Why can't I boot from IDE cdrom on Asus p3bf?

[cloudchief]

I can't seem to get an IDE cdrom to boot with an Asus p3bf, is it even possible. Am I missing something, I have tried every setting I could imagine in the bios. Tried 2 different cdroms (Teac and Afreey) two different p3bf's and for the life of me I can not get it to boot from the cdrom. I have used these boards with scsi cdroms for a while and have no problem booting from a bootable cd with the scsi cdrom, just can't get an IDE cdrom to boot. If I remember correctly I had the same problem with an Abit BH6. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kitros]

err... I don't have those boards, but you did try the setting dealing w/ boot order? Is it detecting @ POST?

 

[cloudchief]

I set the boot order every conceivable way, including disabling booting off of anything but the cdrom.

 

[Kitros]

...and it detects, eh? Green light and everything? hmmm...

let me think about this one...

 

[subman]

I have an ASUS P3BF and have no problem booting form an ASUS 50x IDE CDROM or from the Pioneer 6x SCSI DVD drive. Just a thought - not sure if it will make a difference - but have you made the CDROM a master drive ? I have my ASUS 50x as the Secondary master.

Excuse my mentioning this but are you sure the CD disk you trying to boot from is actually a bootable disk ? For your info the Win ME CD I have is not a bootable CD but my Win98SE CD is bootable.

 

[DaddyG]

Make sure the CD drive is set to Auto-detect. the drive will work when set to NONE but will not boot.

 

[oldfart]

Yes you can. I've done it many times. Here is a very cool feature of the P3B-F. When you boot, hold down the esc key. A little menu will pop up. You can pick the device you want to boot from. Nice.

 

[cloudchief]

CD is set to master on second Ide channel. Auto select is set. I held down the esc key and got nothing. I've tried three different known bootable disks, an OEM full Win98 and 2 restore disks that I made. All disks will boot with Adaptec 2930 and Plextor cdrom. Computer in question: Asus P3BF, PIII 700 128 meg Ram, Vanta 8 meg tnt2, Best Data Winmodem, Aureal 8820, Maxtor 15G 45plus.
Someone wanted an inexpensive computer and this is what I came up with, I made an idiot proof restore disk, that will restore with no input from the user, but all for nought because I can't get it to boot from the cdrom.