New Precision 3620 won't boot from CD

Hi fred339,

Thank you for writing to Dell Community Forum.

Please try the following steps and advise the results:

* Enable the Legacy ROM option in BIOS

* Set DVD drive as the first boot device in Boot sequence

* secure boot - off

* SATA operation : AHCI

* Please check with known good OS DVD

* Also, update the BIOS to the latest available on the Dell website

Please private message us the service tag of the system.

Kindest Regards,
DELL-Akshatha M
Social Media and Community Professional
#IWork4Dell

Everything is set as you describe - except this is a RAID-configured system and AHCI can't be selected and undo the RAID selection.  I guess that begs the question: How is SATA set up for other devices  if there's also RAID?  That's surely not clear in this BIOS.

I have tried a number of known good boot CD/DVDs.  The boot menu looks like this:

If the Legacy CD/DVD is selected, the ONLY result I've ever seen is this:

"Selected boot device failed.  Press any key to reboot the system."

If the UEFI Boot: CD/DVD is selected then depending on the individual boot disk:

Some result in this:

Others do boot and seem to work fine but, I believe, only Linux-based actually work.  Some Linux-based and all Windows based CD/DVDss "hang" after starting OK - when the OS starts to load.  They either hang at "Starting Windows" or at "loading initrd".  I've not seen a Windows-based boot CD/DVD work at all. 

It almost appears that there is something like Secure Boot not being fully disabled.  A BIOS bug?

Only 64 bit versions of windows will boot.

64 Bit WINDOWS PE 7 8 or 10 will boot fine.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/dn913721.aspx

Only 64 bit UBUNTU 12.04.5 and up will boot. And others that have signature in bios.

MBR Syslinux USB Flash Drives Will Not EVER boot.

32 Bit XP  WILL NOT EVER BOOT.

32 Bit Vista Will NOT EVER BOOT

32 Bit WIN7 Will NOT EVER BOOT

32 Bit KNOPPIX WILL NOT EVER BOOT

Dare I ask: The response sounds pretty definite!  So, perhaps you can let us know "Why is this?"

I'm not looking for a treatise on the subject but it would be good for future reference. 

Its all part of the UEFI microsoft Jail.  Only verified OS will load under CSM (Compatability Support Module).  GPT only aka 64 bit booting.

No more DOS MBR WIN95 WIN98 WIN2000 WINXP dual booting.

No more bypass of signature for drivers and option roms.

No more DOS MBR Boot Roms for storage controllers etc.

Canonical Paid to have Boot ability Live starting with UBUNTU 12.04.5

Earlier 12.04.x releases can actually Brick a system so that it will NEVER EVER BOOT AGAIN.

This is why USB DOS floppy is also not an option.

It is also why Norton Ghost does not support WIN7 WIN8 WIN10 UEFI.