Boot problem on a Asrock 939Dual-SATA2

My Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard seems to have lost the ability to boot
on the CD rom drive. I have selected the CD/DVD rom drive as first boot in
the bios, but during the boot process when I am invited to press any key to
boot on the CD I press some key but the mobo do not seem to detect it and
then boot on the hard disk.
My keyboard Logitech is on a PS2 ourlet and works well to open the bios, but
not to boot on the CD/DVD drive. I tried to boot on other cds I have booted
on before, but no luck!
What could cause this problem, how can I make it work?
I want to install Windows Server 2003 on my computer and I do not know where
I could find some bootdisks to start the installation.
Many thanks in advance!
Alain

"Alain" <> wrote in message
news:4492849e$0$27596$ k...
> My Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard seems to have lost the ability to boot
> on the CD rom drive. I have selected the CD/DVD rom drive as first boot in
> the bios, but during the boot process when I am invited to press any key
to
> boot on the CD I press some key but the mobo do not seem to detect it and
> then boot on the hard disk.

Wait! The CDrom is your _first_ boot device and you have to press a key to
boot it? Something is basically wrong; if the CDrom is present, and if a
bootable CD is mounted, then booting the CD should happen with no
intervention whatever.

Are you sure you have a bootable CD mounted?

Of course. I first thougt my CD was not bootable, but when I tried other CDs
I had booted from without any problem before, I did not get any luck.
With all my different motherboards I always had to press a key if I wanted
to boot from a CD.
"Felger Carbon" <> a écrit dans le message de news:
syBkg.13741$ .net...
>
> "Alain" <> wrote in message
> news:4492849e$0$27596$ k...
>> My Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard seems to have lost the ability to
>> boot
>> on the CD rom drive. I have selected the CD/DVD rom drive as first boot
>> in
>> the bios, but during the boot process when I am invited to press any key
> to
>> boot on the CD I press some key but the mobo do not seem to detect it and
>> then boot on the hard disk.
>
> Wait! The CDrom is your _first_ boot device and you have to press a key
> to
> boot it? Something is basically wrong; if the CDrom is present, and if a
> bootable CD is mounted, then booting the CD should happen with no
> intervention whatever.
>
> Are you sure you have a bootable CD mounted?
>
>

On Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:12:30 +0200, "Alain" <>
wrote:

> Of course. I first thougt my CD was not bootable, but when I tried other CDs
> I had booted from without any problem before, I did not get any luck.
> With all my different motherboards I always had to press a key if I wanted
> to boot from a CD.

Some CDs include a patch in their bootstrap that requires you to press a
key or the boot will fail and the PC will then try to boot from the hard
disk. This is to avoid problems when rebooting while installing some
software. Perhaps this is what you are seeing here.

--
Steven

The problem is that the mobo do not apparently detect the pressed key and
and therefore do not boot on the CD. ( but why? I can enter the bios in
pressing F2...
"Steven Saunderson" <> a écrit dans le message de news:
...
> On Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:12:30 +0200, "Alain" <>
> wrote:
>
>> Of course. I first thougt my CD was not bootable, but when I tried other
>> CDs
>> I had booted from without any problem before, I did not get any luck.
>> With all my different motherboards I always had to press a key if I
>> wanted
>> to boot from a CD.
>
> Some CDs include a patch in their bootstrap that requires you to press a
> key or the boot will fail and the PC will then try to boot from the hard
> disk. This is to avoid problems when rebooting while installing some
> software. Perhaps this is what you are seeing here.
>
> --
> Steven

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 00:01:14 +0200, "Alain" <>
wrote:

> The problem is that the mobo do not apparently detect the pressed key and
> and therefore do not boot on the CD. ( but why? I can enter the bios in
> pressing F2...

I think the file that displays "Press any key to boot from CD" is called
BOOTFIX.BIN. I have just checked this file. It purges the keystroke
buffer, displays the prompt, and then waits for a key until it times out
and loads the hard drive #0 MBR.

