Can't get Toshiba to boot from cd-rom.

[macaw]

I have a Toshiba 430cdt and am trying to load XP pro on a formated 18 gig hd with the system files installed but I can't figure out how to get the laptop th boot from the cd-rom. It boots fine from the floppy weather it is internally or externally installed. Any ideas on how to access the bios settings to change boot order?
Thanks in advance

 

[harris79]

Hold the "C" key down, when it is booting?

Steve

 

[harris79]

The C key thing makes my 480CDT boot from CD. To get to the BIOS hit ESC then F1 when it boots.

Steve

 

[macaw]

Esc F1 gets me into the bios but I don't have the option to boot from cd-rom first. pushing the c key will not boot from cd, it hits but won't boot, I am trying to boot from a win 95 boot disk that works on other machines.

 

[harris79]

A BIOS without boot options, like an ashtray on a motorbike!

On my 480CDT (4Gb HD, 64 Mb RAM, Cutting edge stuff ), the boot options are at the bottom of the first page (of 2!).

I have to press C very quickly, as soon as I power on or Ctrl-Alt-Del, it only seem to detect the key press for a couple of seconds.

I was trying to load Linux (Ubuntu) on my old laptop, but 64Mb is not enough, I need to find a different version.

Steve

 

[guitarzan]

On my Satellite Pro 4300 (which has 64M RAM also, don't know the HD size coz I don't have 45 minutes to wait for it to boot! ), The option is not in the BIOS screens... you have to hit F2 on bootup to get to the Boot Menu.

 

[macaw]

F2 worked thanks a bunch.
Anybody know where I can find 64 or greater MB of ram for this machine, it takes EDO ram and I need atleast 64MB to load XP?

Thanks in advance.

 

[linney]

Check your machine out with something like Belarc Advisor and see how many memory slots it has available.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

See if a site like this can help you locate suitable memory?

http://computermemoryupgrades.com.a...=Notebook&Manuf=Toshiba&ManufSeries=Satellite

I think you will be disappointed by running XP on an old laptop, while it may work in a fashion, you wont get much done on it, even with extra RAM, especially if you run a modern anti virus or other security software on it. You probably wont be able to fit much more RAM in anyway due to hardware limitations and probably end up in the 64 - 192MB range, but I could be wrong in that summation.

I would stick with Windows 98se or similar, and even in that scenario you'll find one of the few remaining virus scanners that works on 98se, "Avast", is going to slow you down considerably.

 

[macaw]

One more question, this machine has no usb ports, I purchased a Best Connectivity usb 2.0 card bus pcmcia card to use in one of the 2 slots on this machine. the card works fine in newer laptops, but the toshiba refuses to see it. It sees the lan card and the modem just fine. So I know the slots work. The driver disk that came with the card has no drivers for the toshiba.
Any Ideas??

Thanks in advance.

 

[mscallisto]

Most likely your old BIOS and/or old operating system doesn't support USB

sam