My system fails to boot from a Windows 2000/XP install CD. What is wrong?

The following are things to check which might be causing the problem:

1. Make sure the BIOS is configured to boot from the CDROM device.
In AwardBIOS setup, go to the BIOS Features Setup page. In earlier
versions of AwardBIOS you will find option "Boot Sequence" which should
be configured so the CDROM is the first device listed, usually "CDROM, C,
A". In newer versions of AwardBIOS you will find option "First Boot
Device" which should be configured to "CDROM".

2. Make sure the Windows 2000/XP install CD you are using is a bootable CD
by trying to boot from it on another system. Not all Windows 2000 CD's
are bootable and it's possible you could be using a CD not created to be
bootable.

3. If the CDROM drive in the system is very old (5 years or more) it's
possible it does not properly support the standards necessary for booting
from the latest install CD's like that for Windows 2000 install. Try
another CDROM drive.

4. If you are using a SCSI CDROM drive, make sure the SCSI controller BIOS
is configured for CDBOOT. To verify this, reboot the system and look for a message during boot from the SCSI BIOS indicating a key sequence for
entering configuration mode. Once in configuration mode look for an
option involving CD boot.

5. If you receive an error message "CDBOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR", you may
be able to solve the problem by installing a BIOS upgrade.