Failure to boot from CD

I am trying to reformat my friends laptop (he got it from a relative that passed away) with the XP cd.I change the BIOS to boot to cd/dvd drive,but its skipping over it and going to whatever is set next (it has cd/dvd,1st and 2nd hard drive,removable devices,and boot to LAN)The drive works fine when the pc is running,but the safely remove hardware icon is always up in the taskbar for it.Any ideas?

Its a Gateway DS SOLO 9550 SE
Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002
Intel Pentium III,256 MB of RAM

 

Are you getting the text coming up saying "Press any key to boot from CD................" (Or words to that effect.)

Suppose it could be a problem with the CD, If youve got another bootable cd give it a try.

If all else fails its reasonably easy to install via a boot disk that loads CDROM drivers. If you need a hand with this way give a shout!

 

no,the press any key text isnt coming up,just goes straight to windows

 

you mean make an xp boot disk?

 

Try inserting the cd in after windows is up, it might ask u to "click here to restart"....or put cd in after windows starts and go to my computer and try double clicking it from there if the other way didnt work....it should ask u to restart either way, if not then make sure the cd isnt scratched or has any smudges, and make sure its the right cd if there are multiple like CD 1,2,ect......

hope that helps, later!!

 

It could be that the xp cd doesnt contain a boot image and thats why it is not being read im not to sure if it was said since i just scimmed the thread

 

I think its just the drive itself.I just went ahead and made the XP boot disks and did it that way.Thanks for the info guys