the harddrive was sticking out a bit and causing the os not detected message to appear, so i checked aout the computer and oh so slighty, it was sticking out, i stuck it back in, and it now runs, but doesn't run the windows xp installation cd at startup,

also, i made a slipstreamed cd on another computer to install sp2, but if it doesn't detect cd's at startup, what will i do?

i've been having many issues with xp, well now, my computer does not run the windows xp installtio cd at startup, i used to get the "press any ket to boot from cd",

now it doesn't appear, and just boots into windows normally,

strangely, when logged in, it detects all cds, so how do i force the computer to run the cd at startup, becuase i want to do a repair install....

by the way, have an IBM thinkpad r31 laptop,

i kno this is a bit confusing, but basically, for some reason, installation cds do not run at startup, but in windows, it detects cds fine. how do i fix this, was it the hard drive?

EDIT: and for some reason, the device manager field is blank, and i tried the cd-rom drive thing from microsoft with computer manager and event viewer, but it gave me an error message about accessing the system...

Edited November 4, 200718 yr by raphjoe@att.net

Have you checked your bios to make sure the CD drive is the first boot device otherwise if the HD is first the CD will never boot. If it's been serviced or repaired they may have switched the boot sequence to make it boot faster. Check your mobo manufacturer on how to get into the bios, it's usually DEL for Gigabyte boards and F1/F2 or a combination of CTRL ALT ESC buttons.

Edited November 5, 200718 yr by Tasslehoff

have an IBM thinkpad r31 laptop

... no Gygabyte mobo I£ suppose. (excuse me )

Press the IBM "blue key" at startup to choose an alternative boot device, it should let you boot from CD. Don't forget to "hit any key" as well if prompted to.