Dimension 4700, PRI IDE SLave not recognized by BIOS

[lbthrice]

Hi all,

Please help the newbie (me) escape the clutches of that other OS....

I have no clue at all what the heck is happening with my Dell Dimension 4700...I cannot boot from the CD despite upgrading chipset drivers and BIOS to the current A10 version.

I also changed my BIOS settings:
switched the SATA Drive Operation from normal to compatible,
set my LPT port mode to ECP,
changed DMA from off to DMA1,
most importantly I altered the boot sequence to make the SATA drive last on the list.

My drives:

Diskette Drive: USB=OFF
Drive 0: SATA-0=ON <----My Hard Drive
Drive 1: SATA-2=OFF
Drive 2: PATA-0=ON <----DVD-ROM (PRI IDE MASTER)
Drive 3: PATA-1=ON <----CD-RW (PRI IDE SLAVE)

So here is what happens:

I place the bootable disk in the CD-RW drive (and I am certain that it is a bootable disk because I used it to install Kubuntu on my laptop last week) and the computer progresses past the Dell logo screen. The screen goes to normal dell boot screen. A moment of hope: I can see and hear the CD drive spinning. Then FAILURE the loathsome OS that Michael Dell installed at the factory loads.

One thing that is perhaps worth noting:

is that after I changed my BIOS settings as I described above...that other OS declared "new hardware found". It then identified the "new hardware" as the DVD and CD drive. I have been using the computer with that OS for a couple years with full function of the CD and DVD drives....therefore the drives seem to have been recognized in some novel fashion. Also worth noting: the drives still work after BIOS changes when I use them under that other OS.

I've been Googling all day to no avail...any ideas?

Cheers

[lbthrice]

Hey all, in case anyone stumbles over this thread and has curiosity about the issue here is a link to a a thread that documents my fumbling bumbling road to a stable Kubuntu install on my Dimension 4700

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=398245