Have you gone into the BIOS and checked that the CD-ROM is in the boot
order?

Looking at the light on the CD-ROM, do you see it attempt to boot off the
CD.  Sometimes Dells do their POST faster than monitors warm up and you
might miss the "press any key to boot from CD-ROM".  If the CD-ROM is lower
in the boot order than the hard disk, then it wont even attempt to boot off
it unless you use the boot menu (F10 during POST if I remember rightly).

Otherwise, press F2 during POST to get into the BIOS and raise the CD-ROM in
the boot order to the top, then it should boot.  But beware that an XP
install CD will simply put a message on the screen, "press any key to boot
from CD-ROM", and if you don't press a key it will boot from the HDD again.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Jeremy.

Enter the BIOS,set D: with xp cd in it as 1st boot device,set hd as
2nd.Save &
exit BIOS,when the text apears "press any key to boot to cd" press enter key.

Check your BIOS settings and make sure the boot order lists the CD-ROM drive
first.

Tim