Cannot boot from CD or external USB

[Peter Smout]

On 21/08/14 09:29, Thomas Blasejewicz wrote:
> Good afternoon
> I do have an old HP nx9005 laptop, used exclusively for "experimenting"
> with Linux.
> Currently: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (installed from CD)
>
> due to the limited hardware I would like to install Lubuntu 14.04
> However:
> * when the live CD is in the drive, the PC does not read it at startup
> and boots "normally" from HDD
> * doing so, it often sounds a terribly loud alarm, something I have
> never heard from a computer before.

I heard a "prolonged 'BIOS beep'" from one of my machines due to a 
dislodged cable between optical drive & m-board, Also a friend of mine 
had a very extreme screech from her machine when a RAM stick was 
dislodged moving the machine.

Might be completely unrelated but that is my 2 pence

Pete S


> * booting from HDD and inserting the CD later -> "Software Packages
> Volume Detected" is displayed
> and the Package Manager starts .. but that is it. I cannot run the CD
> * connecting an external DVD drive (USB) -> same thing
> * sometimes I get a whole "flood" of error messages (which I do not
> remember all)
> * when I try Ctrl+Alt+delete or something like to do a forced new start,
> I get a GNU Grub something screen, but here, same as the next item, I
> cannot choose anything.
> Just waiting for something to happen "automatically" does not help,
> since nothing further happens
> * when I try to call up the BIOS or Setup menu, I DO get a number of
> options for each
> AND and move between the individual items up and down with the arrow keys,
> but the Enter key does not work, so I cannot choose anything.
> * If 12.04 somehow boots and I can start any software, the enter key
> works normally
> * Once the O has booted, the CD is recognized = probably meaning the
> drive itself is not broken
>
> Question:
> IS there a way past all this crazy stuff and set the BIOS so the PC will
> boot from the DVD drive?
> Or any other way to get in there, delete everything present and make a
> clean new install?
> Like for example one of those complex commands that you can run in a
> terminal?
>
> Somehow I would like to think, that the hardware is still functioning,
> but something in the OS has gone terribly wrong.
>
> Thank you in advance
> Thomas
>
> (* that machine is in my office; next time I can play with it is
> tomorrow afternoon ...)
>