When I switch the laptop on it says Realtek Fast Ethernet cable failure and says media cable test failed
When I switch the laptop on it says Realtek Fast Ethernet cable failure and says media cable test failed. (It says something along this anyways – let me know if it would be more helpful to send you the exact wording.)
Any ideas how I can fix this?
Also, it keeps switching off as soon as it boots up (on the rare occasion that it does). I presume this is due to overheating or a virus. If it is not overheating how could I resolve the virus issue without it actually turning on?
I think that there is nothing wrong with your Ethernet controller. Does’ your error message looks like this?
If yes, then it’s not an error. This message appears when a computer (laptop or desktop) trying to boot via the network card and you get this message because your laptop cannot find a server.
Usually a network boot goes after a hard drive boot in the boot priority menu. When you turn on the laptop, the laptop is looking for a bootable device and in most cases it would be the hard drive. If the hard drive is not found, it tries other options: boot from CD/DVD, Network card, floppy drive.
I think that your hard drive is failing and it should be replaced and re-imaged. Replacing the hard drive also might resolve the shut down problem.
You can test the hard drive with a Hitachi drive fitness test utility. If the laptop will shut down itself during the hard drive test, then most likely you also experience the laptop overheating problem.
October 13th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Hope you can help. I have a satellite a70 and when I try to start it up the power is on but nothing happens. Power light is on, no screen or disk activity, fan works, computer is dead with power light on. What up with that? Thanks, Robin.
October 15th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Robin,
It could be a memory related issue. Satellite A70 has one memory module integrated into the system board and it also has one memory slot available for memory upgrade. If you have an extra memory module installed, remove it and start the laptop. Unfortunately you cannot remove the module that is integrated into the board and if it’s bad, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
Also try removing the battery and starting the laptop without it, just from the AC adapter power.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:36 am
I HAVE A TOSHIBA SATTELITE P30 WITH THE SAME MESSAGE
HAVE TRIED TO REBOOT VIA CD FIRST HARD DRIVE SECOND
HAVE DISABLED NETWORK BOOT BUT WILL STILL NOT BOOT UP
HAVE TRIED A NEW HARD DRIVE IT SEES THE DRIVE BUT STILL WILL NOT START
October 26th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
I just started getting the same message. I believe it’s the hard drive because it’s making unhealthy sounds. I’ve purchased a new drive but I have no idea how to install it. Unfortunealty I don’t have the funds to send it out for repair but without my laptop i’ll be even more fundless. Could you help me find instructions on how to install a hard drive to a Toshiba Satellite p25 s507?
October 26th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Felix,
You can access the hard drive from the bottom of the notebook as it shown on the step 6 of this disassembly guide. When you remove the blue cover the hard drive will come out attached to it. I don’t have pictures for the hard drive, but I’ll try to explain.
The hard drive is secured to the cover by four screws, two on each side. Remove screws and separate the hard drive from the cover. The hard drive in this Satellite P25 has a foil shielding. You’ll have to unwrap the foil (it’s very sticky and probably your tear it apart in some places) and transfer the shielding to your new hard drive. There is one more part to transfer from the old drive – the pin connector. You can remove it with a small flathead screwdriver carefully lifting up from each side, or just use your fingers. After the foil shielding and pin connector is transferred, you can attach the hard drive to the cover and install it back.
To load the operating system run a recovery DVD, you got it from Toshiba when you bought the laptop. Install the DVD into the drive, reboot the laptop and press F12 as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen. Select to boot from DVD and follow the wizard.
October 27th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Thanks, I’ll try that as soon as I find my recovery DVD. Sounds pretty easy.
November 18th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
I read your reply to the inquiry “When I switch the laptop on it says Realtek Fast Ethernet cable failure and says media cable test failed”, and I knew my hard drive was failing, so I replaced it with a new drive, but it didn’t work.
The problem is: I get the following warning every time the computer restarts:
====================
SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk 0: IC25N030ATCS04-0-(PM)
WARNING: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive.
A failure may be imminent.
Press F1 to continue.
====================
And this warning does not disappear until I actually hit the F1 key.
