Cannot boot from cd to reinstall

So its not really windows 7, but I always get the best help from you guys so I figure I'll ask here anyway. A friend has asked me to set up a really old computer, a dell dimension 4300s. It was originally running windows xp, and that has been completely screwed up. It blue screens withing 10 seconds of booting normally or safe mode. I tried to reinstall xp with an original disk, but the computer refuses to boot from CD. Any suggestions on how to get it to boot so I can reinstall?

Sorry. I forgot to mention I know a bit about computers. I went into bios and set the cd drive first, and it still went straight to the hdd. So, I pressed f12, and it gets an error trying to boot from cd.

Before install I would
Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

alumahai said:

Sorry. I forgot to mention I know a bit about computers. I went into bios and set the cd drive first, and it still went straight to the hdd. So, I pressed f12, and it gets an error trying to boot from cd.

Clean the CD disk
clean CD Drive.

I'm thinking it might be an issue in the bios, as we have a cd burner and a dvd reader, neither of which work. That, or both drives are dirty/busted.

May be the IDE port or controller.

I finally got tired of screwing around with it and just plugged the hard drive into an external enclosure. I then installed the OS on it through another computer, and then put it back in. Everything is working fine now.

Installing on a another PC is some times a good workround.

Well done.