CD-Rom won't boot

Hey guys,

I have an old PC100 or PC133 system, and I looked in the BIOS it is running Pheonix Bios v.2.24 on an ATI motherboard, I am not sure the specs of the board but I can check. Anyway in the BIOS it lists the CD-rom as a bootable device but does not seem to want to boot it. I enter CMOS on startup and choose CD-Rom and still no avail, I tried setting it as first in the bootsequence but still nothing. Can anyone help me with this issue?

What kind of disc are you trying to boot from? What (if anything) happens when you start up?

Try to set it as the only boot device and see what happens.

Also try a couple of different bootable CDs to make sure it's not a problem with the CD you're using.
Let me give you a quick personal experience so you know why I say this and what I mean by it.

I was having trouble with my desktop a few months ago. I decided that instead of taking the quick and easy way out, I would play a bit and grab a forensics CD and try to fix the problem manuallly. When I tried to boot from the forensics CD, the desktop wouldn't boot from my CD-ROM. When I checked the CD-ROM in my laptop, the laptop booted from the CD just fine (same CD).
I grabbed a Live version of Linux and threw it onto the desktop and the desktop booted from it just fine.

I never did figure out why that happened, but now I make it a point to try a couple of different bootable CDs if I'm having trouble booting from my CD-ROM.

Well, I can tell you that the issue does not come from the CD because it boots fine from other computers I have in my house. These CDs by the way are Windows Installation CDs. I guess I could try a version of a Live CD Linux, but I highly doubt it will boot. And also I don't think I can set it as the only boot device, there does not to seem to be that option availble. I'll tey the solutions posted and give my feedback. Thanks!

Do you have another CD-ROM drive you could replace it with? It maybe the Drive kicked the bucket.

The CD-drive is fine it still reads CD-Roms, when I boot from the hardrive, it just needs drivers to work, I think the issue is with my BIOS, because even though it lists the CD-Rom as a bootable device, I cannot find any info on it in the Summary screen or peripherals screen. It does not list it any where. I think it should be an IDE cd drive, but in the listing all it shows is my hard-drive, zip drive and floppy drive.

Hey guys, just an update, I fixed the issue, it turned out the my IDE adapter settings in my BIOS were set to automatic, and instead I took the second IDE adapter and set it to CD-ROM so it is forced to detect the CD-ROM so now it works fine and boots from the CD-ROM so thanks for all your guy's help.

Thanks for posting the fix.