FC3 installation problems, can't see CD/ROM

[Jack Pines]

Hi list,

I'm a Fedora newbie trying to install.  I've been using unix / bsd / 
linux off and on for a few decades, but am just trying Fedora.  
Downloaded the .iso files, verified md5sum, burned them to CDs, and 
verified the CDs.  When I boot on disc 1, it boots and takes me through 
a series of questions ending with a choice of where to find the files.  
I say on the local CD/ROM and it accesses the CD, but then comes back 
telling me that it is unable to find the Fedora Core CD on any of my 
drives.  I've tried this multiple times and it is always the same.

It appears that there is a switch to different CD accessing code at 
that point and that it doesn't like my drive even though it was 
perfectly happy before that point.  I suspect it was the BIOS code 
reading the boot image and then it's failing the first time the booted 
image tried to access.  Does this sound like what's happening?

The computer is an IBM PC300 6344-7EU, 667 MHz P3 with 256 MB DRAM.  
The CD-ROM is a LITEON LTN485S.  I got all the latest drivers, 
including CD-ROM code from IBM and that didn't help.  The CD-ROM works 
fine on Windows 2k Pro and passes all the IBM diagnostic tests with no 
problems.

Any ideas?  Has anybody seen this before?  Looking on archives, I 
couldn't find any reference to a problem like this.

TIA for any help,

-jack pines