danielgent

I've got a friends Toshiba Satellite Pro A120, it was running very slow so I said I'd do the usual for him. Backup all his documents then reinstall windows. not so simple!
Firstly, trying to boot from CD so I can boot into Ubuntu or reinstall windows. Took me long enough to work out I had to press DEL/ESC to get into the BIOS, but once I set it to boot from CD (and had a bootable CD in the drive), it just kept booting from the HDD. Every so often I would get an error saying
"Media test failure - check cable"
or something similar, theres lots on the internet about that. I think its something to do with if the boot order has CD first then it has LAN as 2nd.

Managed to boot Ubuntu from pendrive. Trying to copy his documents over to my external drive but was copying really REALLY slow (like 1MB/s) and kept getting I/O errors on a few files. I can't run HDD diagnostic software as I can't boot from CD (could get the Ultimate Boot CD onto a USB stick though if anyone thinks it could help?).

In windows, the CD drive only reads real CDs (like audio and DVDs, not CDRs or DVDRs). does this mean a failing drive? what puzzles me more though, is that I switched the CD drive with a working CD drive from another laptop and windows now doesnt recognise this new CD drive at all! When Putting a bootable CD in this new CD drive it still boots from HDD (not recognising the CD drive at all). The BIOS is a bit useless and doesnt show detected drives....
Also, booting Ubuntu from pendrive, with the original CD drive, it only reads real CDs and DVDs and all copied ones are seen as blank discs, and replacing the CD drive with a known working one in Ubuntu means its not recognised at all (so its not windows driver problems).

When I started messing around with it I do remember windows saying the time had been reset, so I set the time properly, then it did the same again i think. A flat CMOS battery couldnt be responsible for this?

Is the motherboard, and specifically the IDE controller or one of the ports broken, or am I doing something stupid? I'm tempted to just install Ubuntu by USB and tell him not to bother with CDs anymore ;^)

Any suggestions or comments would be much much appreciated!

Thanks,
Dan Gent

TriggerFinger

In some laptops pressing F12 at logo splash during boot up will give you a menu where you can choose a boot device. You may choose CD/DVD drive from there. If you CD/DVD drive is dead and cannot be seen by the BIOS then consider replacement or try installing Windows (XP) using this method....
http://www.syschat.com/install-windo...py-cd-463.html

danielgent

Its esc to access the BIOS on this laptop. I said that at the start of my post. I did put in a new DVD drive, I also said that. Still the same effect.

I think I'd rather just install Ubuntu off a USB pendrive, no problem to do at all.

No other ideas about this? Is it just a faulty motherboard and thats why it behaves randomly with different drives?

TriggerFinger

You mentioned about going into BIOS. With that I believe you have set boot order to boot from CD/DVD drive first before booting from any other device. So after doing this the laptop just kept on booting from HDD and/or LAN? AFAIK you can disable booting from HDD/LAN (to make sure it only boots from CD/DVD drive). Have you tried this?

You also mentioned that original CD/DVD drive only reads 'real CDs'. Does that mean your Windows installation CD is not genuine but a copy on a CDR?

danielgent

Yes i set it in the BIOS so it booted first from the CD drive. I even took out the harddrive and it still kept not seeing the CD drive and complaining of no bootable devices (or an error similar to this). Even when I switched CD drives with a known working one though!

I've not got up to the point of installing windows yet. I've got the XP setup on several CDRs for ease of use but theres a real copy somewhere in my cupboards I think. I dont use windows myself so I dont own a copy! firsty i wanted to boot from ubuntu (which I have now using a USB pen rather than a CDR) so I can backup all the documents on it first. On another note, I had to run checkdisk five times before it stopped giving me errors on the HDD, and the first time it took hours there were so many problems with files. Not sure if this is related, but I really want to run Drive Fitness Test (which is a downloadable ISO) or similar to test the HDD is OK before I start reinstalling.

TriggerFinger

So you tried replacing the CD/DVD drive with a good one but problem remains (assuming bootable CDs are all good)? I cannot think of anything but suspect the motherboard.

danielgent

I replaced the CD drive with a working one out of a working laptop, and yes, it still didnt boot from any CDs. Although with the replacement working CD drive, windows and linux both didnt even recognise the drive! where as at least with the original CD drive it recognised the CD drive (and played "real" CDs/DVDs).
every other laptop i've changed CD drives on I've just quickly swapped them round, is there anything else I need to do? Reset the BIOS or something?
Is it worth me trying to get hold of another working CD drive?

Very very strange problem dont you think. I was advised on another forum to get a CD drive cleaning kit (or alternatively just some rubbing alcohol and clean the lens manually) to see if that helps it read CD-Rs, in which case it would boot off them fine. But that wouldnt explain the problem with putting another CD drive in.....

TriggerFinger

Using any other CD/DVD drive may not work all the time as some would depend on the compatibility of the BIOS and the drive's firmware.

My 2 cents... it is important (at least for me) that BIOS can see the CD/DVD drive - BIOS may show brand/model of the CD/DVD drive attached or at least boot from it. If this is not the case, then I would try another drive (exact model or from an exact brand/model of laptop). I may also go the extent of a BIOS update should I have a floppy to use but would consider motherboard replacement already at this point.