<div>
Look on the machine splash screen, the first screen you see, and see if there is a key combination for selecting manually the boot device. On dell systems for example it's usually F12. At this point you can select the &quot;Onboard or USB CD Rom Device&quot; or &quot;IDE CD Rom Device&quot; and then hit enter once and enter again when you see the Press Any Key to Boot. That part has to be done really fast though.
</div>


Look on the machine splash screen, the first screen you see, and see if there is a key combination for selecting manually the boot device. On dell systems for example it's usually F12. At this point you can select the "Onboard or USB CD Rom Device" or "IDE CD Rom Device" and then hit enter once and enter again when you see the Press Any Key to Boot. That part has to be done really fast though.

<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
I want to clean install Windows XP pro on a pentium III machin. when I place the installation CD on cd drive and restart the copmputer, I receive the onscreen message, press any key to boot from CD, but key strokes appear unnoticed at that moment, keyboard simply looks dead and system boot again in privious OS. I should also mention that the BIOS is configured for booting from cd before hard drive. Thanks for any guidance
</div>
</div>


I want to clean install Windows XP pro on a pentium III machin. when I place the installation CD on cd drive and restart the copmputer, I receive the onscreen message, press any key to boot from CD, but key strokes appear unnoticed at that moment, keyboard simply looks dead and system boot again in privious OS. I should also mention that the BIOS is configured for booting from cd before hard drive. Thanks for any guidance

How can I boot from cd?

A personal computer is a general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities and price make it useful for individuals, and is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer time-sharing models that allowed systems to be used by many people, usually at the same time. Personal computers may be connected to a local area network (LAN), either by a cable or a wireless connection, and through that to the Internet. A personal computer may be a laptop computer or a desktop computer running an operating system such as Windows, Linux or Macintosh OS.