When I replaced the drive, I used the manufacturer’s recovery disks and formatted the new drive. I remember the same warning appeared when the computer rebooted while reading the recovery disks. Other than that, I didn’t notice anything wrong. Was there a step I missed when replacing the hard drive? For example, should I have done anything BEFORE booting the recovery disks (I mean, too late now, though)? Or is this “new” hard drive itself broken after all?
For your info, my laptop is Toshiba Satellite 1135-S1554 (purchased new in 2003) which came with the hard drive “MK3021GAS”. I bought the new drive on eBay, but the seller says they were low in stock and so sent me the “Hitachi IC25N030ATCS04-0″ model as an equivalent. Could this be a compatibility problem, instead?? Thank you.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:36 am
Ken,
If I understand right, your first problem “Media cable test failed” gone but now you’re getting SMART failure, right?
You didn’t miss anything. You don’t have to prepare the hard drive for the recovery process. The recovery disk should take care of everything.
I think the new drive is bad too and you have to replace it.
Toshiba lists a lot of different drives for Satellite 1135-S1554 laptop and IBM IC25N030ATCS04-0 hard drive is one of them, by the way you can install any bigger hard drive (40GB, 60GB, 80GB, 100GB) and it should be just fine. It’s not a compatibility problem. I think it’s just a bad drive.
If you want, you can test your hard drive with Hitachi’s drive fitness test. This test utility is free and reliable.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Hello Mr.Laptop Freak,
I read your reply to this inquiry.After trying few methods that u mention in this homepage(thanks for sharing ur knowledge with us!),still cant solve my problems.I got similar situation.
1.Laptop info: TOSHIBA Qosmio E10/1KLDEW (Japanese WinXP OS)
2.Problem : Harddisk making weird sound and sometimes cannot access the hardisk at all.
3.Changed the hdisk from TOSHIBA 80G to brand new HITACHI 60G.
4.Same msg coming out:-
(http://www.asklaptopfreak.com/wp-images/ethernet-cable-failure.jpg)
5. Change the BOOT PRIORITY and Network Boot Protocol in Bios Setup:-
—-HDD>CD-ROM>LAN>FDD
—-RPL (chaged from PXE to RPL)
*This laptop dont hv FDD,and dont know why the CD-ROM not working now…
6.When RESTART,I got this msg:-
Insert system disk in drive.
Press any key when ready….
FYI, since the broken laptop (Qosmio) dont detect the CD-ROM drive, I try to install this hdisk using another Toshiba laptop n tried to install the driver using the Original TOSHIBA Recovary Disk, and its working well (with other Toshiba laptop,Dynabook T5).So I think the hdisk got no problems.
After finished installing the recovary disk into the new hdisk using other laptop, I put put the new hdisk back into the Qosmio. It look like the Qosmio cant detect the installed recovary file in the hdisk.
Need ur advice. Thank you.
November 28th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
7thSoul,
Here’s what I think.
1. You said that the old hard drive was making weird noises but it worked somehow and the DVD was working too, right? And both devices stopped working at all after you installed a brand new hard drive. There could be a master/slave configuration issue. On most laptops you don’t have to configure devices manually, but I’m not sure about your model. Take a look at the old hard dive; do you see a small jumper that shorts two pins? If yes, then move the jumper to the new hard drive (put it on the same pins) and test the laptop again.
2. If it’s not a master/slave issue than you might have a problem with the IDE channel on the motherboard. Apparently the motherboard has a single IDE channel. Both devices, the hard drive (master) and the DVD drive (slave) are on the same IDE channel and an issue with the channel itself would explain why both devices stopped working properly.
November 28th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Thank you for ur speed feedback!
This laptop(my Japanese friend`s laptop) model is:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2004_07/pr2201.htm
(TOSHIBA Qosmio E10/1KLDEW)
1. There is no jumper on the old hdisk.From ur experience handling Toshiba Laptop, which pin do u think I can try tu put the jumper? Maybe try-and-error method would help me lol
2. Can we change the IDE channel in the bios?
Here I attach the BIOS image from the pc:
1/2 http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9991/dvc00003zv9.jpg
2/2 http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/1259/dvc00002yi1.jpg
Need ur advice.Thank You.
