Can't get desktop to recognize CD/DVD drive on boot

Hi, CuJoe:

That's funny! I just reinstalled a Ghost image on my old 4100 (which is currently sitting in the basement).

ATAPI is the same thing as IDE, so that's

A couple ideas. First, disable both the FDD and HDD in the BIOS. Second, make sure you're using the top drive. Only the master device will boot. 

Hey, Osprey:

That is funny... you're messing with a restore on an old 4100 and that's what I'm also trying to do. I'd like to get into a side discussion about your experience with the 4100. I have found this machine to be exceptionally reliable and give Dell mucho thanks and kudos for the quality of this desktop.

Anyway to get back to the problem at hand: your suggestion of using only a specific drive to boot was very much in the ballpark. I discovered the solution from another post in the forum. Here's what I found out:

My top/master drive is a CD/DVD combo with a CD-RW on bottom/slave. I had to eliminate the CD/DVD drive and leave only the CD drive. So I resolved my problem by going into BIOS and disabling my CD/DVD drive and placing the boot CD into my CD-RW drive. And, that did the trick - the 4100 then recognized the media in the CD drive. When I was all done, I just went back into BIOS and re-enabled my CD/DVD drive.

Below is the link to the posting that helped me resolve this. Thanks to users "zerkked" and "The_Namek" (and osprey). I couldn't figure out how to get the ID(?) number of their particular responses, but they're at the very bottom of the page. There are other ways to get this to work, but I chose what was I believe is the easiest method.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19253627/19414567.aspx#19414570

(I'll "tag" this posting as a solution as soon as I figure out how)

Way to go, Joe.

So here's the history. We got our 4100 back in 2001, I believe. It was the first new computer we ever bought and ran just great. I upgraded to XP and it was even better. Added RAM, a DVD burner and a USB 2.0 card. About three years ago, I inherited my son's 4550 and we gave the 4100 to our pastor for his kids to use. He's recently upgraded so I've just got the 4100 back. It still runs reasonably well, so I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.

It's funny that fixing computers is my hobby, since none of the Dells I've owned ever have any problems.

Well I downloaded A11 BIOS but I guess I have to install that with a floppy, and my floppy drive doesn't seem to work because it won't read any floppies I have.  So I'm kind of in a Catch 22 here.  Could I just unplug the DVD drive and hope it reads the CD drive on boot?

Hey fellas I'm having 4100 problems of my own in the boot from CD department. I got this system refurbed in 2001 and it has been solid (once I got ME off of it!), I upgrade drives and video cards on it but it keeps on keeping on.  However I recently decided to load a new version of XP on it and I can't boot from the CD Drive. I have two CD drives also, much like you. However, my BIOS does not have a selection to turn one or the other off. At least I don't think it does.  Where would that be?  My BIOS is old also, A07 or something and I think it went up to A10, so maybe I should start with that!

CondoCowboy,

The 4100 system has IDE optical drives.  Both are on the
same cable.  The boot drive (when the system is set to boot
from a CD) is the one on the end of the cable.  The drive on
the end of the cable is the Master drive.  There is no BIOS
selection for which one to boot from. 

First off, I didn't need to update my BIOS to get this to work. I'm running on A06. Try the stuff below first and if you still want to upgrade to A11, go for it (you can also read the A11 "Release.txt" file to see what the new version gets you). I also didn't have to pull any cables off to get this to work.

Anyway, you may have 2 problems here. First, go into BIOS and make sure you have your boot sequence set up properly.

On the BOOT page, look at your "Boot Devices" and make sure they're set up as follows:
1st Boot Device    [Floppy]
2nd Boot Device    [ATAPI CDROM]
3rd Boot Device    [IDE-HDD]

If yours currently isn't showing the "Floppy" drive or it's after the HDD, that's why you're having problems booting from the floppy (you can take/keep the floppy out if you want, but you might want to make sure it works first).

Now, the place to disable/turn-off the CD drives is:

ADVANCED->IDE Configuration - select whichever drive you want out (temporarily) and change "Type" to "NONE". Then hit F10 to exit and save your changes. You can add it back later. Try this and let me know if you're successful.

Thanks for the replies.  on the BOOT page in my BIOS I do have it as you recommend:

1st Boot Device    [Floppy]
2nd Boot Device    [ATAPI CDROM]
3rd Boot Device    [IDE-HDD]

I actually even tried [ATAPI CDROM] to be the first thing to try to boot from. I have tried the disc in both the top drive (CD/DVD) and the bottom drive (CDRW).  I can't get it to boot from either.

What I haven't done yet is to go to the ADVANCED->IDE Configuration and de-select one of the drives.  I was looking for something like this earlier in the BIOS and couldn't find it.  I will try this first thing when I get home in a few hours if I can find that in the BIOS.

