CD Drive not recognized at boot

Question

HELP! The hard drive died on my Latitude LS. I replaced it with a new one and upgraded my memory to 256mb. I tried to boot from XP CD and the system does not recognize the drive. I can hear the CD spin but the system just doesn't see it. I have tried EVERYTHING (I think):

Tried to boot from multiple bootable CDs and multiple boot diskettes

Tried loading DOS CD drivers. Always the same - No drives found, aborting installation.

I've verified that the CD drive and cable are OK (I tried them on another working Latitude). I tried using different cables and three different CD drives.

I've tried updating the BIOS.

I've tried the Dell boot diskette for CD-ROM support. Nothing.

Tried changing the jumper settings on the new drive. No luck with this either. It is set up as master with no jumpers.

The CD drive used to work on this computer before the hard drive crashed and I installed the new one with new BIOS. Anyone else having this problem? What else can I possibly try?? Dell technical support can't seem to come up with a solution so I am hoping there is somebody out there who has experienced the same problem and can help me. I am going crazy!

leduke30 · Answer

Sometimes a BIOS Flash will change your settings in F2 BIOS Setup. Make sure the CDROM is not Disabled in the Boot Order. You can both move a drive up and down in the Boot Order, and also completely disable it as a boot drive by using the Space Bar. The Space Bar also reenables it. The only other thing-other than a Bad Cable or Drive- is having the CDROM in the Dock Bay if you are using one. That will not work either until windows is up and running. I have verified  those 2 errors and their resultant error messages on my CPtv and C/Dock Message Edited by leduke30 on 02-27-2003 03:04 PM

sarahs814 · Answer

I've checked the BIOS.  The CD is there and enabled.  I've tried moving it to the first position in the boot order and every position after that.  I am not using a Docking station.  Dell told me it is the settings on my new hard drive.  I looked at my old drive last night and there are no jumpers on that.  It is even the same make as the new one, just a smaller capacity.

leduke30 · Answer

Well,There have been complaints from folks recently about HDs that have been rigged to make them proprietory and they will not work on a different brand without doing some serious tweaking. Perhaps that is what you have, I don't know. The suggestions I gave you are the more obvious ones and I have nothing else to offer.

sarahs814 · Answer

I FIXED IT! Turns out there was a slightly bent pin on the media port on the back of the computer. I straightened it out and it booted with the CD no problem. Crazy how something so simple is often overlooked.

Thanks for your help!

leduke30 · Answer

Good For You!!

russellreed · Answer

My latitude C810 (service tag HZNFJ11) was shipped with Windows 2000. I purchased a new hard drive and OEM copy of Windows XP from Fry's.

My laptop will not boot from the CD with the new hard drive ...it works fine with the old hard drive installed.

How do I get around this problem to install my new operating system.

leduke30 · Answer

Did you prep your Harddrive with DOS/Fdisk and Format, or other Drive Prep software before attempting to run the W-XP CD?

russellreed · Answer

I purchase the new hard drive and a copy of Windows XP.  Then I installed both of them into the laptop.  The laptop booted to the XP CD.  From there I formated the drive to NTFS and continued with the installation.  Everything that I can get installed seems to run fine... but getting some software loaded causes problems.  I get error -an error occurred while parsing command line arguments or reading Setup.ini   Invalid access to memory location.

Storage, Drives & Media

CD Drive not recognized at boot

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