I keep getting PXE-E61 Media test failure error on laptop start up
I’m having a problem with my Toshiba Satelite P20.
I believe that my HDD has finally worn out. Over the past few months, it used to take several attempts to boot up windows XP. Sometimes, the hard drive failed to load and sometimes the HDD light used to hang on, and I would receive a disk-read error has occurred. The message which I also used to get, and which I keep getting now is:
PXE-E61 Media test failure, check cable
Exiting PXE ROM
I tried booting up from a CD, and it failed to detect the hard drive.
I’m almost positive that you have a bad hard drive. PXE means Pre-Boot Execution Environment. You see this message when the laptop trying to boot from a remote server using the network card. If you didn’t see the PXE-E61 message before, it means that the network card was listed after the hard drive in the boot order (you can set the order in BIOS) and the laptop booted directly from the hard drive. Now, when the hard drive has failed, the laptop cannot detect it and tries to boot from the next available device – the network card. Your laptop is not configured to boot from a remote server using the network card, that’s why you are getting PXE-E61 Media test failure error. You have to replace the hard drive and reinstall the operating system.
September 5th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Within six months I am having ERROR on start up . PXE-E61: Media Test Fail PXE-M0F: Existing broadcom PXE ROM . No bbotable device—insert boot disk and press any key …….If I remove battery then computer starts but takes a lot of time….
Guys try to take the battery out and see if it works for you.
March 17th, 2012 at 7:19 pm
All i did was to open the Hdisk compartment and I found the hard drive to be loose and I pushed it back into place effortlessly and computer is working fine.
February 7th, 2012 at 8:54 pm
I did what one of the gentleman said above. I opened up the bottom part of my laptop and made sure the harddrive was installed. I wiggled it a little and made sure it was in place, put everything back together and turned it on and it booted up perfectly. Haven’t had any issues since.
December 31st, 2011 at 7:20 am
is anyone going to reply?? what shall i do?? the problem hasnt gone away you know!
December 23rd, 2011 at 1:57 am
what does seatool unity do? and will the CD work even thought my laptop is messed up. Also why has my laptop suddenly said that? It was working fine before and suddenly it said that? how come? thanks\
December 22nd, 2011 at 11:23 pm
@ Zillul,
If I understand correctly, your laptop still boots. Right?
You can download Seatools utility from Seagate website. Burn it on a CD and boot your laptop from this CD. After that you run Seatools and see if you get errors.
December 22nd, 2011 at 12:39 pm
with regards to the message ‘Probably hard drive failure. Test the hard drive’. How exactly do you do this lol
. im not a genius at laptop soory. so can you tell me how to do this would really help.. thank you
December 22nd, 2011 at 12:19 pm
@ Zillul,
Probably hard drive failure. Test the hard drive.
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:57 am
media test failure, check cable. It then says reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key. what the hell is this and how do you fix it. the laptop worked well and then i turned it on normally and suddenly it kept on saying this. I as desperate. please help me. I need help asap. and please give me advise. ps the hitting the laptop didn’t work lol
October 1st, 2011 at 1:43 pm
I was having this problem with a ACER 5100… I just went into the bios and disabled the option of booting with a lan.(Network) and the problem went away. Now it boots up no problem
September 30th, 2011 at 3:34 am
Listen to me. Do not listen to others who tell you differently. IN LABTOPS. HARD DRIVE CAN EASILY COME OUT OF IT’S SOCKET. THE HARD DRIVE IS 80% OF THE TIME ON THE BOTTOM OF THE LABTOP IN AN AREA YOU CAN UNSCREW ASND JUST SLIP IT BACK ON. IT WILL BE SMALL AND NOT HEAVY. PUSH IT BACK INTO SOCKET. MOST THE TIME THE PROBLEM IS THE SCREW FELL OFF. ALSO ANOTHER PROBLEM MIGHT BE THE ORDER OF BOOT. GO TO BIOS AND DO DEFAULT SETTINGS. DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOTTTT REINSTALL YOUR HARD DRIVE!!!!
September 15th, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Okay! here’s my problem with my acer laptop I never use him for two years been on the Internet. Blu-ray movies looked just looked dvd.s, DVD-RAM gebrandt, CDs gebrandt but now I have the same problem. when booting from CD I get the error message is not for DVD boot by-haven image Backtrack 5, works just fine but can not DVDs, and burn CDs, DVD-RAM, does it not, so it is on the Blu-ray/DVD emulating the blue laser is just fucked up because the Blu-ray laser just works = CD = blue and red laser Blu-ray there’s the problem. Shop for computer technician was also the same answer CD laser kaput! because in the log files is a bad CD / DVD controller.
