Can't boot off any cd's on a 5yr old dell

[gunit]

It?s a Dell Dimension XPS T500, 500 MHz and 128mb of ram, I can?t get it to boot off anything. I tried a XP cd and a 98 cd and I keep getting an invalid system disk. Please help.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

You have it set to boot off the cd drive first, right?

 

[gunit]

Yeah, in the BIOS the CDrom is the first on the boot list.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Do you have a different cd-rom drive you could change out to see if the drive has gone bad?

 

[Nocturnal]

Try another cd-rom drive, chances are that the cd-rom drive you're attempting to boot off of has failed.

 

[gunit]

I was thinking of doing that but I want to see if there is something I can do that doesnt make me open the computer.

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: gunit
I was thinking of doing that but I want to see if there is something I can do that doesnt make me open the computer.

:roll: Where there went most of my suggestions to help...Hmmm you can try and manually set up the Opticl Drive in the BIOS instead of auto, use a USB CDROM if you can boot from USB, but seriously after messing with and trying numerous things it would be easier to take the 3 screws left and check everything like maybe changing the jumpers to Maste/Slave if they're set on cable select, check the cables, do what Nocturnal suggested and it'll probably be a good time to clean out the guts of the Rig while you're there...

 

[phaxmohdem]

Originally posted by: gunit
I was thinking of doing that but I want to see if there is something I can do that doesnt make me open the computer.

Yeah, sorry man, bite the bullet and undo the two screws 😛 if it doesn't kill you it will only make you stronger.

 

[lxskllr]

Did you try the boot menu? It's generally F8, but the comp should tell you when it's booting up. I think Dell "may" be F12 but I don't exactly remember.

 

[gunit]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Did you try the boot menu? It's generally F8, but the comp should tell you when it's booting up. I think Dell "may" be F12 but I don't exactly remember.

Well on this computer its del and I am checking the jumpers right now.