7thSoul
=======
November 28th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
7thSoul,
If the laptop worked fine with the old hard dive without the jumper, then you don’t need it on a new drive. Here’s an example on how to jumper a laptop hard drive. Note that not all laptop hard drives follow this specification and I’m not sure if it’s correct for Hitachi drives. If you want to play then try set the hard drive to Cable Select.
Nope, you cannot. You can see but you cannot touch.
Just in case try removing the optical drive and start the laptop without it. May be the DVD drive is bad and it’s somehow holding the system.
November 30th, 2006 at 9:10 am
I was the one who initially asked the above question and changing the hard drive resolved the issue. Thank you for your help!
December 5th, 2006 at 4:39 am
I have a dell inspiron 5160. i just got the motherboard replaced. when i went on the computer the system blue screened and dumped physical memory. then the black screen which you showed comes up. i know it is a hard drive problem. could this of been coasred by the replacement of the motherboard. it does some times boot up on to windows but then crashes after about 10 mins and the same screens come up. dell dont want to take any responsablity they think it was just a coinsidence that the hard drive went after the motherboard was replaced?
December 14th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
I own a 2 yr old acer noebook.
It WILL NOT boot up. it will not start with or without battery in.
plug it in & NOTHING.Leave it pluged in overnight & bettery charged light is green,BUT, will not boot.
when power cord unplugged notebook dies.
???please help???
January 17th, 2007 at 6:30 am
i have a dell inspiron 5160 it says bad pbr can you help me?
January 23rd, 2007 at 3:40 am
I have a similar problem with my Acer 5102 – either a PXE-E61 or an “0200: Failure Fixed Disk 0″. The weird thing is it only happens if the laptop isn’t horizontal when it’s booted. I can replicate this quite consistently. I can also get a blue screen if the laptop is moved during operation.
Is this likely to be a dying disk or a bad connection somewhere? I’ve upgraded the memory by replacing one of the 512MB cards with a 1GB one and wonder whether bad seating may be a factor.
Thanks, Andy
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Andy,
It’s not a memory issue. Fixed Disk 0 is the hard drive. I think you might have a failing hard drive disk. If you don’t want to replace it right away, that’s fine. But do not keep any important data on this drive because it might fail any moment. Data recovery is very expensive.
January 29th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Toshiba A60 will not boot up. It says system 32 missing or corrupt.Its trying to boot up from the cd/dvd atapi, Realtek ethernet controller, media check fail check cable and exiting PXE ROM.Before it failed it just froze while powerpoint was in operation. Ive been told there could be a hole in the motherboard or is it requiring a new hard drive.
Regards
Brian
February 12th, 2007 at 1:53 am
Hi there,I am using Hp Compac presario v2000.Whenever I start my computer it says that IMMINENT HARD DRIVE FAILURE and asks me to press F10 to continue and the windows works properly.Is there any risk in runing the programme this way?Is there any way to solve this problem without actually going to the servic center as a am staioned in a remote island?
February 13th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
tanka,
it looks like your hard drive is failing and you’ll have to replace it soon. Do not keep any important personal files on this hard drive, back them up somewhere else. The hard drive might fail any moment. I would replace the hard drive. I think you can purchase a new drive online and replace it yourself.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Laptop Freak I just did this recently as I was getting that failure is imminent message. I replaced my hd (I have a toshiba p15) with another hitachi hd (60g. I look in the bios and the fixed hd is the new one so it obviously detects it. I pop in my recovery cd and it goes all the way through the recovery process. It asks me to remove the cd and continue. After this the computer restarts. The toshiba screen comes up but then it goes to a black screen with a cursor flashing on the top left.
I’ve also tried booting from a windows xp pro disc (a burned copy) and it boots up just fine and starts loading all kinds of drivers. When the loading is complete the message changes to “Setup is Starting Windows” and the computer just hangs and stops “thinking” I’ve tried formating the drive, recopying the cd. I don’t know what more to do. A friend suggests the computer is done but I refuse tolose the faith (Mainly because I can’t afford another one).
