Can't boot from CD-ROM

I just replaced a dead motherboard with an 8S661FXMP-RZ (plus CPU, memory,
and a new p/s) in a case that already contained a DVD ROM, a pair of HDDs
(with W2K installed), and a wireless card. I am pretty sure most of it is
working because I can boot from floppy, and I can get W2K to start booting
until it blue-screens. (The blue screen is no surprise; I never expected it
to work, my point is only that it shows a substantial part of the system is
operational.)

I now want to re-install W2K, but I can't get the machine to boot from the
CD. I keep getting "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER".
I have tried the following:

1. different bootable CDs
2. made sure the DVD drive is strapped as the (only) master device
3. made sure the DVD is on IDE 2
4. set the BIOS boot order to CDROM then HDD then floppy
5. swapped DVD drives (system correctly detects and reports the new drive)
6. installed a new ribbon cable
7. (just for a laugh) swapped the DVD onto IDE 1 and the HDDs to IDE 2, then
back again
8. created a set of boot floppies using makeboot (first floppy errors out
with error 7)

So, what's left? A BIOS upgrade? That costs money. Is the BIOS likely to
be the problem? (FWIW it is Award 08/08/2005-SiS-661FX-6A7I4G0EC-00.)

This is my wife's machine, and her patience is wearing thin. My manhood is
being called into question. Help is urgently required.

Roy

On Fri, 6 Jan 2006 20:15:06 -0000, "Roy Hann"
<specially.RemoveThis@processed.almost.meat> wrote:

>I just replaced a dead motherboard with an 8S661FXMP-RZ (plus CPU, memory,
>and a new p/s) in a case that already contained a DVD ROM, a pair of HDDs
>(with W2K installed), and a wireless card. I am pretty sure most of it is
>working because I can boot from floppy, and I can get W2K to start booting
>until it blue-screens. (The blue screen is no surprise; I never expected it
>to work, my point is only that it shows a substantial part of the system is
>operational.)
>
Does the CD boot in another PC?
If so, tried swapping out another CD drive?
Is it ATA100??
Tried 40 wire cable?
Is the master drive on the end connector if its 80 pin?
have you tried in PIO mode instead of DMA?
hope that helps,it is all I can think of now, but even so, Id still
try another cable. The cheap 80 pin cables are not reliable and you
have to connect the drives in the correct order . That could cause
blue screen too. Try a different memory stick if all fails, if it is
not te cable, I believe the BSOD and CD not booting may be related, so
strip it down to minimum and see if you can start W2K.