PE2550 - Can't boot from CD-ROM

Hi all:

I've inherited a PE2550, 2x1.26 Ghz, 2 Gb RAM, Pertec RAID, etc. so the first thing I wanted to do with it was to run diagnostics and update the BIOS and firmware as required.

However, it doesn't want to boot from CD-ROM. I burned as ISO of v4.5 of the OpenManage Server Assistant onto a DVD-R disk and tried booting from it. I keep getting a message about "no boot device, F1 to retry, F2 to setup". The BIOS (A09) has the FDD as the first boot device and the CD-ROM as the second. I suspected the (Samsung) CD-ROM, so I swapped it with another (TEAC) CD-ROM from a second PE2550 carcass that I also inherited, but there wasn't any change in the results.

I started to suspect the CD-ROM, so I tried booting a few other CDs I had lying around. I was able to boot an OpenBSD install disk, and a NetBSD install disk.

I checked my OpenManage CD by booting it on my Dell laptop. It booted fine, so there's no problem with boot tracks on the CD.

Am I looking at a problem with the CD-ROM hardware here, or is it firmware, or is it a media problem? Should I be using CD-R media instead of CD-RW media? Incidentally, the OpenManage CD was created using Roxio RecordNow on the aforementioned Dell laptop.

Cheers,
--
Larry Gadallah