[Gaberial]

I have been trying to fix a friends computer and am positively stumped on what is going on, so im turning to the one place that has never steared me wrong. This is the message i get it simply repeats over and over at boot.

For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller V2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media Test Failure. Check Cable
PXE-MOF: Exiting PXEROM

I did some searching and found its often due to a bad hard drive. Tried replacing the hard drive to no avail.
Tried booting without a harddrive installed and get the exact same message.

Is there any other trouble shooting i can try?
The things I do for friends... sheesh lol

Thanks for your time
Gabe

PS you guys are awsome as always!

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It looks to be like the system is trying to boot to a network instead of the hd or the cdrom first.
To correct this go into the bios to the boot sequence and change it to
CD Rom
HD
Check the time and date to make sure they are correct in the bios. If not it may indicate a failing cmos battery.
If possible take the nic or network boot completely out.
That is the first step for correcting this.
Next how old is the system?
A bad cable or controller may prompt this type of error also but seldom I find that to be the case.

[rshaffer61]

It looks to be like the system is trying to boot to a network instead of the hd or the cdrom first.
To correct this go into the bios to the boot sequence and change it to
CD Rom
HD
Check the time and date to make sure they are correct in the bios. If not it may indicate a failing cmos battery.
If possible take the nic or network boot completely out.
That is the first step for correcting this.
Next how old is the system?
A bad cable or controller may prompt this type of error also but seldom I find that to be the case.

[SpywareDr]

PXE-E61: Media Test Failure. Check Cable

I did some searching and found its often due to a bad hard drive. Tried replacing the hard drive to no avail.

Simply plugging in a new hard drive will not solve the problem. You have to install an Operating System (such as Windows) onto the hard drive.

[JasonU]

Hi!
I Just Want To Say To Try The Following :
Go In BIOS And Try To Set FirstBootDevice To : HDD
If It Won't Work Put In The WINDOWS XP CD . PS : You Need The Disc From The Windows Was Installed When It Says : Welcome To Installation ... You Need To Press 'R' To Go In "Recovery Console" In Console You Type The Following : chkdsk , Then Wait To Check Your Hardware .. Then Try To Make An New Boot Sector With The "FIXBOOT" Command .

[zfkdaniel]

Ok you should change the boot mode in intel boot agent by pressing CTRL + S when it says "initializing intel boot agent 2.2 (or whatever is your IBA version) and set to dont boot in PXE mode! if still boots in PXE mode then your cables that you plugged in your hard disk may not be good to use! you should also try to buy a new cable from the store! like i did it is VERY cheap in my country it should be the same in yours!

Edited by zfkdaniel, 25 January 2011 - 11:59 AM.

[Gaberial]

oh wow I was not expecting such a flow of responces, sorry for being abscent, been working a lot and havnt had a chance to check back. I will look into what all of you have suggested. Though i should explain its an HP laptop so there arent any cables to change out. I will attempt to change the bios settings today after work and report back. The thing about attempting to boot from a network device i had seen as well but for some reason didnt click that it was probubly the situation. I really need to find the time to take some classes or something. Seems like every time i think im starting to figure this stuff out enough to call myself smart with computer i find anouther reason to smack myself in the forehead lol. Thanks guys!

[Gaberial]

@ rshaffer61 ok ive tried changeing the boot process even disabled the ability to boot from a network. At this point all i get is a rapidly flashing curser that doesnt respond to commands or anything.

After changeing the boot settings it still didnt work. The age of the computer is decently old (maybe 4 or 5 years?) but not sure 100% how old. it should be running XP though, Also the modle is a HP Pavilion DV4000 Laptop. As i explained this is a friends computer so i dont have any specific information like that.

@ Spyware Dr i wasnt trying to fix the computer by changeing out the HD i was hopeing maybe it was just a bad harddrive and failing to boot from it. Hopeing for a message about having no OS or some such message.

@ JasonU There isnt an OS restore disk just an application restore disk. Which it doesnt read anyway no matter what boot order i put it in.

@ zfkdaniel This is a laptop so there are no replaceable cables as such. And i am not going to tear this thing appart to fix someone elses laptop (at least not free of charge lol) oh i am admitting my lack of tech skills in this respect but im pretty sure the computer doesnt boot far enough to reach what your talking about either.

I am going to take a wild guess and ask if this things Mobo is junk?

Anyway if there is any other info you need let me know. If it seems this unit is toast it wont hurt my feelings none. Anyway thanks again!

[rshaffer61]

Does the bios see and identify the hd at all?

[SpywareDr]

@ Spyware Dr i wasnt trying to fix the computer by changeing out the HD i was hopeing maybe it was just a bad harddrive and failing to boot from it. Hopeing for a message about having no OS or some such message.

The exact error message you see would depend, in part, on the hardware in your computer, which BIOS and version, and your BIOS settings.

On many of today's computers though, if they can't find anything to boot from you'll often see an error with 'PXE' in the message. Which simply means the last thing it tried to boot from was the network card, and it didn't work ... either.

Edited by SpywareDr, 01 February 2011 - 07:04 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Have you been able to determine if the bios sees and identifies the HD correctly?