[celticcurl]

Hello,

Looking for a little help here.

I tried to turn on my computer, a Gateway that runs on Windows XP, and got this Message on a DOS screen

PXE-E61: Media Test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM,
Boot Failure: System Halted


Just wondering what to do?

Thanks for the help.

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Hi there

Can you please confirm whether this is a laptop or a desktop computer.

Also can you go into the bios and check the boot sequence for the drives (i.e first, second & third) & let me know which devices are listed there & the respective priority.
Can you also check to see if there is a setting called 'Boot from other devices' or similar. If it exists, let me know whether this setting is enabled or disabled.

If you don't know how to access the bios & check these things, then please tell me & I will guide you through it.

[Samm]

Hi there

Can you please confirm whether this is a laptop or a desktop computer.

Also can you go into the bios and check the boot sequence for the drives (i.e first, second & third) & let me know which devices are listed there & the respective priority.
Can you also check to see if there is a setting called 'Boot from other devices' or similar. If it exists, let me know whether this setting is enabled or disabled.

If you don't know how to access the bios & check these things, then please tell me & I will guide you through it.

[celticcurl]

Hi Samm,

Thanks for the reply. It is a desk computer and I really don't know how to get to the bios or anything like that.

I know some about computers but when it comes to the inner workings, I get really lost, so it would be great for you to run me through checking those things.

Thanks

[dsenette]

to get into bios...you usually press del (or f2) during boot...there will be a message that says what key to press...whatever key it is...press it repeatedly right at the begining of the boot process...this will get you into bios

[celticcurl]

thanks...going to go try that now.

[celticcurl]

Okay, I was able to enter bios by pressing F1 and here's what I found:

1st Boot Device: ATAPI CD-ROM
2nd Boot Device: Removable Dev
3rd Boot Device: Intel ® Boot Agent Ve

And as far as seeing if I could boot from other devices, the only thing was as it was booting up the Gateway page flashed and said to "Boot from Network press F12".

Hope I got the right info.

[Samm]

Hi celticcurl

Thanks for the info, it was exactly what I was looking for.
I believe I'm right in saying that the 3rd entry [Intel Boot Agent] is for booting from the network. It is also usually responsible for PXE error messages. There does not appear to be any entry for the hard drive though, which may explain the problem you are having.

If you go back into the bios, you should be able to change the 3rd boot device from Intel Boot Agent to Hard disk. The hard disk may be listed as one of several things, such as, IDE 0, Hard drive, C, etc.
You should see instructions at the bottom of the screen in the bios which will tell you which key to use to modify the entry. In most cases, this is either the +/- keys, PageUp/PageDown keys, or you press enter & use the cursor keys.

If you manage to change the setting correctly, then remember to save the changes before exiting the bios.

Let me know if you have any trouble with doing this.

[celticcurl]

When I went in to change the 3rd device, it listed the first three (ATAPI CD-ROM, Removable Dev, Intel ® Boot Agent Ve) and "Disable".

that was all...no option for any kind of hard drive

I did notice though that there were a couple of items enabled on the Boot page, one was for a "Hard Drive Detect. Warning" and "Hard Drive Self Diagnostic". Both were Enabled.

[Samm]

Hi
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Is the hard disk reported or detected anywhere inside the bios?
I.E, in most bios's there is either a list of drives that have been detected - this should be set to Auto or it should display the drive parameters (e.g size, cylinders, mode etc).

Can you set the 3rd option in the boot priority list to Disabled so that the Intel Boot Agent does not appear in that list at all? What happens when you attempt to boot after doing this?

[celticcurl]

Thanks for getting back to me even around the holidays. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply.

I tried to reset the third boot prompt like you suggested and still got the same ol' Boot Failure:System Halted.

As far as seeing the hard disk reported, I didn't see anything to that nature after looking around BIOS for a bit.

Looks like it's on to plan C.

Thanks

[dsenette]

just to put my nose back in here....

the reason you're getting this error is because the system is trying to boot to a network device...if you didn't change the boot order to do this...then it might be a corrupted MBR..which would also account for you not being able to select you hd as a boot device

do you have your xp disk?