Clean install hangs at boot from CD

I have a X8SAX motherboard running: i7-960, 12GB RAM, 1TB Seagate Barracuda HD, ATI-8700 GPHX, LG WH1230LS30 BD/DVD burner. I purchased 1 OEM Win7 Home Premium. Boot is set to look for cd first. All I get is "Press any key to boot from CD.....
I have connected a loaded hard drive and the system runs fine, recognizes the HD and the DVD.
I have seen that this issue has come up in the past here but back in 2009 and I couldn't find a cure.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm sure I'm just forgetting something minor.

Thanks

Did you press any key to boot from cd/dvd? When changing the boot order in the BIOS, did you save the changed setting before you exit or just exit with out saving?

I did hit many keys to boot from cd/dvd. I tried may combinations of boot hierarchy and none could get it past the "Press any key to boot from cd/dvd. I have not, however, tried to boot from USB. Tried both f10 to save and exit and saved first then save and exit.

galan,

Forgive me for hijacking your thread but I have a quick question regarding your setup. I have the same motherboard and CPU as well three 4gb memory sticks equally out to 12gb. For some apparent reason the motherboard only sees 4gb but not the other 8gb. Did you ever run into this problem, if so what did you do to resolve it?

As long as the DVD drive is set to be the "First Boot Device" in the motherboard's BIOS and saved then when the Press Any Key prompt appears, as long as a key is pressed within 4-5 seconds, then the install should begin with no hitches.

jiggy79 - does the motherboard report on 4GB of RAM showing? Have you double-checked to ensure that ALL 3 sticks of RAM are fully seated? Sometimes with new motherboards, the DIMM sockets' contacts will be stiff and it helps to insert, and then remove the RAM sticks 2 or 3 times. Being sure the sticks are fully inserted and the snap bars on the ends are clicked into place.

Believe it or not, but moistening a cotton swab with WD-40 or Ronsonol and wiping the RAM stick contacts will ease the insertion and allow the RAM to make a good full contact with the DIMM sockets.

Just tried the technique to clean the rams and reinsert into the dimm slot, still reading only 4gb? Maybe a memtest to see if any of them gone bad? This is the first time dealing with motherboard that needs three memory stick in order for the system to post, a bit odd :P

Yes the BIOS only reads 4gb

I'm reading in the manual it says maximum memory possible: Single Rank UDIMMs 12GB (6x2gb) and Dual Rank UDIMMs 24GB (6x4gb). Does this mean that if I wanted only 12gb of ram on this system..I would have to opt for 6 (2gb) of memory stick so that the bios can read 12gb of ram?