I think i have this issue too.

Screen shots of Mandrevia 2009 trying to boot in this post http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1026339

I have a SATA HDD and DVD Writer. IDE disabled in bios.

My DVD combo drive is Pioneer  DVR-215BK.
8.10 will only boot if this drive is disconnected. It will boot as soon as I pull the sata lead out of the drive(before initramfs prompt). Drive repeats those sounds it makes when you first put a disk in, a good few times.

lspci from ubuntu 8.04.

00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation C55 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:02.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:02.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:02.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C55 PCI Express bridge (rev a1)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C55 PCI Express bridge (rev a1)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C55 PCI Express bridge (rev a1)
00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP55 SMBus (rev a2)
00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a1)
00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:0d.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP55 IDE (rev a1)
00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:0e.1 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:0e.2 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:0f.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI bridge (rev a2)
00:0f.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP55 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:11.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:12.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:14.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:15.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:17.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:18.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G80 [GeForce 8800 GTS] (rev a2)
04:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev c0)

I have 8.04 installed which works fine.