Lenovo Thinkcentre won't boot from optical drive

Hi, I haven't been able to get this resolved in the Lenovo forums so I thought I'd try here.

I have a Lenovo Thinkcentre M58e running Windows 7 32. My problem is that I am not able to boot up from the CD/DVD drive. I can only boot from the hard drive.

I have tried several bootable disks and none of them work yet those same disks boot up my other computer so I don't think it's bad disks. Also, the optical drive shows up in Device Manager and in My Computer, and I can browse any of those bootable disks from Explorer; I just can't boot from them.

The BIOS is set to boot from the optical drive first and the hard drive second. When booting up at the Lenovo splash screen I am supposed to be able to tap F12 and be presented with a list of devices to boot from. When I do that only the hard drive shows up. The optical drive is not listed.

Otherwise the computer works fine but I want to fix this in case I ever have to boot up from a rescue disk.

I am not too computer literate but somehow I have a feeling that this has something to do with the BIOS. I have the latest version of the BIOS (LENOVO 5HKT50AUS 02/04/2010.)

Thanks for you help.

John

 

Have you got lenovas toolbox installed ?
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-71882.html
　
Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox This package installs the full version of Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox on systems that run on Windows 7, Vista or XP. This release combines overall system health, system security, promotion of other ThinkVantage tools and offers, automatic notification when action is required, computing assistance and advanced diagnostics and diagnostic history.

Windows 7 (32-bit), Vista (32-bit), XP (32-bit)
26 May 2010
​

6.0.5514.55
Windows 7 (64-bit), Vista (64-bit)
26 May 2010
6.0.5514.55 ​

If this does not find an answer, have you checked to see if there is firmware update for the optical drive- sometimes they will only read different discs with a firmware update- did it ever read these disks?
Have you tried an optical drive cleaner?, in case the laser is playing up

 

Yes I do have the Toolbox, version 6. It says that there are no system health issues. But I have not used it to try to run any diagnostics.
No I haven't tried a cleaner. The drive works fine once I have booted into Windows. There are no firmware upgrades for the drive. It is a HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH40N ATA Device. Yes, at one time it did read the bootable disks. I'm not sure when it stopped working.

Thanks. I am going to use the Toolbox to run a diagnostic on the optical drive, then I'll report back.

 

Here are the results of the test I did with the Thinkvantage Toolbox.

CD Linear Seek Test
Test Started 7/15/2010 3:22:48 PM
Test Finished: Passed 7/15/2010 3:24:00 PM
CD Random Seek Test
Test Started 7/15/2010 3:24:00 PM
Test Finished: Passed 7/15/2010 3:24:23 PM
CD Funnel Seek Test
Test Started 7/15/2010 3:24:23 PM
Test Finished: Passed 7/15/2010 3:24:42 PM
CD Linear Read Compare Test
Test Started 7/15/2010 3:24:42 PM
Test Finished: Passed 7/15/2010 3:25:53 PM

 

Uninstalling/installing Itunes. and any dvd can cause similar problems
I have tried deleting upper and lower filters, as recommended by microsoft in the past, but it did not always work- so
Slysoft gave this method
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=34118&page=2

The link to microsoft -how to back up the registry is
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/?ln=en

 

OK, for everyone's information I finally fixed it. Lenovo just came out with a BIOS update and in the release notes it said that the problem I was having was a bug in the previous version. So I flashed the BIOS with the new version and now everything is fine. Gotta love those bugs.

 

Well done-as you said that you had the latest bios , at the beginning, I never thought to look,to see if there was one, but coming back to let others know that that solved it, is always helpful to others who find the same problem.
It is also a new one that I can add to look for with dvd drives not working as they should, albeit this was a Lenova.
Thanks

 

OK, so I've got a failed hard drive, and with the failed hard drive taken out, the Lenovo think centere won't boot from either recovery disk in either of two CD drives, no matter which way around they are set in the boot order in BIOS.

So HOW DO I UPDATE THE BIOS SO IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

villandra, which model of Lenovo do you have?

 

ThinkCentre, I think A150. Or A50 or something. Desktop. The product recovery CD is for types 8174 to 8094. Obviously I can't boot it up and look at the moment.

 

Since this is a different model number I think you should start a new thread regarding your problem.

I didn't see a BIOS update for that model that addresses a problem booting from CDROM. (Check the white tag on the back of the box to get the exact model number. Include the three digits at the end like WU4)

Which OS is that PC? If you hit F12 during startup and choose CDROM from the boot menu does it try to boot from the CD?

 

OK, let's try this again.

I have A50 Thinkcentre, type 8148. I have 2CKT25AUS bios.

The support pages say I'm supposed to have 2CKT25a, which I guess is the same thing - US. And it was released in January 2008, BEFORE I last updated my BIOS. Atleast, I think so. Anyhow, I certainly have that version.

There are different BIOS versoins for different Thinkcentre A50 models, and the guy here described 5HKT50AUS updated 2/4/2010, for Thinkcentre M58e.

I saw that a different bios version for a different model had been updated to correct not working with some CD-RW models. A long time ago.

But I definitely have the same problem.

I need to install the recovery CD's.

Dora

 

Hi,

I don't see any BIOS update relating to a CD boot problem. You do have the latest BIOS.

I think your should confirm that the recovery discs you are attempting to use will boot in another computer.

You should also test a known good bootable disc in the thinkcentre. Do you have any other boot CDs around?

This way you know if the thinkcentre can boot a CD and if your recovery discs are good.