A31 Not Recognizing CD Drive at Boot Time [ Edited ]

[neumannu47]

Even though the CD drive in an IBM A31 computer works fine in Windows, the computer will not boot to the drive. During the boot sequence, the computer spins up the drive like it is trying to read it, but it does not. The BIOS is, of course, set to boot to the CD first. A replacement drive did not work, either. The big clue is probably that the "CD Drive" entry in the Startup section of the BIOS has an exclamation point beside it. Note that this exclamation point is in the BIOS, not in Windows. It seems to me that there must be a motherboard problem. The BIOS is the last version (1.13).

[ajkula66 Guru · Accepted solution]

Back to BIOS.

Press F9 to restore defaults, then F10 to save and exit. Reboot.

Press F12 on boot to choose CD as a temporary boot device.

Good luck.

[neumannu47]

George, you are obviously a genius as this solution worked even though I was sure that the BIOS was correct. Please explain what the problem was. Thank you!

[ajkula66 Guru]

I'm far from being a genius, just have gone through more A3x ThinkPads than I'd like to remember...

Older BIOS versions - as seen on units from this era - can be quite confusing if one is not used to them. IBM finally got it right on T4x series by separating the boot screen into "included" and "excluded" devices...

So, whenever in doubt, load defaults and take it from there...

Good luck.