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.
Do you need spare parts for your laptop? Search here by the laptop model and part description.
November 30th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I turned on my laptop this evening Inspiron 1501 and it was giving me the same problem. I went to bios and changed the order for booting but it still did not work. I tried to boot from the installation CD and it stated that there is no C drive. So i decided to open the laptop and see what is wrong with the HD. I took the battery out for 1 min and then set it back. When i turned the laptop, it was working. It is possible there was a problem in the interrupts with the power supply. Try for yourselves, at least it’s the cheapest method.
November 1st, 2008 at 11:27 am
Short answer.
Check in BIOS rom for start up sequence and check if there is an asterist (!) in front of the hdd. If there is, it’s disabled. Select the hdd and press shift key plus “1″ This removes the ! and you can then use the hdd to re-format or….
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:49 am
I was getting the same issues when upgrading to a larger hard drive. I contacted gateway regarding the issue and the problem my machine was having was that the hard drive was too large. My machine cant use anything above 100gb and my new hard drive was 160gb so some of you who have laptops from 2003 or earlier and are trying to upgrade your hard drive you might want to make sure the hard drive is not too big for your machine to recognize or use.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Guys, I got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’vo got a A60 satellite toshiba…
we entered the advanced modality (option2) for recovering
you will see a strip menu and will pick
local-> disk ->from image
then we used the sequence HDD>FDD>CD ROM>LAN
and we disabled the PCI LAN…
in the end you have to chose option quit -i know it’s hard to do, you can’t believe – but it will restart and work properly…
good luck!
August 31st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I have been experiencing the same issue on my last three desk tops, all emachines. The error text is slightly different per who ever makes the computer. I have noticed that there is a link between my curcumstance and my fax modem. It seems that when you remove worthless hardware (ie, a data fax modem that I would never use) that there is some sort of software that it carries that make your pc funtion correctly. Also I have found in other curcumstances that leaving the hard drive off for a spell can seemingly cause it to cool down and work again.
My question: Who the hell uses a remote server? Why do we need to use an ethernet adapter to start up a computer? What the hell were they thinking? No one I know needs to connect to a network to start their OS. WHo comes up with this crap?
If you know why let me know.
Thanks!
July 31st, 2008 at 6:10 am
am having the same problem with a client’s machine and this my first to see that error massge and am really puzzled. and according to all these replies seeems that it can be just anything
July 29th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I have a Dell Latitude D500 and it no longer starts. The battery seems to be connected and flashing. When I push the start button the three lights that are the pictures of the number lock, capital letter lock, and the other flash. Then the letter lock flashes a couple times more and thats all i get. Any clue what could have caused this. It happened all of a sudden. The laptop is relatively old. Do they just die eventually? Battery problem? Any kind of advice would be great. Thank you.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
Hi,
I have a hp pavillion dv5000 laptop.
I am receiving “error loading operating system” on a black screen whenever i start up my computer. I thought it was the hard drive for a minute, but i ran a HDD test and it passed ona short and long test. please help :]
July 9th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Doreen,
Did you reseat both memory modules or just one? Can you access both memory slots from the bottom or you have only one slot on the bottom?
Some new Toshiba laptops have one of the memory slots hidden under the keyboard. It’s possible that RAM module in this slot is bad. You can try accessing this slot and replacing the RAM module with one from the bottom.
You’ll can find some disassembly help at http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
July 9th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Justin,
Maybe you can call Gateway and purchase the recovery disc directly from them? I don’t think it will be very expensive.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:08 am
have a problem with mt toshiba satellite pro A110. I shut it down last friday and today when I tried to start it up, the screen is blank. I have removed and resat the ram, pressed the fn+f5 button, started the laptop without the battery installed all in vain. I opened the laptop and connected powwer and see that the motheroard led lights and the power button lights at start up the fan moves for a whle and then stops. I don’t know what to do, any help will be highly apprecated.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Hey.
I’m using a Gateway Model 450SX4 and when I turn it on, I get the same messege.
PXE-E61 Media Test Failure, check cable
Exiting PXE ROM
Operating System not found
I don’t have a recovery CD for this laptop, it’s my cousins and he is too young to know anything about a recovery CD, he is visiting for the summer and this just happened last night. Help please.
Thanks
June 16th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Update for my PXE problem with a COmpaq Presario 2100.
I wrote to HP, they asked me a fax, i made it… 15 days and no one calls, nobody writes me and nobody tells me what is the damn unlock code for the damn bios.
I wrote again to HP Support and what they tell me?
They didn’t receive the fax.
I do a second one, (”we’ll call suddenly”) nobody calls… guys I WILL NEVER BUY AN HP COMPAQ NOTEBOOK !!!
Do they have Drive Lock protection >>> I WON’T BUY IT.
I told them “If i’m a thief i’d buy a chip on Ebay and will unlock the notebook by myself”.
Only the owner sends a fax with its name, phone and address…so why they wait 15 days???
I have the dubt that these kind of protection are only MORE-PROFIT feature instead of Customer-Protection-Feature.
HP Support really sucks.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Why you choose repair?
Try a new clean installation, if the hard disk is broken you can’t continue and you can’t recover anyway your files.
