boot on another computer will not boot this computer
for some reason.

I have tried changing the cabling, etc....

Appreciate any suggestions.

Regards,
Long Gone

Long Gone wrote:
> Looking for suggestions for setting up an old PIII-450 to boot from
> the CDRom/DVD.
>
> Have tried setting the AmMegTrends to boot CDRom/A:/hardrive.
>
> A CD that will boot on another computer will not boot this computer
> for some reason.
>
> I have tried changing the cabling, etc....
>
> Appreciate any suggestions.
>
> Regards,
> Long Gone

First the bad news:
In order to be bootable, both the BIOS and the CD must conform the the El
Torito standard. There's a good chance your does not.

The good news:
You can always boot from a floppy and access your CD-ROM from there.
--
Winerr 012 - Cash Underflow - Credit Card Number Will Be Assimilated

Long Gone wrote:
> Interesting revelation. Can you suggest a way of checking out if a
> computer meets the Torito standard.
>
> LG

I don't know of a utility per se. You could try another bootable OS CD, or
even the ISO version of Memtest from www.memtest86.com Burn it to a CD, set
your CD-ROM as the first boot device and see if it'll boot.
I'm thinking a BIOS flash to a newer version may be the answer in a small
number of cases. If you're comfortable with that, try it.
--
Winerr 012 - Cash Underflow - Credit Card Number Will Be Assimilated

"S.Heenan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%gdZa.684046$(E-Mail Removed)...
: Long Gone wrote:
: > Looking for suggestions for setting up an old PIII-450 to boot from
: > the CDRom/DVD.
: >
: > Have tried setting the AmMegTrends to boot CDRom/A:/hardrive.
: >
: > A CD that will boot on another computer will not boot this computer
: > for some reason.
: >
: > I have tried changing the cabling, etc....
: >
: > Appreciate any suggestions.
: >
: > Regards,
: > Long Gone
:
: First the bad news:
: In order to be bootable, both the BIOS and the CD must conform the the El
: Torito standard. There's a good chance your does not.
:
: The good news:
: You can always boot from a floppy and access your CD-ROM from there.
: --
: Winerr 012 - Cash Underflow - Credit Card Number Will Be Assimilated
:
:

What are you running as an OS?

Unless your BIOS has a driver for the CD you're toast. You should be able
to set the BIOS to boot from a cd but you need a bootable CD. A PIII 450 is
ancient and may not have the code in the bios to load a cd driver.

claus

On Sat, 09 Aug 2003 15:13:53 GMT, Long Gone <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Looking for suggestions for setting up an old PIII-450 to boot from
>the CDRom/DVD.
>
>Have tried setting the AmMegTrends to boot CDRom/A:/hardrive.
>
>A CD that will boot on another computer will not boot this computer
>for some reason.
>
>I have tried changing the cabling, etc....
>
>Appreciate any suggestions.
>
>Regards,
>Long Gone

Many systems from that era could boot from CDs, it's not THAT old.
You might try updating the bios or plugging another (CDROM) drive,
preferably 32X speed or newer, into the system for long enough to see
if it makes a difference. You might also try booting from another
(pressed) disc like a Windows installation disc, in case there's
something non-standard about the test disc.


Dave