Other Help Topics :: Won't boot

DSL isn't booting - the computer just goes straight through to windows, as if the DSL CD isn't in the drive. Knoppix boots fine - but this computer isn't powerful enough for it.

1.) I know BIOS is set to boot from CD
2.) It's DSL 2.1 so it's not extremely outdated
3.) I know the CD is fine because it boots perfectly on my Dell Desktop.

Any ideas as to what could be going wrong?

1) CD-ROM drives are different
2) CD-Burner-Program
3) CD-R or CD-RW

Please try to change 2) or 3) and find out which Burner-Program is the best for your CD-Burner.

I don't quite follow -

I downloaded DSL 2.1 and Knoppix 4.0 ISOs a few weeks ago
I burned them both onto 700mb Memorex CD-Rs using Alcohol 120%
I set this laptop to Boot from CD
I restarted pc w/ knoppix in drive
Knoppix booted no problems, but ran extremely slow
I restarted pc w/ dsl in drive
Windows booted
I restarted again
Windows booted

I know this CD is fine because I've used it on other computers.

I don't understand why knoppix worked fine, but dsl is skipped.

1) CD-ROM drives are different

Try to change CD-ROM drive and test with that CD again, or make a new DSL-CD that you can use it with you PC.

So the CD I made with the CD-rom drive on the desktop may not be compatible with the CD-rom drive on the notebook? That's strange. I don't have any extra CD-rom drives just sitting around to plug up, just the internal one on the laptop. If that's really the problem then I suppose I'm just SOL. I don't know why that'd be a problem though - the drive is just reading the burned image. I don't see any reason why it would have a problem unless the CD was bad or there was an incorrect setting somewhere.

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