If the hard drive is working and is only a Vista problem, making a new installation you should solve and find, somewhere, your old profile with all your files.
If the new installation won’t work i’d choose warranty repair.
Anyway before the warranty expires i’d check the hard drive to find possible imminent failures.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Please explain as simple as possible of any solutions to fix my computer or how to install Vista again on my computer.
Toshiba A105-S2236
Windows Vista Home Basic
This is what I get when I try to power w/o CD or DVD in the Drive.
Intel UNDI An error has occurred. ERROR: 01-0134-0000 The tool could not get HDD physical Information.
If I choose System Recovery Options I firts got to a screen with Select keyboard layout, then select an operating system to repair. It searches but nothing comes up. If I select load drivers it says insert the installation media for this device and click OK to select the driver. So I have three choices. Computer, System, and Public. What do I do?
If it will help other notes. My wife has the exact same model laptop computer “can it be used to help me get my compueter working?” So I have tried to reset my system using mine and her copy of the system restore CD. So it isn’t the CD. I have hooked the harddrive as an external drive to another computer and the computer couldn’t find it. Without the system recovery cd in the drive I can not use F8 to get the Advanced Boot Options. With the disk in I can use F8 and get to the Advanced Boot Options screen. When I click safe mode it looks like it is going to work because all kind of Windows files and drivers loading. However It takes me to the Select a Process screen “mentioned above” all over.
Should I just give up and send back my computer to be fixed under warranty or can it be fixed with some help from you guys?
May 24th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
PXE Boot Agent is an hardware (or software with Bios) security issue.
If PXE is implemented in hardware you can’t solve the problem flashing a new bios, PXE is in a separate chip and will be always there.
If PXE is implemented in software, for example inside bios, maybe flashing a new bios version could solve the problem, but after the first restart there must not be present the same situation that caused the problem first. In this case PXE will do again its job and lock again your pc.
In my Compaq Presario notebook my hard drive failed to boot, i bought a new one and PXE chip inserted itself a bios password.
I cannot configure the new hard drive because i can’t enter bios and i cannot install operating system because during installation no drive is found.
Depending on your notebook model i read that there are several ways to hack it.
I don’t know exactly what works for what model but you can make more research on this:
1) disconnect power and remove battery and press POWER ON key for at least 2 minutes
2) remove keyboard and search a little connector with two wires (red and black), disconnect it, wait a bit, reconnect it and power on
3) download Ubcd4win, create a bootable cd (i will try it now) inside there should be an utility to read/blank bios password or bios password check.
4) find a bios “backdoor”/MasterPassword for your model
5) build a fake LPT1 hardware key. I read that in official repair office they connect a cable that bypass Bios password. Maybe it’s called “dongle”. I found a video on YouTube that shows how to build it. It’s quite simple if you have the pin scheme, there are only few cables to connect, this way you short for example pin3 with pin10 and pinX with pinY, at the start it makes jump bios check and allows you to install operating system.
I’m very upset with Compaq/HP, they can’t use these tricks to make you spend money.
A customer once bought and paid his notebook should be free to repair himself, if he’s able to do it and an hardware/software automatic lock i think is illegal, for any purpose it could have been implemented.
Imagine if it happens to your car: if you try to change a wheel the engine won’t start because PXE is helping you against thiefs….it’s absurd…
May 24th, 2008 at 6:45 am
I had the PXE-E61 msg on a Toshiba Satellite M35x. I tried a new drive and still had the same error. Based upon this thread I tried a cold boot after plugging into a active network cable. The computer provided a message stating the MAC address and something about DHCP. At this point I was able to start (boot from) the Toshiba recovery cd. So far it appears all good. I have a windows XP screen now.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I had the PXE-E61 msg. Here is what I did to fix:
1) Reset BIOS to default settings.
2) Unplug everything – RAM, CDROM, Hard Drive, power cord, and battery.
2) Reseat everything – RAM (I moved it to the 2nd slot), Hard Drive, CDROM drive, battery, and power cord.
I also plugged in a network cable and attached it to a switch – although I don’t think this mattered.
April 27th, 2008 at 1:11 am
It seems we’re dealing with couple of different problems that all result in PXE-E61 message in the end. Here is what helped with mine (witnessed on IBM T30):
- when I took the HDD into an external enclosure, the HDD worked fine and I could back-up all the data
- I put the same old HDD back (never tried a new one) and restored a HDD image (using Linux-based PING tool), including restoration of a backup of BIOS settings
- the problem was still the same, i.e. PXE-E61 msg
- I modified the boot order in the BIOS to have HDD in the first place both in the local as well as LAN sections to no help
- here comes what finally helped: I restored the default setting in BIOS (could be called “Factory settings” and likely enough every BIOS offers this option)
Conclusion: it is not only in the media boot order but also in some other BIOS setting that this problem can be influenced. Which it is I don’t know but certainly giving restoration of default BIOS setting a try in your situation is worth of trying. Good luck and also thanks everyone since reading this thread pointed me into right direction.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
My Inspiron 1501 is just 6 months old. Although the hard drive is recognized i keep getting this error message: PXE-E61 MEDIA TEST FAILURE, CHECK CABLE
NO OPERATIONG SYSTEM FOUND.
