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Question

Why wont my PC boot from CD

by Mar 24, 2012 6:09AM PDT

Im able to get the "press any key to boot from CD" message. When I do that it ask me if I want to start it in safe mode. When I attempt to start it in safe mode thats when my keyboard stops working. Sometimes it doesnt ask if I want to start in safe mode, it will just boot windows as normal when I "press any key". I have an older keyboard not a usb one.

Discussion is locked

8 Posts
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Answer
Usual causes?
by Forum moderator Mar 24, 2012 6:29AM PDT

Old CD/DVD drives tend to lose the ability to boot.

About the safe mode keyboard issue. That's usually when an older machine has PS/2 and the owner has some USB keyboard.

Fixes for that vary from a BIOS change to pulling out a PS/2 keyboard for the work required.
Bob

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Reply
by Calison209 Mar 24, 2012 7:59AM PDT

So do you think its a keyboard issue?

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Re: issue
by Kees_B Forum moderator Mar 24, 2012 8:09AM PDT

No, it's primarily a CD-drive issue. I it wasn't, it would boot from the CD in stead of the hard disk.

Kees

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Re: cd drive
by Calison209 Mar 24, 2012 8:24AM PDT

When I put the cd in after windows has booted it promps me to install windows, so it reads the cd it cant be a cd drive issue...

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If would boot from the cd ...
by Kees_B Forum moderator Mar 24, 2012 8:31AM PDT

it would boot into the Windows setup. So it doesn't boot from the CD.

Maybe, indeed, it doesn't recognize the key as an answer that you want to boot it from the CD. That would mean that it would only boot into Windows after some time (I think it waits 30 seconds for you to confirm the boot from CD). But you don't tell about any delay. So I assumed it tried to boot from the CD immediately after you pressed a key and if that fails it immediately booted from the hard disk in stead. That means it's a CD or drive issue.
But maybe my interpretation was wrong.

Another keyboard (a PS/2 keyboard) is easy to try, isn't it?

Kees

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Re: CD drive issue
by Calison209 Mar 24, 2012 9:18AM PDT

I tried disabling the hard drive, when I did that it booted from the CD and began to install. I think it got to about 50% and it then said the repairs have been made and I need to restart the PC to complete installition. After I did it just booted to windows xp as usual...

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Re: booted as usual
by Kees_B Forum moderator Mar 25, 2012 1:11AM PDT

After a repair of XP it boots into a repaired XP. Nothing wrong with that, I would say. What more did you want? You didn't tell anything about what you would want to do after booting from the XP CD. You didn't tell why you wanted to boot from the CD. All you did was asking why it didn't work. And you seem to have solved that.

Kees

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PS. Is this a Dell?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 24, 2012 9:49AM PDT

Some Dells did that. Fix? Use the Dell keyboard.

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