Can't boot my Dell Latitude C600 from CD or DVD

Blaise170 · Dec 5, 2013

Hi all,

I'm currently trying to restore a Dell Latitude C600. I was able to install Windows XP to it and all was well on my quest to making it a fully capable machine. I then purchased a new battery and DVD drive for the laptop since both were broken. For about three weeks or so, the laptop was left alone. As I turned it on a few days ago, Windows XP told me that it could no longer boot. Windows XP can still boot into safe mode, but it cannot boot with networking or command line enabled. The system freezes when loading agp440.sys. This seems to be a common freeze due to graphics card driver issues, but even after purging the driver from the laptop, it will still freeze.

At this point I decided to just try to reinstall the OS. I have a Windows XP CD and a Linux DVD. I tried using the new DVD drive to boot Linux, but the laptop skips right over the CD/DVD drive and instead tries to boot from the HDD only. With the HDD removed, it is impossible to boot at all. I then tried the old CD drive since it still worked despite having a broken drawer. It is also detected in the BIOS, but is unbootable. I can get neither Linux nor Windows XP to boot so I am out of options.

What can I do to restore the PC? I do not care which operating system, so long as I can get one installed.

RealBeast · Dec 5, 2013

You can run the Knoppix Live Linux from HERE off a DVD or CD (the DVD has a lot more programs and features than the CD version) without a HDD installed.

cklaubur · Dec 5, 2013

Are you trying to press F12 in the POST screen to get to the boot menu, or changing the boot order in the BIOS settings?

I'm a bit familiar with the Latitude C-series. My dad has an old Inspiron 4100 that had the motherboard replaced with one from a Latitude C610 installed. The Inspiron 4100 was a cheaper clone of the Latitude C610/C640.

Have you tried booting a different system with those CD's/DVD's?

Casey

Blaise170 · Dec 5, 2013

cklaubur :

I have tried changing the boot order to the DVD/CD drives first. I've also tried using F12 to boot directly from the drive, but neither will work.

I have also tried both disks in my desktop and they both boot as they should. The laptop was also booting from the drive when I got it, but it isn't now for some reason.

photonboy · Dec 5, 2013

Can you boot to USB?

If so, learn how to transfer Windows to a USB drive (tutorials online).

*You can TEST the ability to boot to USB by installing MEMTEST www.memtest.org . Like the DVD, it needs to be first in the boot order.

**Another thing to try first perhaps is SYSTEM RESTORE from safe mode or via your Install disc, then go to a previous RESTORE POINT if available to see if your issues go away.

Blaise170 · Dec 6, 2013

Unfortunately the BIOS does not have an option for USB boot. I am going to bed for now, but something I thought of that may work is trying to reinstall the drivers for the disc drive. I don't think it will work since the BIOS just isn't reading it, but it's worth a shot.

By the way, I noticed in safe mode at least that I cannot open any CDs or DVDs with either drive.

photonboy · Dec 6, 2013

Considering you have TWO disc drives that are unbootable now even before Windows that leaves little besides defective HARDWARE.

You could try resetting the CMOS but I doubt it will help, however it's the only advise I have. Again, it has nothing to do with Windows since your issue exists before even booting to Windows.

Since you can't boot to USB or DVD then you can't install anything or run diagnostic software.

My guess is something on the MOTHERBOARD is now defective which pretty much makes your laptop TOAST. That would explain BOTH the failure to boot to DISC outside of Windows and also why you had bootup problems.

It doesn't matter specifically WHAT it is as it's not going to be fixable.

The good news is that there are some pretty nice laptops for $400 or even cheaper. Additionally, you should remove the hard drive and recover the data using something like a BlacX USB device, desktop PC via SATA cables or a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE/PATA adapter for old PATA drives.

Blaise170 · Dec 6, 2013

I've still yet to try out anything else diagnostically, but buying a new laptop is not currently an option. I bought this laptop for $15 and it was working fine which is why I decided to replace the battery and drive. My only goal was to use this for programming as I cannot always work on my desktop.

RealBeast · Dec 6, 2013

Blaise170 :

So remove the HDD and try to boot from Knoppix Live Linux.

Blaise170 · Dec 6, 2013

RealBeast :

Removing the HDD simply gives the message "No bootable devices found."

Blaise170 · Dec 6, 2013

I downloaded the driver for the new DVD drive and placed it on a flash drive. When booting into safe mode and installing it, I was able to get it to read my Windows XP disk. I am now in the process of installing Windows XP so I'll see what happens from here.

P.S. My flash drive is 128GB and formatted into NTFS, which appears as a HDD on this laptop. A post I saw on Dell seems to suggest that the DVD drive is a slave to the HDD, so perhaps it wasn't working correctly since the HDD was not either.

photonboy · Dec 7, 2013

By "slave" I'm guessing this is an old laptop with a PATA (not SATA) IDE drive. It was common to have a "MASTER" and "SLAVE" for example on the ribbon cable (or cable select) in desktops.

However, I'm pretty sure no drive had to be physically installed on the MASTER (HDD) for the SLAVE (DISC DRIVE) to function so you should still have been able to boot the DVD with no HDD installed.

Hopefully this works for you.

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Can't boot my Dell Latitude C600 from CD or DVD

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