I have tried reinstalling Windows XP several times, same response. i also tried a new hard drive. I need Help right away.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:46 am
My laptop died this morning I think. It’s a 3 yr old gateway. When I turned it on my friend said it had some words, couldn’t remember, and to hit F8. After I hit F8, the screen just went black. I turned it on and off manually a dozen times,but the screen won’t come up. It sounds like its trying to boot up and then nothing, but the fan is still going. My CPU fan doesn’t work and I can’t find a new one, but I have it sitting on a cooling fan. Could the motherboard be fried? Any help would be great. I was going to invest in a new one in the future, just not now. Please help!
March 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 am
My Toshiba Satellite M20 with WinXP started getting the message:
PXE-E61: Media Test Failure. check cable.
PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel Boot Agent
Press any key to continue..
I press the key and the same thing repeats once and again for ever. I changed the boot up sequence in the BIOS and got rid off the message error, but the computer still doesn’t start.
I removed, the HD, the battery, the CD drive, put them back and tried again but nothing worked. This is very frustrating. Any help will be appreciated.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:39 am
PXE comes installed on many of today’s computers such as my toshiba m45. My toshiba’s original hard drive had a separate 200mb partition that allowed the use of dvd playback controls while the computer was in hibernation mode.
While reformatting my hard drive to remove some malware problems I was having, this partition was deleted. The bios on the toshiba laptop somehow knows about this partition and expects it to be there. Now that the partition is gone, I get a PXE error during boot, The only way I know of to solve the problem would be to restore the partition PXE is looking for. I do not know where this can be found. A recovery disk may work but I am unsure because I do not have one.
If you download and burn a copy of “SystemRescueCD” you can use the program gparted that comes with the system to analyze your hard drive to see if that partition is on your hard drive.
If the partition is not there and you know of someone who has the same type of computer as you, you should be able to copy their partition to a storage device using the dd command and then transfer that partition to your computers hard drive. The only problem you may run into is the fact that the partition does not use any of the usual file systems. Also be careful when using the dd command because it is a powerful tool that can delete valuable data if your command is entered improperly.
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:49 am
My 1 year old Acer Aspire 3063 show imminent hard drive failure before loading BIOS and it says hit F1 to continue. I hit F1 and the thing reboots to the same message. I ran Spinrite 6.0 at level 2 then level 4 and it found no bad sectors. If Spinrite does not find any problems then is the drive really bad? I am ready to try a clean install of winxp since it came with vista home.
February 24th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Todd Walden,
Can you see the new hard drive in the BIOS setup menu?
Make sure the hard drive is the first device in the boot order. Just in case load default BIOS settings (I believe F9 key).
Make sure the hard drive is properly connected to the laptop. Reseat the hard drive.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:22 am
Perhaps someone here can help me, though I see that the last post is from a long time ago…
I put a new hard drive in my toshiba Portege. It is exactly the same model as the previous hard drive. Then I used the restore CD to try to put the computer back at its original configuration.
The restore CD ran fine, and the ghost process finished, then it asked me to remove any media and hit a key to reboot. I did that, and now all I can get is a PXE screen saying that no media is detected.
The hard drive seems fine, as it was willing to accept the ghost installation, plus it is brand new. I can’t figure out how to get past this. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
January 29th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Hi,
I have a HP Pavilion DV1000. I got some liquid on it the other day and now whenever I start the computer it goes to a black screen with white writing and says:
PXE E61: Media Test failed, check cable
Exiting PXE
I don’t know if I should just give up on the computer or if there is any way I can open it up and clean the liquid out?
January 4th, 2008 at 6:08 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1135-S155 that is getting the same error with it looking for a network bootup. The BIOS does not detect the hard drive, and I even bought a new hard drive at one point and put it in to no avail. The BIOS still did not see the hard drive. Is there a problem with my motherboard? Or is this something else? Please help.
November 9th, 2007 at 6:45 am
This may help more guys the laptop toshiba satellite series, with PXe and media failure codes.
I reset the boot records than got a 98 start up disk, then was able to use toshiba recovery discs.
Step by step instructions you can try.
1.Unplug the pc from the ac outlet.
2.Remove the battery completely.
3.Remove the hard drive then reset it in its enclosure.
4.Install the battery back.
5.Plug in the pc and give it a couple minutes to charge the battery back up.
6.Start up the pc and press esc,
then f1 set at default values but make sure cdrom is checked first.
7.Try to install windows 98 boot disk, the old records are corrupted from either hardware errors or missing windows files.
8.You may or may not need to install 98 boot disk,then try starting your recovery disks.
If you have any other problems after this you may have a bad hard dive or faulty cd rom .
This may help you.
November 8th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
TS,
It looks like some kind of connection issue. The laptop can see the hard drive so the hard dive is compatible. Maybe the hard dive connector on the motherboard is weak or something is wrong with the hard rive itself.
Test your notebook with another good known working hard drive. If another hard drive is recognized and working fine, apparently something is wrong with the 120GB hard drive.