Vaio grub/reinstall problem

[wt-pm66]

I've got really old Sony Vaio desktop, everything except the motherboard has been replaced in the last 2 years. So I get up the other day and go to start it up and it gets to the grub selection screen and I guess you could say it locked up. I mean it's totally unresponsive, the only option is to press the power button and turn it off. I have just pulled it out of the closet to set up a educational station for my 8 y/o. I also planned to install a video capture card to record off a DVR.

I installed plain Lubuntu, then planned on adding just what I had to have for what I want to do. When this problem started I decided it was probably something to do with the install, so I grab the install disc I had just used 2 days earlier, and get an error message "Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM : No Emulation" . Is this a software or hardware problem? I've tried both DVD players, and a couple other OS install disc all with no luck.

[mörgæs]

How old is it? If possible one should install from USB, not CD/DVD.

[wt-pm66]

I don't know it it'll boot from usb, it originally had Vista, how it pulled vista with just 512k ram, and I think a 1.8 cpu.

I will try that as soon as I can. Thanks