Can't boot from CD

[Gustavus]

I have a problem that appears to defy logic.

I wished to do a Windows XP repair on one of my machines. The machine runs Windows OK but has some files corrupted so that I can't change desktop display settings for example. No big deal, but a repair seemed the logical way to do that without messing up all of my installed software etc. I have done this several times in the past on other machines so assumed there would be no problem in doing a repair from the Microsoft installation CD. I went into the BIOS and set the bootup sequence to have the CD be first. On booting up, a line "Boot from CD" shows up, the drive activity light comes on, and after some time the machine boots into the full Windows from the harddrive. I have two CD drives on the cable -- a master and a slave -- with the cable plugged into the second IDE connector on the motherboard. I had tried first using the master drive, but get exactly the same result if I switch the CD to the slave drive. OK I thought, I will force it to not use the harddrive so I set all three choices in the boot sequence to be the CD drive -- no floppy, no harddrive etc. It still boots from the harddrive after a delay. The CD drives are working fine -- once windows has booted up. I can explore the Microsoft installation disk on either drive with no problem or read any other CD I try. My main machine has no problem booting from the installation CD to the install splash screen, so the CD is OK as I knew it was since I have installed from it before.

The bottom line is that this machine will not boot from the Microsoft CD. The CD drives are both working and the Microsoft CD boots just fine in another machine. The strangest thing is that the machine still boots into windows from the harddrive -- after a delay while it says Boot from CD -- even when the hardrive is not in the boot sequence at all.

Note added: I have a Hiren's Boot CD and have tried to boot from it with exactly the same result. Even though the boot sequence is set to CD - CD - CD in BIOS, the machine boots into full windows from the harddrive after a delay, after which I have no problem in exploring the Hiren's Boot Disk in either of the CD drives.

Does anyone see any possible explanation?

Thanks

 

[Intexity]

ummm...maybe bios flash is in order? just an uneducated guess. the only thing that would even come close to making sense to me is a corrupted bios. what a peculiar dillemma.

 

[Gustavus]

Thanks Intexity

I have been working on the machine all day and have some more -- equally weird and inexplicable -- information. My machines always have at least two harddrives from the time I build them -- on one of which I make Acronis True Images of the C drive at various stages in the build up. The first image is just the clean windows install with the Acronis software of course, the second is with the bare essential software etc. I restored the first -- bare operating system thinking that would surely get back to before the problem. It did not. I cannot boot into a CD but can read and write CD's (in either drive) with no trouble once in windows. It is still booting into windows after a delay even though no harddrive appears in the BIOS boot sequence. Clearing CMOS has no effect either. I have restored another later image with the same result.

I have found one further -- probably unrelated anomaly -- the on board ethernet controller does not have a driver and I can't install one. It should install from Windows XP, but I cannot even load it from the ABIT installation CD.

The system seems to operate OK, but given the fact I cannot boot to a CD I am unable to reformat and reinstall windows from a CD. The best I could do was a restore of the bare operating system using True Image.

This one beats the Hell out of me.

PS
I have run all sorts of anti-malware software, including a rootkit killer -- and found nothing at all. The system has always been behind Zone Alarm firewall and NOD32 AV so it is not likely something snuck in.

 

[imported_mhess]

Just so you don't feel alone I have been fighting this same problem all day as well. In my internet exploration I have also found this post

http://www.motherboardpoint.co...rom-cdrom-nor-dvd.html

which is basically the same problem we are having. It is also a similar type motherboard I am using except mine is an 865 from MSI.

You indicate that you turn off the BIOS boot sequence to just the CD but it still boots to the HD. Do you have an option that ask if you want to boot into other devices? If this is set to 'Yes' then it will find the HD and boot into it when the CD fails. If you set this to 'No' then you will see the CD boot failures.

I have tried three different DVD and CD drives and USB DVD drives and same thing happens. I have removed HD completely and still the same thing. I have change the IDE ribbon cables, used 40 and 80 wire cables again with the same result.

I know this doesn't help you but I am totally stumped as well and am not sure where to turn. This machine has been a running database server for about 3 years with no direct access to the internet and only internal connections to other servers. It appears that it has to be a BIOS level issue but I don't have a clue what would suddenly make it not work. I only have one other choice now to try and that is to do a floppy boot to do an network installation of the OS.

By the say I use Linux for everything so this is not a Windows issue either.

Misery loves company.