So just a bad design manufacturers fault?
September 15th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
I just bought a laptop HDD for my Acer travelmate im borrowing from my moms. When i put in the new hard drive i get the same error. I am trying to put XP pro instead of the Home version thats on already. I have looked at the boot option and I AM unable to change any type of setting regarding that. If anyone can help me i would really appreciate it.
Thanks
August 7th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Help same problom my satellite L455 says media test failure,check cable exiting pxe rom. please help ,school starts soon thank you
July 16th, 2011 at 6:07 pm
I have a toshiba satelite, I was also receiving the same error message and my computer wouldn’t boot, after my son dropped it in the floor. It sounds to simple, but hitting the back of it worked for me also. I had to do it a couple of times, but after that it booted just fine.
Cynthia
June 29th, 2011 at 11:25 am
@ AndreBule,
Make sure the hard drive is connected to the motherboard. Try reconnecting the hard drive.
June 29th, 2011 at 3:53 am
I admit. I am not a good gameplayer becase when I lose I hit my laptop and one day I hit it and “PUM” it shutdown and I startup and appeares that error… What can I do now?
P.S.: In bios boot I have in this order:
HDD
USG MEMORY
FDD
CD/DVD
LAN
and the Main menu say:
System time: X
System Date: x
CPU type: Pentium (R) Dual-core CPU
CPU Speed: 2.00Ghz
Hard disk drive: NONE
Optical Disk Drive: TSSTCorp CDDVDW TS-L633A (S4)
Total Memory: 3072 MB
System Bios Version: 1.90
Language: English
In advance menu:
Core Multi-Processing: Enabled
Dynamic CPU Frequency Mode: Dynamic
Pointing Devices: Enabled
Build-in LAN: Enabled
Wake-up on LAN:Enabled
Wake-up on wireless LAN: Enabled
Critical Battery Wake-up Enabled
Execute-
February 12th, 2011 at 8:11 am
Hello… I have a friend’s HP Pavilion laptop that is giving the same error messages everyone else here has mentioned. I booted from the CD drive and ran Spinrite 6 – it found the hard drive, and the tests came back just fine. But it still does not boot (and I have reseated the hard drive). Anyone have any thoughts as to what might be going on?
Moderator – I posted this message yesterday but in never made it to the board – was there a problem?
Thanks, everyone?
Fred
February 11th, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Hello, folks…
A friend gave me her HP Pavilion laptop b/c it would not boot. I found the same error messages everyone reports, here -the PXE-E61 message about media test failure, then PXE-M0F.
The BIOS is not set for network boot. (Well, it was the last option – I deleted it.)
I set the system to boot from the VD, then successfully booted to a disk with Spinrite 6. Spinrite found the hard drive! I ran a full disk “scan and repair” – the whole drive checked out ok. Still, though – I cannot boot – even though the disk appears to be present and available to the system.
Hmm… she has a teenager… wonder if he dl’d sonething wierd…???
Any thoughts, anyone?
Thanks!!
February 9th, 2011 at 9:10 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite L500 Intel T6600. It is using the Windows 7 -64 bit OS. Two days ago I experienced a freeze up while using Mozilla. I hit ctrl alt del to access the Task Manager. This resulted in a Blue Screen Of Death. After a couple of failed restarts, one in safe mode, I selected repair windows from a menu during start up. This failed and resulted in a F3 F100-0003 error message in Windows I think. Two more attempts to repair also resulted in this outcome.
Now, Boot up attempts result in PXE E61 Media Failure messages. I have researched these 2 codes across various tech sites including this one and the consensus seems to be that the hard drive has failed. If I understand it correctly, the PXE E61 Code means during the boot up phase, the Hard drive is not being seen, and then the computer moves on to the next item in the boot order which is LAN, which is not set up, and therefore: PXE E61.
Okay, so I know a fair bit about computers. I built my own gaming rig from scratch. I removed the SATA HDD from the laptop and plugged it into my Desktop computer, also running Windows 7. Fearful that I would lose the family photos that I have downloaded to that computer, (I know back up regularly), I immediately went to My Pictures and retrieved all the photos successfully. Then I used check disk in WIN7, (Left click on drive, Right Click, properties, tools, check disk for errors). It seems to be fine.
