Old Dell will only boot Windows.

**Biloxi** · 19-12-2010

I just purchased a Dell Dimension 4600 which was screening blue since Windows was so not working properly. I determined to place Debian on it and after that give it to my father for browsing internet. I made the CD but after putting it to the drive it was not able to boot. Every time when I choose the CD drive from the boot menu then it goes directly to the Windows install. I have attempted it on three dissimilar drives and got the same result from all of them. I have also tried a bootable flash drive but that also do not work. I am quite confident that the discs are perfect as it is working well in my other computers. Can you tell me that what is going on with my system?

**Zhankana_n** · 19-12-2010

You should check properly that the CD and USB in a different computer properly. You should confirm that they are bootable and the problem that you are facing is with the PC. You can make a different CD and make it bootable properly and again try to boot from it. What kind of blank CD have you utilized to burn? Maybe it is a kind that older CD-ROMs find harder to read from it.

**teena_pansare** · 19-12-2010

Does your system has the floppy drive into it If you have that then you can flash the BIOS. It is possible that there is an problem there which is stopping the settings to be changed If you do a flash then kit may solve the problem for you

Do you have a floppy drive so that you're able to flash the BIOS? Maybe there is an problem there which is stoping the settings to be changed If you do a flash then kit may solve the problem for you. and a flash may resolve?? There's my guess. Click Dell Dimension 4600 BIOS to see the Dimension for BIOS.

**Ekpah** · 19-12-2010

As you told that the system is not booting from the CD that you have made and it is running without any machine on other machines. So I don’t think that it can be the problem with the CD. I guess there ma y be any one of the reason from the three listed below. Just check for that and go for the solution accordingly.

Compatibility
Drive is dead
Interface on the motherboard is dead

**windows_user** · 19-12-2010

It is possible that he optical drive that you are using is not working properly and that is why you are not able to boot from the CD properly. To confirm that, you can try to connect any external drive and boot from that drive. If it is due to the drive problem then this will solve the problem for you.