I am in the process of fixing a very slow bogged down Dell G series computer. I thought it would be a simple format the C: drive and re-install WinXP type job, but it’s turned out to be a bit more complicated. It refuses to boot from the CD drive, I’ve tried 3 different discs WinXP Home, WinXP Pro, and Knoppix and it won’t boot from any of them. I tried changing the boot order in Bios and when that didn’t work I tried manually telling the system to boot from CD via F12, I also made sure that the CD Rom drive is plugged into a primary slot not a secondary, I even checked to make sure that the cables and ports are clean and securely connected but it still refuses to boot from a CD. It seems to start the drive lights come on but I don’t hear the disc spin and after a few seconds it pops up the message “Boot failed press F1 to retry or F2 to enter Setup” . I would really appreciate any suggestions.
