BIOS boot sequence

[crasher]

My pc does not boot from a CD even though I have gone into the BIOS setup and
made the appropriate changes (CD #1, HD #2) and saved them.

I start the pc with the cd in the drive, the drive then makes a whirring
sound, but then the Windows XP screen appears.

What am I doing wrong?

The pc in question is a older IBM NetVista 6280 22U.

 

[James Kosin]

I would ask 'Is it a bootable CD'?

I would even ask:
"Was the speed you recorded the CD at supported by the CDROM drive?"

 

[DL]

And if when xp is booted other cd's work?

 

[crasher]

In response to your questions:

1. It will not boot off of a retail copy of WinXP or an ISO file.

2. Not sure about the speed question.

3. It will play regular data CDs.

BTW, it used to boot off the bootable CD no problem.

 

[smlunatick]

In response to your questions:

1.  It will not boot off of a retail copy of WinXP or an ISO file.

2.  Not sure about the speed question.

3.  It will play regular data CDs.

BTW, it used to boot off the bootable CD no problem.

What is the "age" (aka date) the drive first was started to be used?
CD / DVD drives can ware out.

 

[CaptAmerica]

I would even ask:
"Was the speed you recorded the CD at supported by the CDROM drive?"

I would point out this has nothing to do with the OS as the point when
the BIOS is looking from where to start booting the OS has not been
accessed. This is not related to the OS and thus the question does
not belong here.

Ask elsewhere

 

[DL]

I had the same proble with a v.old Dell - would'nt boot from cd, after
multiple attempts, using various win cd's it finally did - I never uncovered
the cause, allthough I had a feeling it was related to the cd

 

[Alec S.]

CaptAmerica wrote (in

I would point out this has nothing to do with the OS as the point when
the BIOS is looking from where to start booting the OS has not been
accessed. This is not related to the OS and thus the question does
not belong here.

Ask elsewhere

Why Navigator, you’ve changed your name. Pray tell, what else do you go by?

 

[Alec S.]

DL wrote (in

I had the same proble with a v.old Dell - would'nt boot from cd, after
multiple attempts, using various win cd's it finally did - I never uncovered
the cause, allthough I had a feeling it was related to the cd

When the BIOS looks for boot-up devices, there is only a small window for it to
detect valid sources (about a second). Think of the BIOS as a guy going
door-to-door down Bootington rd. It knocks at the first house: “BIOS calling!
Any booters home?” If it gets no answer after a second or so (eg if the device
is not present or is not yet ready), it moves on to the next house (device). It
stops when either it has found one that responds and is ready, or it has checked
every house on the path.

What happens in this case is that the drive is still attempting to read the disc
when the BIOS comes a’callin’, so the BIOS waits for a moment then moves onto
the next device (HD). This is common with discs that are
dirty/scratched/degrading/etc. because the drive takes longer to try to read and
recognize the disc; it can also happen if the drive itself is failing. (You can
see the drive’s light still flickering when the BIOS asks it if it has a boot
disc.)

One thing to try is to push the Pause button after the BIOS POSTs, but before it
gets to the boot screen. Watch the light on the drive and wait for it to stop
flickering (attempting to read the disc). Then press a key to unpause and it
should boot from the disc. Try to clean the disc if it’s just dirty, or if it’s
scratched or degraing, copy the disc to a fresh one that can be read quicker. If
it all fails, the drive may be dying (it can happen).



HTH

 

[crasher]

Alec,

I tried using the Pause button but was unsuccessful with that. My drive is
probably dying. Thanks for your detailed explanation of the boot process. I
learned something.

crasher

 

[Alec S.]

crasher wrote (in

I tried using the Pause button but was unsuccessful with that. My drive is
probably dying. Thanks for your detailed explanation of the boot process. I
learned something.

No problem, but does the light on the CD drive blink for a while when you put
the disc in and reboot? You can probably also hear it spinning the disc up,
down, and around trying hard to read it if there is a problem with either.

 

[crasher]

The light blinks once or twice, and there is a whirring sound coming from the
drive.

 

[Alec S.]

crasher wrote (in

The light blinks once or twice, and there is a whirring sound coming from the
drive.

If it only blinks a couple of times, then it is probably able to read the disc
properly. Are you sure the disc is bootable? It’s very easy to prepare and burn
a disc but forget to set it to be bootable and add a boot sector. You could try
creating another one, making sure that it is bootable.

--
Alec S.
news/alec->synetech/cjb/net

 

[crasher]

I used imgburn to burn the iso file to a cd. I was under the impression that
the disc would then be bootable. Was I correct, or was I missing something?

 

[Alec S.]

I used imgburn to burn the iso file to a cd. I was under the impression that
the disc would then be bootable.

Not automatically no. Where did you get the image file to burn? Did you make it?
Imgburn can burn bootable discs from and existing image (but it has to already
be bootable) or create one from scratch (but you have to provide the
bootsector). Imgburn currently has six modes (Read, Build CD, Build Image,
Write, Verify, Discovery). Which one did you use?

 

[crasher]

Alec, I used "write image file to disc".

Not automatically no. Where did you get the image file to burn? Did you make it?
Imgburn can burn bootable discs from and existing image (but it has to already
be bootable) or create one from scratch (but you have to provide the
bootsector). Imgburn currently has six modes (Read, Build CD, Build Image,
Write, Verify, Discovery). Which one did you use?

 

[Alec S.]

Alec, I used "write image file to disc".

And where did you get the image file? Are you sure it is a bootable image? There
are apps (like IsoBuster) than can let you view the imagefile’s contents and
whether or not it is bootable.

 

[crasher]

According to imgburn's file system section, the file I burned is an ISO9660
(bootable) file.

 

[crasher]

Today I unplugged the cd drive's three cables, then plugged them in. I am
now able to boot from the cd drive, don't ask me why.

Thanks to all who tried to help me.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I would point out this has nothing to do with the OS as the point when
the BIOS is looking from where to start booting the OS has not been
accessed. This is not related to the OS and thus the question does
not belong here.

Ask elsewhere

Ignore the resident ****wit.

You hardware question belongs in a hardware newsgroup, which this is.