PDA

View Full Version : [all variants] Laptop will not boot CD's/DVD's



jordankulo
April 28th, 2008, 07:36 PM
Hello, I am by far not new to the Linux scene, however I am very, very annoyed by a problem I am having with a recently acquired laptop. It is running Windows Xp currently I am really would lie to put Ubuntu or any other flavor of linux onto it. The issue is that I can't even boot my windows install disk, I have tried close to 15 different flavors and versions of linux; it will not boot.

Acer 2420 WXCi it was manufactured March 20th, 2006.
-It has been upgraded to 2 gigs of DDR2 ram
-Has a 40 gig hd
-Has a CD-RW/DVD-ROM
-Bluetooth
-Broadcom Wireless
-Internal V90 56k modem
-Celeron M 1.6Ghz
-Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 (validated)

When I checked for Bios updates there are none. Also there is no floppy drive and I do not have an external disc dive. I have tried all the bios settings as well as boot menu, even removing the hard drive wouldn't allow it to read the disc to boot.

*Point of Clarification: The disc drive does work 100% of the time in Windows.

Please if there is anything I can do i will try it. I am quite miserable with Windows on it!

jordankulo
April 29th, 2008, 04:09 AM
Please I really do need help with this! i can't find anything other than a couple people fixed it through bios updates...which I am up to date

thanks for your understanding,

Jordan

jordankulo
April 30th, 2008, 05:16 AM
Please, isn't this supposed to be the "best" site for Ubuntu help!! !:confused:

ryot
April 30th, 2008, 05:21 AM
Have you tried tapping F12 while the machine posts to get the boot menu?

jordankulo
April 30th, 2008, 10:18 PM
Have you tried tapping F12 while the machine posts to get the boot menu?

Yes, I have tried all the boot menu and Bios settings...(F2/F12)

is there some kind of hardware issue with disc drives on laptops where they won't read unless they are in an OS?

ryot
May 2nd, 2008, 01:57 PM
A little googling, I see that several people with that model of laptop are having a similar issue with booting off the CDROM drive. You may want to contact Acer to see if this is a know issue with them and if they have any fixes.

jordankulo
May 2nd, 2008, 11:29 PM
Yeah i noticed that too. Acer's a foreign company and they were unable to help me. Phoenix bios keeps sending me to some site that wants my money for a bios update...no way. And it seems like nobody has any idea.

Pumalite
May 2nd, 2008, 11:39 PM
I don't know if it applies to you, but some people have had success going to BIOS and changing AHCI or IDE to RAID.