cannot boot from cd any more

[Guest]

I recently tried to boot from a linux cd only to find that my computer does
not boot from cd any more. I tried my genuine XP cd which should work but the
result was the same: my pc boots into windows, obviously from the hard disk,
no matter which device I set first to boot from in the BIOS. I have Windows
XP Pro SP2, and I have never had trouble booting from a CD in the past.
However, it has been about six months since I last needed to boot a CD so I
do not know what might have caused this change.
What are the possible causes? How could I fix this problem?

 

[Jaymon]

Have you recently been able read commercial, data, or music CD's in normal
mode..? Is the Linux cd scratched or dirty, used a cleaning cd lately in the
drive itself..?
Cheers
j;-j

 

[Guest]

Have you recently been able read commercial, data, or music CD's in normal
mode..? Is the Linux cd scratched or dirty, used a cleaning cd lately in the
drive itself..?
Cheers
j;-j





I have never had problems reading all types of CD or DVD. Everything appears to be working fine except that I cannot boot from cd-rom. I have not used any cleaning CDs.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

appears to be working fine except that I cannot boot from cd-rom. I have not
used any cleaning CDs.

=========

Have you tried any other boot disks, e.g. someone else's WinXP CD?

I have seen one or two machines myself with this problem. It is caused
by some malfunction in the BIOS. Try a hardware group for more
advice. If nothing else helps then you could install the XOSL boot
manager. While it will get around the problem, its installation is by
no means trivial.

 

[witan]

Have you recently been able read commercial, data, or music CD's in normal
mode..? Is the Linux cd scratched or dirty, used a cleaning cd lately in the
drive itself..?
Cheers
j;-j

I had the same problem sometime back while trying to restore the Linux
grub (dual booting) from the installation DVD after reinstalling
Windows-XP. The cause turned out to be what "Jaymon" has suggested:
the DVD **drive** (i.e., the laser lens) needed cleaning with a
"cleaning CD".