[Random600rr]

I have an HP Pavilion ZD8000 notebook PC that fails to boot. Made sure the boot order was CD, then harddrive. Still won't boot off the CD system recovery disk. Wondering if this means I have a memory chip problem. Also removed the harddrive and reinserted it. Same with battery. Boot process won't find hard drive either. Notebook has 2 512Mb cards and I tried booting with one (exchanging them out) but still no joy. Any ideas? In particular, I'm trying to determine if I need to buy a new hard-drive or buy new memory cards. Shouldn't the PC be able to boot off of the CD even if the hard-drive has failed? Here is the error message:

PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable
PXE-MBF: Exiting PXE ROM.

I have researched in on the 'net and haven't found any solutions that work (re-seat hard-drive, re-install battery, etc).


P.S. Notebook was running Win XP.

Edited by Random600rr, 08 February 2009 - 09:31 PM.

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Go back to BIOS. Make sure, that the boot order reads: floppy, CD, HD
Disable Boot from Network (wording is different on every machine, may say Integrated NIC, Network, PXE-xxxxxxx)

[Broni]

Go back to BIOS. Make sure, that the boot order reads: floppy, CD, HD
Disable Boot from Network (wording is different on every machine, may say Integrated NIC, Network, PXE-xxxxxxx)

[Random600rr]

Go back to BIOS. Make sure, that the boot order reads: floppy, CD, HD
Disable Boot from Network (wording is different on every machine, may say Integrated NIC, Network, PXE-xxxxxxx)

I went into BIOS, Boot Order now reads:
Floppy
CD
HD
!Boot from network

The (!) prior to Boot from network means I have disabled this function. Once saved, upon start-up this gives me a black screen with the curser flashing randomly in the upper left corner. No messages.

Edited by Random600rr, 09 February 2009 - 01:27 PM.

[Broni]

Still won't boot off the CD system recovery disk

What exactly happens?

[Random600rr]

Still won't boot off the CD system recovery disk

What exactly happens?

The problem is now fixed... here is what I did:

I went and bought a new Hard Drive. It's a Western Digital. I took out the old one and added the new one. I talked to HP online for about 30 minutes and they said the Pavillion Laptops will not start with a faulty hard drive reguardless if the recovery CD is in. If the hard drive is completely dead, the recovery CD simply spins up in the CD drive. Upon adding the new hard drive I still had the Application and Driver Recovery DVD in which yeilded the same error messages. I then took that DVD out and added the Windows Instillation CD in and then restarted. The computer then came to life and windows began to install. I appreciate your interest in helping with my problem!

Thanks again!

[Broni]

Ha! Nice job

they said the Pavillion Laptops will not start with a faulty hard drive reguardless if the recovery CD is in

This is very interesting....hmmmmm...

[Random600rr]

Thanks, this was a great releaf but also a surprise considering when I first had a problem I took it to the Best Buy Geek Squad who for about $70 diagnosed it as a bad Hard Drive AND Bad Mother Board. They told me to junk the computer and buy a new one cause the cost of repare was not worth the cost of the laptop ($1,800 new!!! But now 5 years old). I then mailed the computer to HP who after reciept of the laptop sent it back to me with a note saying, "Sorry, end of service." I then called them and they said they were not able to fix my problem OR no longer carried the parts to fix it. This all lead me to think that there was much more wrong with the laptop than a simple hard drive swap. I am VERY relieved to find for $60 I was able to not only fix my laptop but was also able to double the size of the hard drive!

Edited by Random600rr, 09 February 2009 - 11:04 PM.

[Broni]

It feels good, doesn't it?

BTW, nothing worse, than Geek Squad. Stay away!