Do you get the prompt and a 5 or 10 second timeout ?

The other thing I see in this file is that in certain circumstances it
only checks if the Ctrl key is pressed rather than any key. Does
pressing Ctrl help you ?

--
Steven

I tried to boot on my different bootable CDs by pressing the Ctrl key, but
it was ignored just like the other keys.
I checked the CDs and found boot.bin or bootfont.bin files but no
bootfix.bin file.
Some CDs who are supposed to be bootable (like the Win XP 64 bit and Win
Server 2003 64 bit) do not even have a file with a .bin extention on their
CD.
So the mistery is still complete.

"Steven Saunderson" <> a écrit dans le message de news:
...
> On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 00:01:14 +0200, "Alain" <>
> wrote:
>
>> The problem is that the mobo do not apparently detect the pressed key and
>> and therefore do not boot on the CD. ( but why? I can enter the bios in
>> pressing F2...
>
> I think the file that displays "Press any key to boot from CD" is called
> BOOTFIX.BIN. I have just checked this file. It purges the keystroke
> buffer, displays the prompt, and then waits for a key until it times out
> and loads the hard drive #0 MBR.
>
> Do you get the prompt and a 5 or 10 second timeout ?
>
> The other thing I see in this file is that in certain circumstances it
> only checks if the Ctrl key is pressed rather than any key. Does
> pressing Ctrl help you ?
>
> --
> Steven

Oh yes, I do get a prompt and about 5 sec timeout.
"Steven Saunderson" <> a écrit dans le message de news:
...
> On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 00:01:14 +0200, "Alain" <>
> wrote:
>
>> The problem is that the mobo do not apparently detect the pressed key and
>> and therefore do not boot on the CD. ( but why? I can enter the bios in
>> pressing F2...
>
> I think the file that displays "Press any key to boot from CD" is called
> BOOTFIX.BIN. I have just checked this file. It purges the keystroke
> buffer, displays the prompt, and then waits for a key until it times out
> and loads the hard drive #0 MBR.
>
> Do you get the prompt and a 5 or 10 second timeout ?
>
> The other thing I see in this file is that in certain circumstances it
> only checks if the Ctrl key is pressed rather than any key. Does
> pressing Ctrl help you ?
>
> --
> Steven

"Alain" <> wrote in message
news:4493fe4e$0$27576$ k...
> Oh yes, I do get a prompt and about 5 sec timeout.
> "Steven Saunderson" <> a écrit dans le message de news:
> ...
>> On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 00:01:14 +0200, "Alain" <>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The problem is that the mobo do not apparently detect the pressed key
>>> and
>>> and therefore do not boot on the CD. ( but why? I can enter the bios
>>> in
>>> pressing F2...
>>
>> I think the file that displays "Press any key to boot from CD" is called
>> BOOTFIX.BIN. I have just checked this file. It purges the keystroke
>> buffer, displays the prompt, and then waits for a key until it times out
>> and loads the hard drive #0 MBR.
>>
>> Do you get the prompt and a 5 or 10 second timeout ?
>>
>> The other thing I see in this file is that in certain circumstances it
>> only checks if the Ctrl key is pressed rather than any key. Does
>> pressing Ctrl help you ?
>>
>> --
>> Steven
>
>By chance,do you have 1 or 2 cd rom devices installed?
Maybe pointing to wrong drive.If only 1,do you have a spare sitting
around?Will these cds boot on another computer?Spare keyboard to try with?

C.

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 15:03:41 +0200, "Alain" <>
wrote:

> Oh yes, I do get a prompt and about 5 sec timeout.

Perhaps the file is called something other than BOOTFIX.BIN now. The
prompt and delay look like the same code.

You mention that you have a PS2 keyboard. Can you check the BIOS
options to ensure you are not disabling legacy PS2 devices or possibly
enabling USB keyboard. I don't know if you have any such options but
there might be something that disables your keyboard after POST
temporarily.

--
Steven