help! no boot from cd option in bios.

I'm trying to setup a spare pc. It is an older IBM netvista 8315-42u. (Specs: pentium 4 2.4ghz, 128mb ram upgraded to 1gb, 80gb hd, The bios does'nt have an option to boot from cd in the bios. I have a bootable copy of xp pro that I want to use to format the HD. Is there a way to update the bios so that it will have that option? I loaded the cd drivers with startup floppy and tried to run setup from the xp cd but it says it won't run in dos mode. I'm not sure what to try next. Can I please get some input. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Xeno

 

This is the link that would include manuals and BIOS updates but the FTP server isn't working for me.

I'm almost positve that that PC should have a boot from CD option already in the BIOS. It could be under "boot" or "boot order". If you can get a download off that site try looking at the instruction for flash BIOS from CD it should tell you how to set the boot order since it would be necessary to boot the BIOS upgrade CD. **I'm not recommending actually updating the BIOS just reading the instructions.

 

Thanks for the suggestion and the link. Your help is very much appreciated.

Xeno

 

Hi, I found a google-cached copy of the instructions I referred to and they didn't say how to change CDROM boot order.


I did find this from an IBM troubleshooting guide but your BIOS may look different. Check the attachment below and try steps c->h.

 

If the above doesn't work and you haven't already tried the 6 floppy MS solution try them. It should fix the DOS problem. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q310994

 

Im having the same problem with a dell inspiron. in the boot menu it says the dvd drive is not installed. It has no floppy disc. so my only option is getting the bios to recognise it. any suggestions? GREAT site by the way.