Gateway M255-E doesn't want to boot from USB

I got an old Gateway CA6 M255-E laptop and it just doesn't want to boot from a USB stick with Ubuntu or Knoppix.

The DVD drive is a little screwy but after multiple attempts it will boot a Knoppix 7.7 DVD and it allowed me to switch to a USB flash drive that had a knoppix 7.7 iso image with "knoppix64 bootfrom=k77.iso".

I think since the DVD is so unreliable I'll try a Network Installation of Ubuntu.

It's really silly that a system doesn't want to boot from USB, I mean this system was made in 2006...and it's PhoenixBIOS. It just tells me "missing operating system."

At least I was able to get past the BIOS password.