I’ve contacted toshiba support and they gave me the number of the closest tech place to check something with my DMI. Sounds like a plot to nickle and dime me…
May 10th, 2007 at 2:26 am
Dear laptop freak !
Please help me to solve the problem of following error in my laptom A135.
“Realtek ethernet controller,
media check fail check cable and exiting PXE ROM”
Your immediate reply would be appreciated.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Raj,
If you haven’t done any changes to the laptop hardware or installed software recently and just started getting this message on startup, probably you have a failed hard drive. You’ll have to take the laptop to an authorized repair center and they will replace the hard drive.
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:38 am
I have a Toshiba here with the 0200 Failure Fixed Disk error. The drive was JUST replaced because of this error, and it’s still doing it. Controller failure?
November 9th, 2007 at 7:45 am
On a HPZV5000, the hard drive is not found on boot, leading to the realtek / ethernet error message shown in the screen shot above. The drive is found maybe 1 in 10 boot attempts (getting worse). When the drive was found, I ran the drive test from the bios/setup screens but no errors found. Tried drive utilities in windows as well — no errors found. Used Spinrite — no errors found. I pulled a drive from an old laptop and will try that, but my guess is that it is not the drive.
The drive connects to the motherboard through the “harness”, so there is no cable to re-seat, but the sporadic nature of the error leads me to think it is some connection problem.
Is there a way to tell if it is motherboard/controller vs connection to the motherboard? Any other suggestions?
November 19th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Hi, I have an Acer Aspire 5102 laptop. I’ve been getting the BSOD error on my PC. The main error is 0x000000f4 but I sometimes get the 77 error as well. Most times,I need to reboot and then I get the 200 fixed hard disk 0 failed error . If I click F1, I get yet another error, PXE.61 error realtek fast ethernet media test failed or something to that effect, and this takes my rebooting quite a few times in order to get windows xp (media center edition) to come up. It stays on for a while (the length of time is getting shorter and shorter these days) and then I have to go through the entire scenario over again. I’m trying to remove the files and programs that I actually care about off this comp. I contacted Acer tech support and was told that it most likely a Hard drive problem and that it would need to be replaced. They had the wrong warranty ending date for me and after providing proof of purchase, they changed it to 11/23/07. Now that I have about 4 days left on my warranty, the tech support person told me to purchase the extended warranty because if I ship it to them and the warranty expires, I will have to pay for the service. I’m not too sure that it would be worth shipping it to them for repairs I will have to pay $99 for the warranty plus tax and At least $100 to ship it back to them and more for insurance. On top of that I have read horror stories about people who sent their comps in to be repaired and it being returned to them with scratches on the LCD, initial problems not repaird or additional problems after the comp was returned to them. I’d much rather carry it in to a shop but was told their are no local repair shops in my city except for geek squad and they will charge me since I didn’t purchase my comp from them. Another reason why I am leery about shipping it back to Acer is because I bought a HP laptop last year. the Ac adapter jack on the comp was loose so I shipped it to HP to have it repaired. They had my comp for almost a month and then told me the motherboard, keyboard, speakers, and LCD display was unsalvageable and that it would cost me over $1000 to have it replaced(I only paid $369 for it on black Friday 2 yrs ago). They also told me that I had a liquid spill which was a total lie as I keep my laptop in my bedroom and I never eat or drink in my bedroom.( come to find out that loose jacks are a known problem with some Hp laptops I have read horror stories about Acer using the dreaded liquid spill excuse too and I don’t want to go through the drama again. ANy ideas or help. Are the BSOD errors definitely the fault of a faulty hard drive? Help me please!
Thanks, all, and please forgive my longwinded ness this is the second lap top in 2 years that started giving me problems within 2 weeks of my warranty expiring.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Hi,
I’m getting that same message from above (that screen shot way on top of this page).
I sent my laptop to Acer. They said that they would have to replace the hard drive.
