CD will not install OS on Netvista

[greif1]

I picked up 2 used Netvista 6792-43u desktop machines. They have the XP-pro stickers on them and I want to install XP-pro onto them.

Problem: I cannot make the machine boot from the XP sp2 cd-rom
It reads cd's ok (the hd has w98 dos with cd support on it right now), will boot from the floppy, will boot Ultimate Boot CD from the CD, but not from the XP cd.
Both machines do the same thing so it is not likely a defective something.


I made a set of XP install diskettes which let me boot from the 3.5 drive, which is supposed to hand off to the cd, but the cd won't read.


I have tried lots of things;
Flash to newest bios
Put in New CD drive
Wiped HD with Fdisk
Disconnected HD
Made copy of XP cd to work from
Tried 2 other XP cd's
Unplugged floppy and HD, reset bios to boot from CD


One odd thing that may mean something; In the bios settings of F12 boot order, the floppy and hard drive both have a plus sign shown on the left, but the CD does not.


Another thing that probably does not apply; The IBM site listed a problem on another model Netvista machine; certain bios would not boot from multi-session cd's (they had firmware to fix it (that's why I did the BIOS flash)

I have a set of restore CD's on order, which I hope will work. What is going on?

 

[Trevatwork]

Hi greif1

Since it boots from the ultimate boot cd why dont you try using nlite and make a new bootable winxp pro cd.

also lots of start-up options at bootdisk.com



Trevor

 

[greif1]

Ooops, I made a rookie mistake! The regular guy was out, so I used what I thought was an XP install cd from his desk.... but it was really only and SP-2 update disk! Using a regular install disk (with a lot more holograms!) installs as it should.
gr