Can't boot from CD

Soldato
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I can't boot my computer from the CD drive. I have tried with my Vista disk and with an ISO of the new Ubuntu, and it boots straight to the hard drive (Windows) both times.

Any ideas? The BIOS are, of course, set with CD-ROM as first priority.
 
Do you have any USB devices attached?. I've found it changes boot order if there is a USB strorage device attached.

You are also "hitting any key" when it asks you to boot from cd aren't you?
 
Do you have any USB devices attached?. I've found it changes boot order if there is a USB strorage device attached.

You are also "hitting any key" when it asks you to boot from cd aren't you?

It doesn't ask me to "hit any key" to boot from the CD, it never has done. It always simply booted from the CD if that was first in the priority list and if there was a bootable CD in there. I have no USB storage devices attached.

The CD drive works fine, it reads CDs perfectly well in Windows so I don't see any reason for it to be any different when the PC is booting.


I just tried completely disabling the HDD in the boot list, leaving only "CDDRIVE", and it still booted to Windows from my hard drive. It is almost as if the settings are there on the surface but not actually affecting anything. They are remaining in the CMOS though. When I rebooted the settings had not been resent in the CMOS, they were as I had left them.

This is weird-any ideas?
 
I tried hitting "enter" as the PC booted and reached the boot manager, which gave me either the option of booting to Vista or to boot the memory diagnostics tool. Nothing about booting from a CD though. Any thoughts?
 
When you start your pc, you should see some text on the bios screen saying 'press ?? for boot menu'. Usually F11, F8 or ESC. Try selecting the cd drive this way.
 
cmos battery? could need replacing.

That isn't a bad thought-I had to clear the CMOS last week (it totally screwed itself up somehow, thought I had flashed the BIOS and I hadnt!) and in doing so took out the battery. Maybe I shorted it or didn't replace it properly. Where can I get a new CMOS battery? Are they just regular batteries or do I need a PC store?

EDIT: Good call-the CMOS battery was loose, gave it a shove and it's working fine. Cheers for the help everyone :D
 
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