Hey guys recently my VAIO stopped functioning and resulted in completely being dead...rather than paying over $1000 for the tech service to install a new motherboard, my only option was to build a frankenstein computer out of old parts from a emachines that hasn't been used in years. It currently has Win98 installed I believe, but I am choosing to install xubuntu because it will run better on this piece of junk. Unfortunately, when I turn the computer on it says that I need to insert the boot disk in the floppy drive. I don't have the bootdisk for it and I dont even want to boot Win98, I just want it to read the live disk to run xubuntu linux. I tried many key combinations to try and enter bios to change it to read from the cdrom drive first, but basically I am stuck with a black config screen telling me to insert the floppy and the only option I have is to press any key...Any ideas on how I can boot the xubuntu installation or enter BIOS? if you need more details just ask and I will quickly respond. Thanks guys.

Ok, firstly, $1000? There goes my idea of buying a VAIO laptop. I'll stick to lenovo/ibm I think.

It sounds like it's not reading the CD at boot, set CD as first boot device in bios.

If you continue to have problems, what I would do is make a Smart Boot Manager floppy and boot the CD from that, during the xubuntu installation it should install GRUB and you shouldn't have any problems from then on.

EDIT

Ahh hang on, I skipped over the fact you couldn't enter bios, sorry.

I have no idea, is 'Insert boot floppy' the full message or.....?

Maybe try resetting the CMOS?

Thanks for the advice friend. I wish I could just make a new boot floppy but this computer that I have access to does not have a floppy drive...
Yeah it says insert boot disk in drive a: press any key
I was thinking maybe booting from a USB flash but I still need to get into BIOS to change the order so that it will not read from that **** floppy drive.
I am pretty tech savy but hardware/BIOS isn't my specialty.
again thanks for the help

You don't have a floppy in the drive do you?

Do you get an eMachines splash screen or POST?

No there is no floppy in the drive..I even tried disconnecting it but it still prompts me for the disk. I was stuck on the eMachines splash screen for a while but finally got it to the boot disk stage I am at now. I just want to get into BIOS, it has never been that hard for to figure something out that is probably so simple. Thanks

I'm really not sure what to suggest other than hitting del, which as far as I can remember was the key for getting into bios on emachine.

Did you try resetting the CMOS? either by taking out the battery or using the jumper