 

[Gustavus]

mhess

Thanks for the reply. I am surprised you found a description of exactly the problem we are experiencing. I am a very experienced tech and can usually troubleshoot what comes up, but this one has me stumped. The motherboard in question is an ABIT TH7 that has been running like a charm for years. Suddenly this. I have three other machines here in the lab none of which are acting strangely -- yet. Makes me wonder if some new bit of malware is out and about. In the link you found the person flashed his BIOS with no luck so it makes you wonder where the problem can be. I have proven it isn't the CD's, the CD drives or the CMOS. I would be happy -- at this point to just reformat and reinstall -- but you can't do that if you can't boot to the installation CD.

Thanks again

Note added:
I am determined to save the motherboard if there is any way to do it. The ABIT BIOS allows the possibility of booting from a USB device so today I will try first from a thumb drive and if that doesn't work, from an external USB linked harddrive. If I can get a clean windows install, then the loss of the ability to boot from a CD will not be a problem. There is also the much more remote (chance of success that is) path of installing windows to a harddrive on another machine and then swapping it in. Somewhere I have a piece of commercial software that claims to allow a restore of the OS to any machine. Never tried it and believe I have seen comments on net that it doesn't work too well -- but maybe as a last resort.

 

[Harvey]

With all of these cases of similar problems with the same boards, has anyone tried contacting Abit's tech support?

 

[Gustavus]

Harvey,

The boards are by different manufacturers -- one is a Soyo Dragon KT333 Platinum Ultra, one is an MSI (board number not given) and mine is an ABIT TH7 rev.2. The three of us have gone through the same sort of exhaustive troubleshooting that leaves no logical place for the problem to be hiding. In all cases the problem showed up on systems that had been working perfectly for quite some time. Even if it was malware, where is it located to survive BIOS reflashing, CMOS resets, harddrive change outs etc.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Have you tried a Memtest86+ bootable CD (download the ISO and burn)?

 

[Gustavus]

Another day wasted with absolutely no progress. I transferred the Microsoft installation CD to a Corsair thumb drive using PeToUSB which results in a bootable thumb drive on the other computers. Not this one. There are three possibilities for USB boot choices in the IS7 BIOS; USB FDD, USB CDrom and USB ZIP. Setting any of those to come first in the boot sequence only results in the system booting from the harddrive.

Virtual Larry
The memory (OCZ platinum rev. 2, 2,2,2,5) passes Memtest on the lab machine in an overnight run. Not sure what you had in mind, but no bootable CD will boot in this machine -- and I have several in the lab. As my earlier posts point out, the CD drives are fine and both read and write once I am in windows, but simply cannot be seen in the boot process. Same with the thumb drive. It is interrogated (light flashes) in the first stage of the boot process but is not seen at the point it would be read to start a new windows installation.

I have only one last possibility to save this motherboard and that is to try and restore from another harddrive.

I can't even think of a possible explanation for this behavior. As I said in the beginning this problem defies logic.

 

[Gustavus]

Since this problem is affecting some people other than just myself, here is a final report on what I have been able to do.

I have saved the motherboard, in the sense that I now have a fully working install of Windows XP with SP2 and all security updates installed. Thank goodness I have several computers in the lab so I could install software on other machines and swap into this one. Not quite that easy or direct, but I got there.

I was never able to get this machine to boot from a CD or any USB device. I tried all sorts of bootable media that worked just fine on all other machines. Clearing CMOS, reflashing BIOS, swapping harddrives did not change that, so if it is some sort of malware I can't even imagine where it is hiding. Malware requires some memory and all memory devices have been purged, cleared, rewritten, swapped etc. so it doesn't appear that malware could be the problem. I would think it was some fluke with this motherboard, except that as I noted in my last post, the three of us having this problem happen to have three different motherboards -- by entirely different manufacturers. Go figure.

The bottom line is that this motherboard will not bootup from anything I can find to store the Windows installation software.

Prime95 ran overnight -- well at least as much of the night as was left when I finally got to a working install of Windows XP -- with no errors. It calculates one million digits of Pi in 36 seconds with no errors so is apparently A-OK.

 

[Denithor]

I had a similar experience a year or two ago. Forget the specific hardware but I do remember I couldn't boot from any bootable media as long as a harddrive with an OS installed was connected.

Solution: hook up empty hdd & one optical drive, booted right up, installed clean copy onto the "fresh" hdd. Then used cloning software to migrate the clean install onto the original drive.

 

[Gustavus]

Denithor
Thanks for the reply. I am sick unto the death of this machine right now -- after over two days of beating my head against the wall with it -- but I will try what you suggest. I have quite a few clean drives in the lab so will leave the motherboard in the case and just cable in a harddrive from the side. I will let you know what happens. If that is the solution you have earned a reward -- but will probably have to settle for my thanks.