Zalman VE300 Help Needed

[HFultzjr]

Ok, so I broke down and got a Zalman VE300.
Loved it so far, until now.
I've had it fail to boot on several Dell laptops.
Here is the scenario:

Zalman VE300
_.iso folder with sub folders containing various .iso
WD 320GB drive (checked and in good condition) formatted NTFS with 1 partition.
Dell Inspiron and Dell Latitude Laptops 2.0 USB running Vista 32 bit, so they are several years old
I can't get the boot options to show the Zalman Virtual CD-Rom as an option.

Things I've tried:

Tried different USB ports

The Zalman "shows" the .iso as being "mounted" by the little icon on the screen. Mounted and unmounted several times. Does not show up.

Tried various boot options from BIOS (does not show up here, even though it is powered on and showing mounted).

Tried enabling and using the F12 boot menu selection..........same, does not show up as an option.

Tried Zalman Dual Mode......Hard drive mode only.......Virtual drive only.

Zaman shows .iso as mounted or unmounted depending on what I select.

Tried numerous .iso.....Linux mint 32 bit and 64 bit......UBCD.....Ubuntu 32 bit.....Hiren's boot cd.....Parted Magic....and some others.

I have got it to work fine on a Toshiba and Acer laptop

At this point I'm thinking it might need a Y adapter for some more power....got one on order.

Any other suggestions while I have these 2 laptops in shop to try it on?

Thanks.

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

old dell computers have always been a problem for it. sometimes updating computer firmware makes a difference but if in your workshop just use your disk copies.

 

[HFultzjr]

old dell computers have always been a problem for it. sometimes updating computer firmware makes a difference but if in your workshop just use your disk copies.

I was afraid of that!
Figures I get a lot of those.
Thanks

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

I was afraid of that!
Figures I get a lot of those.
Thanks

it will surprise you the amount of old dells it does work on though so all is not lost.

 

[dannyict]

I've you eject the physical cd/dvd then it will most of the times work, luckly it's just a leveler to push

 

[HFultzjr]

I've you eject the physical cd/dvd then it will most of the times work, luckly it's just a leveler to push

Hmmmm...didn't think of that.

I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

 

[NJW]

eject the physical cd/dvd then it will most of the times work

Just to expand on that, I had to physically remove the optical drive on the couple of Dells that I've had come through. Then just boot from CD/DVD option.

Toshiba UEFIs, on the other hand: never got any of them to boot from the Zalman.

 

[HFultzjr]

Just to expand on that, I had to physically remove the optical drive on the couple of Dells that I've had come through. Then just boot from CD/DVD option.

Toshiba UEFIs, on the other hand: never got any of them to boot from the Zalman.

I'll give it a try.

Thanks