I place the HDD back into the laptop, and attempt a start up. Still with the PXE E61. So now I hit F2 and go into Bios. In the first window the HDD shows up fine. It’s a Fujitsu 500 Gig. The strange thing is when I go to the Boot menu in the Bios, HDD is not an option. It shows:
DVDRAM
FDD
LAN
No HDD. Why would this be?
All I can think of is that the HDD controller or interface (or whatever it’s called) is broken on the motherboard. What would my next move be? Is it worth buying a new HDD and seeing if it shows up in my boot order menu? I might be able to borrow one from a friend actually.
One more thing: I did notice the abscence of the HDD in the boot order menu before I removed the HDD to retrieve files and test it. I have also checked to ensure that the drive is securely installed in the case. While I like to play with my Desktop configuration, I have never opened or played with the hardware setup or OS on my Laptop before now. Just surf the net and email. Oh, and the computer is 13 months old exactly. Gotta love 1 year warranties.
Have you ever seen this? Can you help?
Oh, and I will not be “whacking” the back of my laptop.
Thanks,
Bill Erskine
London, Ontario.
January 16th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
thank goodness! whacking the back of the laptop worked like a charm!!!!!!!!!
January 12th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
I had this exact same problem but have since bought a new hard drive and more ram for my laptop after several uses though back to the same problem !
Wtf is going on?
January 6th, 2011 at 8:46 am
I’m gettin the media test failure notice as well and have a paper due can some one help I have a toshiba labtop sattelite
Can’t get pass the black screen with white writing stating media test failure check cable I have screwed & un screwed the silver rectangle thingy , taken the battery out as well I don’t know what to do the guy at geek squad told me to bring it in but he was no help over the phone just sounded money hungry !
January 4th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Hitting the back of the laptop worked for me too. I feel relieved and somewhat stupid, but hey, I got my laptop back.
Give it a try, maybe it is just a loose wire.
December 30th, 2010 at 1:40 am
I still get th PXE-E61 message on start up but everything runs fine with no problems Have tried the bashing method with no luck but am a bit reluctant to play around inside the machine as apart from the annoying message it runs very well.
December 28th, 2010 at 12:31 am
The person that noted the meaning of the acronym PXE (Pre-Boot Execution Environment) was pretty much spot on. If your computer is showing PXE-E61, chances are your hard drive has failed or is in the process thereof. In rare cases I see hard drives that have become dislodged due to jarring of a laptop. In either case, it’s always a good idea to rule this out by disconnecting then reconnecting the hard drive. Especially since this usually takes 2 minutes. If you need help locating the hard drive and how it is installed, just type your computer name into Google. You should be able to find this simple info on nearly all computers. It’s something that most people can do without fear of ruining the machine, even if you’re not tech savvy. Another thing that will allow you to tell if it is indeed the hard drive: if you or a friend have another working laptop, just install that hard drive and see if windows boots up. It can be from another brand machine ie. an HP hard drive installed in a Toshiba or a compaq in a Toshiba etc. You’ll be able to tell right away by looking at the size (usually 2.5″ drives are standard now on both PCs ad Macs). Just don’t use a Mac hard drive for a PC. As far as HITTING a machine to get it working: Yes, you might very well free up the hard drive and it will seem fine. However, I would spend my time immediately after it boots up copying the data to another media storage device like an external hard drive. It is only a matter of time before it fails for good and all the kicking and hitting in the world won’t bring it back. I don’t recommend it AT ALL, EVER but to customers that feel like they have nothing to lose, it’s kind of hard to say not to. Hope this helps someone.
December 1st, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Hi all this is simple issues just remove your BIOS battery after boot system
Some times (not only every time) BIOS failure ERROR occurred enter twice system work well
November 16th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Debbie,
Apparently, the laptop didn’t see the hard drive because it didn’t make good connection with the motherboard. In cases like that I would try to reconnect the hard dive first. Simply remove it from the laptop and install back in.
November 16th, 2010 at 6:44 am
I did exactly what one person did above that was hilarious! That person wrote the following: “I am a total computer iliterate. I read somewhere (went on a million sites)to hit/punch the hard drive. I thought it was a joke, anyway i did it. IT WORKED!!!!! Apparently a cable was loose in the hard drive and thats why i was getting the annoying pxe-e61 error!”
Well, it certainly worked for me, too! I hit every square inch of the back of the laptop and lo & behold it booted right up. Thanks to the person above who suggested this. Don’t go buy anything until you try this method…nothing to lose.