Dimension 3000 will not boot from CDRom drive

Did you use the F12 method to boot the CD? Tap the F12 key at the big Dell splash screen and select the option to boot from the onboard CD drive.

cong06:

I want to re-format the computer with a dell xp service pack 2 cd. The CD rom drive works fine when the computer is running in windows, and the cd rom boots fine on other computers, but the Computer will not boot the CD at start up.What's going on? Either the CD rom drive should work, or not. It makes no sense that the CD rom drive only works when windows is loaded.

Hello cong06, You can find the link to the Boot Sequence for your system HERE. The default is floppy, hard drive, CD\DVD drive.

In the BIOS, you can change the boot sequence to the CD\DVD drive as the first boot device, the hard drive as the second boot device, and the floppy as the third boot device.

Save your settings and reboot with the OS disk in the optical drive and it should boot to the Windows disk for the install.

Hope this helps.

How many optical drives do you have?  If you have two, try the other one.  Only the master drive on an IDE channel will support a boot disk.

I have two, and I tried both. I forgot that I need to write all this stuff in the header.

Any other simpleton questions that we can get out of the way?

It is necessary to maintain cool and a sense of humor while troubleshooting, and to remember that any info you can provide about your symptoms and configuration may be helpful to those trying to help you.

One other thing I can think of is that the CD drive itself may be having difficulty.  The Dimension 3000 was likely delivered with only one optical drive.  If you installed a second, did you make certain the drives were strapped for cable select?  I have also run across a case or two in which the second drive was a DVD ROM which had a strange effect on the CD drive; disconnecting the slave drive allowed the master drive to boot.

JackShack:

It is necessary to maintain cool and a sense of humor while troubleshooting

It gave this error:

Secondary Drive 1 not found
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility

While I'm still a bit iffy on Slave and master drives, I tried switching them:
---------------------------|-----------------|
    plugged in (and w/ CD)     unplugged

It gave this error:

Secondary Drive 0 not found
Secondary Drive 1 not found
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility

The errors you report are normal, given that you've unplugged the drives, but you didn't turn the ports off in the BIOS setup.  You didn't mention if you tried to boot the disk, though.  I would go to setup, turn off the port for secondary drive 1, and see if the CD will boot from the remaining drive that is still connected.  You must keep secondary drive 0 as that is the only port that will boot.  If your CD ROM won't boot the disk, try the CD writer.

Yep. I had forgotten to fix Bios.

I Plugged in the CD-ROM drive to the "Master" end of the Cable, and turned off the "Secondary Slave" which would be the CD-RW drive that wasn't plugged in.

Boot up, it went to windows. (even though it's set to CD-ROM, floppy Disk, Hard Disk)

Used f12 to boot, same thing.

So I turned off the Hard disk in Bios also.

Same thing, but it ends with: "Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility" instead of windows.

I hate to ask this, but did you remember to strike a key in order to complete the directive to boot from the CD?  I just tried this on my D2400 to make sure I wasn't imagining things.  I get this message whether I use the F12 or simply set the computer to boot from the CD before the hard drive.  If I don't hit a key, it boots from the hard drive in spite of my direction to boot from the CD.

Edit:  I was getting tired when I wrote the above and neglected to ask first whether or not you were even getting the message to strike a key in order to boot.  If you aren't getting that, the computer isn't recognizing the boot code from the disk and something must change at the CD or BIOS end of things to make it work.

If you did this, I would try making certain that the CD drives are correctly strapped for cable select, and then I would reset the NVRAM by disconnecting all power, removing the lithium back-up cell on the main board for about a minute, re-installing the battery ( + side toward you ), reconnecting power, and trying again.  And as I suggested before, I would also try putting the other drive on the master connector just to make certain that one of the optical drives does not have a problem with booting the disk.

Edit:  And as I noted in the earlier edit, something needs to change.  If you find that the drives are strapped properly for cable select, you might try strapping the drive as a master if resetting the NVRAM and trying the second drive hasn't helped.

JackShack:

And as I suggested before, I would also try putting the other drive on the master connector just to make certain that one of the optical drives does not have a problem with booting the disk.

Thanks for dealing with me. I imagine there have been easier people to deal with. In anycase I didn't try this last time you menitoned it, and it was infact, the problem.

It seems strange to me that it reads the disk normally, but it won't boot the disk.

In anycase, the problem is solved. Thanks.

duplicate

Actually, you haven't been difficult at all.  Like most of the folks who participate on this forum I am always happy to have assisted in the solution of a problem.  Also, most of us are still learning as well, and speaking for myself, there have been a few times that my aid to a fellow computer user has helped me to solve problems of my own.

Happy New Year and best of luck to you!