Recently acquired A31 will not boot from CD

[TheOldHat]

Hey all, mad respect for you veterans out there. I need some help:
Purchased unknown condition IBM ThinkPad A31online because I've always dreamed of owning one of the pre-lenovo models.
Boots right up as soon as I get it home!
No action on an internal hard drive as it was removed "for security".
Attempted to boot from every CD I own:
several versions of Slitaz linux
Puppy Linux
Windows XP (homemade and official)
Windows 2000 (homemade)
the A31 recovery discs from Internet Archive (You guessed it: homemade)
Windows XP on USB (figured it was worth a try)
and I got a fat nothing. I even tried swapping the ultrabays around to see if that helped.
When I tried the USB stick I at least got an error stating that the disk could not be read but no matter what CD I try it goes straight to PXE boot after selecting CD-ROM from the F12 menu. It's almost like the drive isn't even attempted because the switch is instantaneous.
Am I doing something wrong? Does this take some IBM only CD? Do I need to order some XP floppies off of eBay? Is this a common issue like the GPU heat death I just read about? (scary, guys, thanks)

If I could get a live Linux like Puppy or something to come up I would be tickled pink. Want to test the components before I try to find an appropriate internal drive for it.

[dr_st]

Welcome to the forum.

Which CD device are you selecting from the boot menu?

[Gonzaleitor]

Is the IDE HDD inserted correctly? Do You have the caddy?

[TheOldHat]

I think I have the caddy, but I definitely don’t have the HDD. As stated in the original post, it was removed by the seller for security reasons. I hope to buy one as soon as I’m sure that the laptop is worth saving.

[TheOldHat]

Welcome to the forum.

Which CD device are you selecting from the boot menu?

The only one in the boot menu. I will send a picture when I get back home.

[Gonzaleitor]

Are you sure de cd drive works?

[TheOldHat]

Are you sure de cd drive works?

I'm sure of very little in life. The light comes on, the tray ejects, and I believe I can hear it do a test spin when I insert a CD.

[TheOldHat]

Welcome to the forum.

Which CD device are you selecting from the boot menu?

https://youtube.com/shorts/-zxcsqL1xLg?feature=share

Here's what it looks like

[ajkula66]

I would strongly suggest installing a known working hard drive before attempting any further diagnostics.

There were several occasions in the past where I ran across ThinkPads that wouldn't boot from the CD without the HDD installed, for seemingly no rhyme or reason.

Goodluck and keep us posted.

[olex126]

George just beat me to it...

Get an IDE hard drive installed and then try a re-install..the OS can't find anything to install TO..

Possibly a defective CD-Drive as well.

Regards.

Dave

[TheOldHat]

I would strongly suggest installing a known working hard drive before attempting any further diagnostics.

There were several occasions in the past where I ran across ThinkPads that wouldn't boot off the CD without the HDD installed, for seemingly no rhyme or reason.

Goodluck and keep us posted.

Sounds good man thanks.