HP/Compaq laptop 8710p won't boot to CD - anyone know why?

[tankman1989]

I have a couple of these laptops and I can't seem to get them to boot to CD. I have the BIOS set correctly and my model 6510b's are almost identical BIOS wise, but the 8710 won't boot to CD. I'm trying to re-install the OS. Anyone know how to do this? Google searches came up empty when I looked (well unuseful I should say).

 

[River Valley Computer]

This might be WAY to obvious but are you installing XP, Vista or Win 7? I pulled a real dumb one the other day and tried to load Win 7 onto a system that was a CD only - not DVD as the Win 7 media is. Just a thought.

 

[tankman1989]

This might be WAY to obvious but are you installing XP, Vista or Win 7? I pulled a real dumb one the other day and tried to load Win 7 onto a system that was a CD only - not DVD as the Win 7 media is. Just a thought.

That is a good thought but that is not the issue. The media worked on the 6510b and it is CD but when I put it in the 8710 it doesn't boot. I'm just stumped b/c all the bios options are the same so I'm thinking that it might be a hardware issue at this point.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Have you tried with a USB external optical drive?

 

[mikeroq]

Have you tried a different optical drive?

 

[HFultzjr]

I have a couple of these laptops and I can't seem to get them to boot to CD. I have the BIOS set correctly and my model 6510b's are almost identical BIOS wise, but the 8710 won't boot to CD. I'm trying to re-install the OS. Anyone know how to do this? Google searches came up empty when I looked (well unuseful I should say).

I've seen bad hard drives not allow a boot from CD/DVD and cause "weird" issues.

Have you tested the hard drive (not just the SMART readings)?

Try and boot without the hard drive attached.

I assume you are try different CD/DVD.....maybe a live OS.

With the amount of bad drives out there, I would go with that 1st.

 

[FremontPC]

I notice there's a "device access manager" listed for that model on hp's website, other updates that might be worth checking into.

If you hit the f9 key during startup, is the optical drive listed?

 

[tankman1989]

I notice there's a "device access manager" listed for that model on hp's website, other updates that might be worth checking into.

If you hit the f9 key during startup, is the optical drive listed?

Yes it is listed and I selected to boot from it but no dice.

I tried booting the CD on other laptops and it works fine. I tried booting to another laptop of the same model and it worked fine, this one is just having issues it seems. I'll see if it will boot from a USB optical drive and go from there.

 

[mikeroq]

Pop in a working optical drive from another one of your laptops. See if that helps. I've had multiple desktop computers not boot from a disc until I replaced the optical drive.

 

[FremontPC]

Can the 8710p browse the CD in Windows?