Won't boot from optical drive?

[pjk]

I've been using and supporting IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads and desktops for years, and have used the "F12" key to pick a boot device forever.

Today I wanted to boot off the optical drive on one of my Thinkpads (T43 - 2668 series) and no matter what I do, it won't boot from a CD or DVD.

If I press "F12" nothing happens. If I set the optical drive in the BIOS as the first bootable device, it ignores it. What's even worse is all the hardware checks out fine.

Here is what I have checked:

Optical drive (reads/writes fine in any other context, if I boot Windows XP, it reads the disks I am trying to boot from just fine.)

Keyboard (used PC Doctor to verify the F12 key is working properly)

This has me totally stumped - never seen anything like it, especially when both the F12 key is ignored AND it ignores the boot order set in the BIOS...

[Harryc]

Have you tried to boot from the same CD's in another machine? If yes and they work, I'd say try re-seating the optical drive or swap it out. This could also be a loose Southbridge problem in which case you need a new systemboard.

[pjk]

Harry - I use these disks all the time. And I know the drive itself is good - it reads those same disks in Windows and I just burned some disks with it a couple days ago.

What bothers me is that regardless of whether the drive is good or not, "F12" should always get a response during boot, even if there are no bootable drives. It's very very strange that I don't get any response to that key at all right now.

[RealBlackStuff]

Could F12 have been disabled in BIOS?

[pjk]

Could F12 have been disabled in BIOS?

Already checked that, and I've used that option many times on this machine in the past.

Thanks for the input, though.

[RealBlackStuff]

Possibly you have a bad/near-dead CMOS battery, hence the boot-order doesn't 'hold'.
Before you swap it, check that there is no supervisor password set in BIOS.

[pjk]

Possibly you have a bad/near-dead CMOS battery, hence the boot-order doesn't 'hold'.

That wouldn't seem likely in this case since when I changed the default boot order the BIOS remembered that just fine through reboots/power-cycles.

So here's the latest development:

Shutdown the machine and packed it into the car trunk, it spent about an hour in there.

Booted it up at another location, I see an unfamiliar screen. Then I realize I had left one of the boot CD's in the drive, and it was booting from it!

Not only that, when I restarted it and tried "F12" - that worked fine too.

Very very strange...

[pjk]

Update:

I now know what the reason is for this, though not quite clear why.

This all started when I bought a 2-port USB 3.0 (Bytecc brand, ExpressCard-34 form factor) add-in card. I've been very excited about USB 3.0 lately, and the fact that I can get that kind of performance from a 5+ year old laptop when even most current laptops don't have that feature is pretty cool.

I already had an AKE 2-port "flush bezel" card (ExpressCard-54 form factor) that I have permanently installed in my T400, but since I'm currently setting up a T520 for someone (only has an ExpressCard-34 slot), I thought I'd get a narrow card for that to speed up my backups, and then I'd use it on other machines like my T43 too.

But whenever that card is inserted in the T43, it prevents me from booting from anything but the internal HDD, and blocks the F12 key on boot. Weird. But repeatable.

When I swapped the AKE card in instead of the Bytecc card, the laptop behaves normally, card works fine too.

[cadillacmike68]

Possibly you have a bad/near-dead CMOS battery, hence the boot-order doesn't 'hold'.
Before you swap it, check that there is no supervisor password set in BIOS.

Hi,

I clear all my passwords when working on the machines, but will leaving a pw in the BIOS screw up the machine if i change the CMOS battery? Or will it just insist on my entering it when i next re-start it?

You know i just figured this out.

Taking out the CMOS removes the date / time and the BIOS wants you to enter it the next time it starts and you can't do that if you don't already know the supervisor PW (if there is one set!).

So, yes you need the supervisor PW if there is one and you take out the CMOS battery, but no it will not screw up your BIOS.