HP Elitebook 8530p will not boot from 12.1 distribution DVD. Upgrading from 11.3 to 12.1. Downloaded the 12.2 ISO and write to DVD Insert DVD in player tray and start HP. HP POST screen comes up, DVD access light appears to indicate reading media, Cap Lock and Num Lock lights flas together five times, pause, flash again. HP Support syas light flash indicated system board failure. Attempt to boot from old 11.3 DVD is successfull. Attempt to boot anything except 12.2 disk is successfull. Download 12.1 network build (32 or 64bit), DVD ISO (32 and 64bit and burn and try and nothing boots. Try the four image disks to on any other PC and they boot (four different HP models, desktop and laptop). Try two other 8530p’s and none of the disks boot.
Started the upgrade target laptop with the 11.3 DVD and got to the screen to begin the install or boot from hard disk and removed the 11.3 DVD. Inserted the 12.1 DVD and pressed enter at “Installation” option. Installation (upgrade) proceeded normal and completed without problem.
So, here’s a work-around if you get stuck in this postion (HP doesn’e even know about, but the now have a case on). My question for the forum is: What in the heck could be goofy about the boot process that the 12.1 DVD is not recognized??
I don’t feel there is anything different with openSUSE 12.1 or 12.2 and I suggest a less sinister problem when you burnt these recent DVD’s. It might be a issue with the DVD burner, could be a bad download, can be less than perfect DVD media and it can even be dust in the burner. I suggest that it could be a different burner or anyone of several other possible causes. I can also tell you that in times past, DVD burners where not very reliable and prone to failure and in any event your recent problems can be traced to some DVD burner or software download issue somewhere. By the way, I have no problem blaming this on HP, but based on past history, it just does not sound right.
Now, before I leave however, it sounds like you on the other hand are a very resourceful fellow and your media switch just after booting was a masterful idea, well done.
I forgot to mention. We tried two other DVD burners to burn a DVD and a CD-Rom of the Network Install. That’s how we created some of the disks we farmed around. We also brought a USB DVD r/w player over and plugged it into the 8530p and told the computer to allow boot from USB. Same results.
One can only say that the openSUSE download-able DVD’s and CD’s do boot on many machines OK while I have a bad burns before with a few different downloads. It’s hard to say what the issue is with a particular computer, but it is hard to guess this by remote control.
Some quality checks that IMHO need to be done before any conclusions can be drawn. Per jdmcdaniel3’s previous question, did you conduct the md5sum check of the downloaded iso file against the mid5sum of the iso file on the openSUSE web site and confirm that they are the same (prior to burning) ? Did you burn the openSUSE DVD to a +r or -r high quality DVD (and NOT to an RW, and NOT to some bargain basement sale DVD) at the slowest speed your burner will allow ?
Have you tried the liveCD (also being certain to conduct same quality checks).