As far as updating the BIOS if my floppy doesn't work, would it be possible to copy the A11.exe BIOS to an empty HDD, and swap that drive in as the Master drive?  Wouldn't it try to boot up off this HDD just like it would try to boot off a floppy so I could update the BIOS?  I thought I could do that to update my BIOS without having to buy a floppy drive.

Thanks for all the help.

Still no luck on my end. I double checked the boot configuration in BIOS and it is floppy, cd, then HDD.   I even tried skipping floppy, so it was either CD then IDE.   I also disabled the CD drive that was the slave on the primary IDE.  So I just have one formatted IDE HDD that is secondary master, and one CD/DVD drive that is on the primary master.  Whenver I try to boot in this configuration I get the "Invalid Boot Diskette.  Insert BOOT diskette into A:"  This is crazy because I have told it to skip over the floppy when booting, and I can hear the CD spinning in the drive. It just can't get past this floppy drive somehow.

Any suggestions welcome.

It does appear our systems are very similar and it was the CD/DVD drive that I disabled. The only primary difference it seems is that I have two HDDs - don't think that's a factor in anything, however. I'm afraid, though, that we've just about approached the limit of my ability to help you. As for why it's looking for the floppy, have you tried disabling the "diskette controller" under "ADVANCED->diskette configuration" (see my BIOS dump below)? Maybe that's why it's looking at the floppy despite the fact it's out of the boot sequence? Just record all your settings as I have before you make any major change.

What is on the CD disc that you are using as a boot media? Do you have another PC you can try the media disks on just to make sure the disks are readable, formatted properly and have valid boot exe's? I have a couple other machines that I was able to practice and verify this stuff on. Also - sorry, but I have to ask/comment - I'm assuming that at least the CD drive involved has been used and is in working order (the floppy drive could be malfunctioning - I've had to replace mine a couple times).

So, try the above stuff and let me know how it goes. I'm including a complete "dump" of my BIOS settings - maybe there's something we've overlooked that I simply have the correct value/setting for and you don't...

-------

*************************************************
MAIN

BIOS Version            A06

Processor type            Intel Pentium III
   ""    speed            1 Ghz
System bus freq            133 MHz

Cache RAM            256 KB

Total mem            512 MB
Memory Bank 0            256 MB (PC133)
Memory Bank 1            256 MB (PC133)

Processor ser num        [Disabled]

##################################################
ADVANCED

Boot Config
    Plug &Play O/S        [No]
    Reset Config Data    [No]
    Numlock            [On]

Periph config
    Serial Port A        [Auto]
    Parallel Port        [Auto]
      Mode            [ECP]

    Legacy USB Support    [Enabled]

IDE Config
    IDE Controller        [Both]

    Primary IDE Master    [WDC WD400BB-75AUA1 ]
    Primary IDE Slave    [WDC WD400BB-18DEA0 ]
    Secondary IDE Master    [HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22]
    Secondary IDE Slave    [TDK CDRW321040B ]
        Drive Installed    [TDK CDRW321040B ]
        Type        [Auto]

        LBA Mode Cont    [Enabled]
        Multi-Sector xfers    [Disabled]
        PIO Mode    [Auto]
        Ultra DMA    [Mode 2]
        Cable Detected    [40 Conductor]

Diskette config
    Diskette Controller    [Enabled]
   
    Floppy A        [1.44/1.25 MB 3 1/2"]

    Diskette Write Prot    [Disabled]

Event Log
Video config

    AGP Aperture Size    [64MB]
    Primary Video Adapter    [AGP]

    AGP Hardware Detected    4X AGP Card
##################################################
BOOT

Quiet Boot            [Enabled]
Quick Boot            [Enabled]

Restore on AC/Power loss    [Power On]
ON LAN                [Stay Off]
On PME                [Stay Off]

1st Boot Device            [Floppy]
2nd Boot Device            [ATAPI CDROM]
3rd Boot Device            [IDE-HDD]
4th Boot Device            [Disabled]

IDE Drive Config
    Primary master IDE    [1st IDE]
    Primary slave IDE    [2nd IDE]
    Secondary master IDE    [3rd IDE]
    Secondary slave IDE    [4th IDE]

Thanks for the reply.  The CD is good, it is a DELL Windows XP Pro SP2 re-install disc. I put this in my other computer and it will boot up off of it fine.  Both the CDRW and CD/DVD work, I can see the boot disc fine once I'm in Windows and read and copy info. I can even get the floppy to work now, I must have had 5 bad floppies but I got one to work, a non-HD one so I can't squeeze the BIOS on it to update my BIOS.

I will take your advice and compeletly dis-able the floppy in the BIOS and see if it will see the CD then.  I also have two HDD's, the Master is the OS and the Slave is data. However for this, I've pulled both drives out and put a 3rd formatted drive on the Master to install a fresh version of Windows.

Thanks