help - unable to boot from a cdrom (WNT)

[frustrated1]

I have a dell latitude CP laptop running windows NT 4.0
I have not used it in years so cannot remember any of the passwords etc. There is a Cdrom drive, I dont have the floopy drive.
I have attempted putting a windows 2000 install cd in the cdrom rom drive and changed the boot sequence in SETUP to boot from cdrom so I can perform a fresh install, but no matter what I try the laptop doesnt boot from cdrom and just keep loading win nt 4.0

Am I doing something really silly here?
Any advice would be really appreciated

[josefz]

Pasted from The Elder Geek's <a target="_blank" href=http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_installation_of_windows_xp.htm>Clean Install Windows XP</a>:
* Fire up the computer and insert the XP CD.
* Watch the monitor for the message that the CD has been auto-detected, followed by the “Press any key to boot CD” message. Don’t fall for the old joke about looking for the “Any” key and just hit the spacebar or any other key that’s convenient within the five second time span the message will be displayed.
The procedure is the same for W2K.

<font color=blue>To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.</font color=blue> (Plutarch)

[frustrated1]

Yes - but the problem is, I insert the CD when I turn the laptop on. I get no message about the cd being auto-detected and it just loads win NT and I get the win NT logon screen, thats it. Nothing else.
As I dont have a valid username/password I cannot log in and just run the windows 2000 install...

What else can I try or do?

[josefz]

1. There is <a target="_blank" href=http://support.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~ck=mn> a good reputation Dell support site</a>.

2. <a target="_blank" href=http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?journalid=F427485556C611DBBA0AE5F7E6D0052 4&docid=910FA0FAA7AF43468549378123D7F779> How do I configure my Dell™ Latitude™ C series or L series system to boot to the CD or DVD drive?</a>.

3. <a target="_blank" href=http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/documentation.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~cat=12&~subcat=87> Read product documentation, manuals, specifications, and installation guides</a>.

<font color=blue>To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.</font color=blue> (Plutarch)

[BertImmenschuh]

I have a Dell Latitude CPi PII/266 also with no floppy and it booted the Win2000 CD for installation.

Does your CD read any disks after WinNT 4 has loaded? Could be the drive itself has a problem.

<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue>
<font color=green>Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.</font color=green>

[frustrated1]

I do not have a password to log on to win nt account so I am unable to verify for certain that the cdrom is definitely working, all I know is power is working to cdrom as I can eject and insert the cd. I have updated the booting order in setup so that CDrom is first - but still nothing...

Perhaps there is something wrong with the cdrom drive.. any other suggestions?

[BertImmenschuh]

I've seen [and replaced] a number of optical drives that were working fine one day and when the computer is booted the next day they didn't work. The tray would open to allow inserting a disk but the disk couldn't be read, must be due to the heat inside the drive from the Laser lens or dust on the lens. I use a lens cleaner which is a disk with brushes on it.

<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue>
<font color=green>Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.</font color=green>

[frustrated1]

okay and I guess if that fails... maybe get another cdrom drive.

Is there anyway to boot from usb port?

[DownRiver]

You mentioned you changed the boot order but, have you actually gone into the bios and made sure the cd rom drive is being recognized. Had a similar problem with my Dell tower where one of the dvd/cd drives was showing up as unknown equipment. Seems the drivers were missing. Drawer would open and close but it wasn't reading anything. Had to reinstall the drivers and phisically unhook the power supply and ribbon cable and then reinstall. Could be a similar issue. Sometimes this stuff drives(no pun intended) you nuts and it's the simplest thing. I have a tendency to overthink the stuff instead of trying the easy stuff first at times. Good Luck!!

[BertImmenschuh]

USB port booting? Only if the BIOS is new enough to have the support built in, it's a setting in the same screen as the boot sequence.

<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue>
<font color=green>Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.</font color=green>