Acer sent it back to me with a brand new hard-drive and Windows XP Media Center installed. As soon as I started it up, I made backup disk with the default factory settings.
After about a day of using the laptop, I got the same message again.
I have read all these comments ppl have left you and your responses, but I still don’t get what is the problem???
soo…
If I got that message the firt time, installed a new hard drive, and after one use I get the message again….
What does that message (screen shot above) mean and how to we fix it?
thanks! =]
December 13th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Dear Laptop Freak,
I have an IMB Thinkpad T-40 computer. It is 4.5 years old and out of warranty. I am having a similar problem to the ones listed in this thread.
I usually leave my laptop computer on when I go out. After 30 minutes the screen turns off. The disk never turns off. Today when I came back to my computer and touched it to wake it up, it went to a black screen and gave me this error:
Intel (R) Boot Agent Version 4.1.07
Copyright (C) 1997-2002, Intel Corporation
Intel (R} Boot Agent PXE Base Code (BA1217BC)
Copyright (C) 1997-2003, Intel Corporation
PXE – E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE – M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent.
Operating System not found
I didn’t know what to do, so I held down the power button. It powered off. I waited a minute and then powered back on. It booted up fine. I thought maybe it was just a kink in the system. I used my computer and then walked away again (leaving it on per usual).
When I came back to my computer a few hours later, I tried to wake it up again and I got the same error message again listed above. This time I was a little worried. I repeated the same process. Powered down. Turned it back on. It booted up fine.
This time I decided to call IBM and see what is up. The guy I spoke with had me go into BIOS and change the order of my boot. He had me put my harddrive first and then my DVD/CDRW drive second and then everything else. He told me that he believes it has something to do with the processor (not the hard drive) and that my laptop’s days are numbered (especially since it is not under warranty). However, since my computer was not showing any symptoms while I was on the phone, he said he didn’t really know what is wrong with it.
I copied everything I needed onto an external hard drive.
After I got off the phone, I hypothesized that the problem is occurring when the screen turns off at 30 minutes (since it doesn’t happen at boot up and when I returned to my computer it twice showed an error). So I walked away from my computer again and came back about 45 minutes later. This last time my computer screen would not come back on at all (perhaps because I resolved the errors by changing the BIOS order, but didn’t really resolve the true problem). It just remained black and blank. So I powered down and turned the computer back on. It booted back up fine again, but I am afraid that each time this happens I am doing some kind of damage to my computer and that eventually it will not boot up correctly anymore.
I’m sorry, I know this is kind of a long post. However, I could really use your help!! I am not very computer literate so please make any replies simple!
Thanks so much.
~SouthernBelle
December 13th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
A brief addition/update:
Shortly after writing my first comment my computer started to emit clicking and screeching noises. Then the blue screen (of death) appeared. The screen said:
————
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR
If this is the first time you’ve seen this stop error screen, restart you computer If this screen appears again follow these steps:
Technical Information:
***STOP 0×00000077 (0xC000000E, 0x000000E, 0×00000000, 0x001B6000)
Beginnning dump of physical memory.
—————-
After that, I held down the power button until the laptop turned off. I waited a minute then booted it back up. It rebooted fine.
I am writing this message then I am turning off my laptop until I get some advice. I will check this webpage from work.
Please advise! Thank you!
December 26th, 2007 at 8:22 am
I own a NEC Versa E680.
It was on power supply without battery.
The power supply was accidentally plugged out.
Once I restarted the laptop, the screen states
‘safe mode’
‘safe mode with networking’
‘safe mode with command prompt’
‘last known configuration’
‘start windows normally’.
I clicked all of them but it won’t log on to windows.
What should I do?
