# Evo N600c Won't Boot From CD



## mmmmtmmmm (Dec 15, 2007)

I've got a Compaq Evo N600c laptop that I am trying to reinstall Gentoo on from the Gentoo LiveCD. I previously had Gentoo on there, and it seems that Grub has wiped out the BIOS boot menu. When I tell it in BIOS setup to boot from CD first, it ignores me and goes to grub.

The CD works fine -- I've tested it on another computer -- so I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with GRUB and the BIOS. 

I'm really hoping that HP/Compaq didn't do something so stupid as installing some wierd propriety boot manager on the MBR or something. But I definitely won't find that out from them...they won't answer my questions anymore, because some actuary that works for them probably calculated that it wouldn't be profitable to help people with older computers...what a great company! 

Has anyone had a similar problem? What would you recommend doing about this?

---mmmmtmmmm


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

See if there is a key you can strike that will bring up a boot menu. Also, make sure you saved your BIOS settings even though that seems a bit obvious. Try booting from another bootable CD as a test.


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## mmmmtmmmm (Dec 15, 2007)

Thanks for the response matt.

I did save the BIOS settings.

I've tested the CD I am trying to boot from on another computer, and it works fine.

I have also tried other bootable CDs on this computer. None of them work.

I've been able to get the boot menu to pop up. It asks me if I want to boot from the multibay or the hard drive. No matter what I tell it, it always goes to grub anyway. Any suggestions?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Does the CD drive work otherwise in Windows and Linux? Does it at least light up when you attempt to boot from the CD?


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