Won't boot from CD (SuperDrive works normally when booted from hard drive)

Hello-
I have an iMac G5, 1.8GHz, running OS X 10.3.9. Recently the machine has been behaving poorly (freezing up in various programs -iTunes, Safari, etc). I wanted to run my utility software (TechTool and Disk Warrior) to optimize the drive, etc. When I went to reboot from the CD the machine would hang up with the light grey screen and spinning do-hickey.
This happened with multiple CDs (TechTool, Disk Warrior, and my OS X Panther install disk).
I tried the following:
Selecting the CD as the boot disk from the System Preferences - same result.
Holding "C" as I started up - same result.
Holding "option" - got "choice" screen as normal, but then got same result.
Even tried Command-option-O-F and selected the CD as the boot disk in Open Firmware. - Same result.
I am in the middle of moving so my other Mac (iMac G3) is not available for troubleshooting.
The computer (G5) will boot from the internal HD. The CD drive works normally once booted up. BUT, I want to be able to boot from the CD drive to do some maintenance on the HD. Please Help!

You may have to wait till you can access your G3, and then connect the two machines and reformat your G5. I take it you don't have an external drive?
Have you tried unplugging everything and waiting an hour or so, then trying again? Additionally, have you tried resetting the PRAM?In addition, you can reset the SMU.
Try those things and please report back,
Miriam

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