I was in the process of turning off my Acer Aspire 5536 when the power cable came out. I put it back in (I know, I should have waited!) and my system went to the blue screen of death.
When I rebooted I got the PXE-E61 Media Test Failure message. I have googled and found out that it was a network problem; so I could go to BIOS and turn this off. However, although this removed the PXE-E61 problem the computer would still not boot.
I figured I had maybe fried the HD, but I wasn't getting any message about not finding an OS. Not having a VISTA boot disc, I figured I could put an XP boot disc in to see if it would at least recognise the HD. The software looked as if it was installing, then closed the computer (blue screen).
Thinking I had indeed fried the HD, hence the software not installing, I bought another drive and installed it. Again, I tried the XP disc with a blue screen telling me it had closed to prevent damage to my computer. Google advises this is because I am trying to install XP on a system configured for Vista. It seems this can't happen without flashing the ROM (not that I am going to as I don't want XP installed).
However, once that happened, I am now getting nothing. I can boot into BIOS when the system attempts to boot; but other than that I have a black screen with a flashing 'underscore' cursor. After a few seconds it reboots, gives me a few seconds to enter BIOS if I want, then repeats the flashing cursor.
I now have a Windows 7 installation disk (checked on another computer to ensure it works!). However, when I put it in the laptop nothing happens. It doesn't try to install the software onto the existing, or new, HD. I have set the CD/DVD drive to be the primary boot drive.
Anyone got any help?