I just got an IBM 390X at a computer show. I have no docs and Windows is not my really my specialty. Neither are laptops.
So, here's my problem.
I replaced the hard drive because I needed more disk, and now I need to reinstall Windows. I can't seem to boot from the DVD drive to start the install.
I've tried the following things:

>I created a DOS boot floppy and booted from that, but I can't change to the DVD drive to start the setup. I imagine it has something to do with the fact that I don't have the driver for the DVD when I boot from the floppy.

>I upgraded the BIOS to the latest available from IBM's website hoping that the newer BIOS would have support for the DVD drive.

I'm out of ideas.

I would imagine the generic driver Windows uses should pick up the DVD drive. What version of Windows are you using out of curiousity? Im not 100% sure but maybe DVD drives don't work with Win98 (should do with 98SE though I believe)

First thing I would check is your boot order in your BIOS. Change it so that your DVD drive comes first, floppy drive is secnond, then your hard drive. If you can't find your DVD in the list when trying to change the boot order then the drive might not be connected correctly. Anyway, once the order is changed - reset the machine with the CD in the drive and see if you get a message saying "Press any key to boot from CD" or similar

Has anyone solve this problem?
I bought a Thinlpad 390X too and I am trying to install Linux on it but even I have setup boot order in bios, it didn´t work.
What else can I do?

You need to have the CD or DVD drive drivers on your boot floppy. When you boot from a floppy it does not load a lot of the Windows drivers, so they need to be on the floppy AND loaded in either the Autoexec.bat or config.sys.

So, it is impossible to boot directly from CD even there is an option in BIOS?

The BIOS has to support booting from CD. Also the CD has to be configured to be bootable.

That´s funny: BIOS has option to set boot from CDROM and I am sure the CD is bootable (I have tested it at another machine). But at boot time, the CDROM unit does not show any activity. So I use the floppy solution and it works. Now my problem is that the Linux installation hangs just after the beginning.
Thanks for your help.