strange problem with ASRock P4165G Mobo

[cuts]

i got myself a P4165g to replace the old mobo that died in my backup system + im having a strange problem with it.
i need to format my main hdd in the system , everything is showing up in bios 3xhdd + 1 dvdrw.
i have set it to boot from dvd drive 1st but nothing happens.
i have tried 2 different versions of xp + a cdrw instead of dvdrw but nothing happens (the light comes on dvd or cd drive but it never seems to be reading disk , then it trys to goto my old xp installation)
anybody ever had this problem before?

[DDY]

Have you tried configuring the boot order so that only the optical drive is booted? i.e. remove hard drives from boot sequence.