R32 wierd boot problem (new group member)

[kbushnz]

Hi All

Had a troll thru the forum to see if anyone has had this before and didnt see anything.

I have the R32 and it will not boot to HDD with the CD drive in its bay.

Take it out and it willboot fine.

Also I have found that when the cd drive is in not only will the boot hang, it will also not allow entry into the Bios thru F1 or the boot menu F12.

Also it will hang if I put a USB Flash drive.

Its a real pain in the @#** as I am tring to restore windows on the HDD and cant install XP without a Cd drive...

Looking at removing the HDD from laptop, put in a usb external drive and get it to boot to dos with the XP install files on the HDD.

But if anyone can answer what may be causing it to not allow boot when CD Drive is in?

NB Cd drive has power.

Thanks in Advance.

[Harryc]

The only things that come to mind are a defective drive, or a problem with the IDE connector in the ultrabay cage. Normally one might think of boot order in this set of circumstances, but boot order should not hang the machine without any media in the drive. By the way, there are no discs in the drive....right? I'd try making the CDROM drive first in boot order in BIOS...just because I'd also try removing the hard drive and trying to boot off of CD.

[kbushnz]

Yes I thought that the drive was defective. So I used another drive from a friend...Still hangs.

Tried with CD and without.... No change.

I cannot select the CD for 1st boot in the bios unless it is docked in the bay.

I cant get into the bios as it freezes at the Think Pad splash screen.

Dam catch 22.....

I thought maybe another device was causing the hang. So removed the only other one fitted.. The 56K Modem (not used anyway)

Still hung.

Very occasionally it will work but this is one in one hundred.

Its either the connector in the dock or a MB fault.

Oh well see if anyone else has any bright ideas.

Thanks