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:18 am
i have acer aspire 5100,i have had this laptop for over a year now. but a couple of weeks back as i was shutting it down it started frezzing and going really slow as it was shuting down it stopped as it was say”logging off”
when ever i try to start the laptop the acer background comes up with a load bar at the bottom witch fills about 1/3 of the way the makes 2 loud beeps and that screen shows says somthing about “Realtek Fast Ethernet cable failure and says media cable test failed” and this screen just keeps loading its self
March 29th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Get an error: 0200 Failure fixed disk 0
I repeatedly got this error…
I found that for me it was just a loose hard drive…they (Acer) have a terrible system to keep them in place…any time the laptop was moved or placed on its side, the hd would slowly move out of its socket. So I pushed the hd back into it’s slot, then put in a plastic ‘wedge’ (but not covering the vents)and haven’t had a problem since.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Hi, i have the very same problem as the first person who posted in the category, i talked to a professional who works on these about this and he said i needed to take out my CMOS and place it back in, i think thats the right thing to do, in that case where is it? i’ve looks at hundreds of sites regarding this issue and i still have the slightest clue, i have a toshiba satellite a65-s1065, any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated
Many Thanks
May 31st, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I also have an Acer Aspire 5102 laptop. It’s been a brick of a laptop ever since I got it. Vista Capable, eh?! Yeah
right! where do I sign up for the class action suit?
It started as a random error where my pc would shut off with no warning. It then evolved into a BSOD.
The main error is 0×000000f4. After I reboot, I get the 200 fixed hard disk 0 failed error. If I click F1 to go
past that error, I the network load (realtek fast ethernet media test failed) error.
It appears to me to be a controller error. I’ve used memtest86, chkdsk and even did an OS reload to go from Vista back to XP. Though the laptop was lightning fast compared to when it had Vista on it, the error still came back.
My only option seems to be to contact my credit card company for their “double warranty” insurance. I did it once already thinking it was the memory. Now I’ll have to go back to the well to tell them that $150 isn’t going to cut it!
June 26th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I’m trying to repair my friends laptop. When I turn the power on it comes up to an NT loader error, then when I remove the HDD it gets an error of Intel boot agent similar to this.
PXE – E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE – M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent
I’ve tried everything I could think of to enter the bios but no luck. I’ve updated the bios, 3x using an external floppy, and booting to that, still nothing. Tried using IBAUTIL thinking it was something dealing with network boot, still can’t get into the bios.
Every time I updated the bios it went through fine, I can boot to external floopy using the f12 key, but not to a cd.
I’ve been at this for a full day now and am at wits end. Any ideas???
Oh yeah, this is a Toshiba Satellite 5005-S504
June 26th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Daniel,
Here’s my guess.
I believe on this model you cannot access the BIOS setup menu normal way by pressing Esc, or F1, or F2, etc…
You can access the BIOS and set the DVD drive as the first bootable device through the Toshiba utility in Windows, but for that you have to be load Windows first.
OK, here’s what you can try.
1. Download this utility, create a bootable floppy drive and boot the laptop from the floppy. This will allow you to bypass NTLDR on the hard drive.
2. If you still have system files on the hard drive you should be able to load Windows.
3. Access the boot order through the Toshiba utility and set the DVD drive as the first bootable device.
4. Now you can restart the laptop from the recovery disc and reinstall the operating system.
Let me know how it works for you.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Hi I left a message about my acer 5102 and the BSOD back in nov of 2007(scroll up to see it) Dave has the exact same problem with the exact same comp as I do. Any idea how to fix it? I bought a mac and couldn’t be happier, no more windows problem but i still would like to be able to use my acer as well when needed. Plus I can pass it down to my child. Please respond.
Thanks!
June 27th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I’m going under the assumption that it is a hard disk controller error. If that’s the case, the controller is attached to the motherboard.
It’s not worth a thing if the motherboard is bad. You can get a new laptop cheaper than replacing the motherboard . . .
July 18th, 2008 at 4:48 am
hi i have a hp omnibook 6100 i cant even get into bios by pressing f2 or escape it says card reader not present your computer will shut down??? please help anyone!!!
July 18th, 2008 at 4:48 am
hi i have a hp omnibook 6100 i cant even get into bios by pressing f2 or escape it says card reader not present your computer will shut down??? please help anyone!!! thanks
July 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Hello,
I have an acer aspire 5100 and am having a lot of the same issues as everyone else. i have the fast ethernet controller media failure screen, and just got the “blue screen of death”. my computer wouldnt turn on for awhile and i got it fixed, and then it kept on coming back to that screen again, but it will turn on with ctrl alt del. however then it will work fine for a week or so, and then it will do it again. i have no idea what to do, and now everyone is talking bad things about sending it in to acer. any ideas? please please help me!!!!
