Cant Boot OS installation Disk

[gvp16]

Hi all, ive just build a new pc, spec as follows:

2GB DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin
LiteOn DH-20A4P-21C 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition w/SP2b
Western Digital WD1600AABB 160GB Hard Drive 7200rpm 2MB Cache
Gigabyte GA-73VM-S2 GeForce 7050 Socket 775
Nvidia Geforce 6200 TurboCache 128MB DDR2

All appears to be working well, bios has detected hard drive,RAM and DVD drive, but when trying to install an OS, it wont boot from the CD, the drive spins briefly but then nothing. Any help would be great. both devices are installed on a single IDE cable is this is an MATX board, the HDD is set to master and the DVD is set to slave.

Thanks

Geraint.

[homer]

in your BIOS you will see a setting something along the lines of "boot priority" or "boot sequence," set the optical drive with your windows CD in it as the first thing to boot. save, reboot, and you will now boot off of the CD.

[gvp16]

Thanks for reply.
ye, tried that, even put the DVD as 1st, 2nd and 3rd device to boot from, same thing, just a blinking cursor.

[homer]

try the cd on another computer, see if it works. if it does, try your optical drive on another computer. if your optical drive works on another computer, then i suggest setting the optical drive as master and giving it another go.

[gvp16]

ive tired over disks that i know work, such as a win 98 disk, but il try the drive in a different computer, as i have already tried it as master.

Thanks

[The Postman]

Just a shot in the dark but worth a try, I have the Gigabyte P35-DS3R with three separate harddrives 1st running Windows XP Home and 2nd running Windows XP Pro 64bit and last but least 3rd one running Linux Ubuntu and at bootup I press F-12 to get the boot sequence. It shows a list of boot devices from USB to CDROM DVDROM etc! Under the Harddrive list it shows all my harddrives, Give it a try.

Here is the link to your motherboard,

http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2614

[gvp16]

just tried a different CD drive, same results, and i know the discs and the drive work, tried the F12, didnt work. could this be a mobo problem?

Thanks

[patio]

Unhook one of the optical drives and re-boot.
Set whatever drive is left as the first boot device.
Make sure the CD's you are trying are bootable and not copies...most copies are not.

[gvp16]

im only using 1 optical drive as there is only 1 IDE channel on the mobo,  so if i unplug it there wont be an optical drive on the system, all the disks ive tried are official legal copy's.

[patio]

The hard drive should be jumpered as master w/slave and connected at the end of the IDE cable...
The CDRom should be jumpered as slave and connected to the middle connector of the IDE cable.
Do a few cold boots before you try it again as the BIOS sometimes gets confused when making changes one after another.

If this setup doesn't work the drive is probably headed South.

You may want to try another IDE cable just in case...

[gvp16]

ive actually tried that configuration already, but ill give it another go, which drive do you think has "gone south", the HDD the the DVD?

Thanks