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isolinux says "extremely broken BIOS"

Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 1:03 pm
by norre
Hi group,

My first post here since I've recently discovered UBCD. Burned a CD with UBCD 5.0.3. So, I try to boot from it and it doesn't get anywhere but prints this kind of...messages...
ISOLINUX 3.86 1010-04-01 ETCDisolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it...
isolinux: Extremely broken BIOS detected, last attempt with drive = 9F
isolinux: See http://syslinux.zytor.com/sbm for more information
isolinux: Disk error 9F, AX=42A4, drive 9F
Since my BIOS has been working fine and the box isn't too old I see no cause for such total failure. When I look at the webpage it mentions I get the impression that it suggests I have a BIOS which won't allow booting from CD but that is not the case, it allows booting from CD and USB etc.
Also tried booting another computer with the UBCD and it worked as expected.

Maybe I should post on the mailing list for Syslinux but I'll ask here first. So, any ideas?

Re: isolinux says "extremely broken BIOS"

Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 2:42 pm
by GeneC
It's possible that it may be readable by another drive but not this drive (seen this several times).

-- Gene

Re: isolinux says "extremely broken BIOS"

Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:29 pm
by norre
Weirdest thing...
Started testing my DVD drives after your note and discovered it could actually not boot from a CD or DVD anymore. WTF?!?! I have an older drive (RO), which has been showing some tendencies of malfunction, and a newer one (RW) which I was trying to use as boot-device for UBCD and got all the errors. So, I decided to disconnect the shaky one since it was hardly ever used anyway and see what happens...UBCD boots!!! It still gives all the crap about "extremely broken BIOS" etc but it boots. So, the shaky drive somehow made the healthy one unable to boot...hmmm...is that even possible...?
Anyway, thanks for setting me on the right path.