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 am
hi, i have a dell notebook and lately its been acting up. for example my itunes doesnt work anymore, mozilla would open but then it would shut down, and all my other programs would freeze and i would keep getting pop ups from different programs saying theres something wrong with it. and when i would restart the computer i’d get a black screen sometimes. i tried to reboot my computer but a black screen came up and i got nothing but FAILED. is my computer completely done???
August 30th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Hey, I’ve also got an Acer Aspire 5100 series with this exact same problem. I’ve already replaced the hard drive but it’s still happening!
I’ve checked the boot order as directed and everything else but without any joy. Until today it would boot up after a few tries but now it’s not having any of it!
Please help!
Thanks in advance.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I read a lot on the internet that I have to change in the bios and the problem I have is that it is not letting me change. I can change the order but I cant change the PXE boot. Also this usually just happends when i open it the first time. once it gets warmed up then i can restart or turn it off and it would be good again. please help me on how to change the bios for the toshiba satellite a65-s1064. thank you
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:19 am
I have a HP DV6130us which is giving me fits. It started out as XPMC crashing. Said that it had an unmountable boot device. I decided to try to load XP Pro Corp. (Legal copy BTW) After the files and drivers are loaded, it starts the windows install. It goes for just a couple of minutes and shuts down. I have done the memtest and all is good. I have ran 4 different hard drive tests and they all show good, although when I do the HP test out of BIOS, it gives me the error #2- 07 failure. I have pulled the HDD out and stuck it in a HP DV6715 and XP will load up correctly on that one.
I have also tried to load Vista ultimate on it and it is successful (Not a legal copy, so that is not an option)
At first, I thought the HDD was bad, but after running the drive tools and it cannot find errors and Vista is able to load perfect, it seems that it is operating correctly. I then thought that it could be overheating, not the case because Vista loads just fine and stayed up for 24 hours without shutting down. I also thought that the GPU was overheating, but apparently that was not the issue either.
I have two different disks for XP pro. Both will install on a different system, so the disks are not bad. One has SP2 slipstreamed without the SATA drivers. It won’t work unless I turn off the native SATA support in BIOS. After disabling that, XP will attempt to load until the install page. The other disc, I have SP3 slipstreamed with SATA drivers embedded. I do not have to disable the SATA support for this disc to work. It makes it to the reboot and then trys to install and shuts down.
When Vista is installing, it reboots several times just like it is supposed to. It attempts to get online and get updates until Microsoft sees that it is an invalid copy. Everything functions in Vista. I can play music, games, movies, surf the internet.
This is very frustrating. I have spent 3 days surfing the net trying to see if anyone else has had an issue like this but to no avail. I have found some very useful info here and thought that this might be the best place to ask for help.
Thank you so much in advance.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Hello folks,
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X that was giving me SMART FAILURE messages concerning the hard drive (Hitachi Travelstar 60GB). It lasted for some time giving me the SMART FAILURE. Couldn’t do much on the machine because it wouldn’t write or save any information, but it is a secondary machine that I only needed for using the internet. Eventually, the machine just went out on me and wouldn’t start up at all. When I tried to turn it on, sometimes the power button would light up for a moment then just go dead again, sometimes it would get all the way to the Toshiba startup screen, then it would crash again.
I ended up replacing the hard drive with a 160GB Hitachi (HTS541616J9AT00). After replacing the new hard drive, I still get the exact same symptoms (i.e. the machine will not start up).
Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks!
April 26th, 2009 at 3:29 am
You can’ take out the CMOS jesus I hate when techies assume its a laptop CMOS Battery! especially when these batteries on most acers are, SOLDERED onto the MOBO. I’ve done more research and my own personal work on this Problem way to much. The test cable for is different for various people, but for the most part the HD is still good as i got the same exact error message with any other HD I hooked up, Open up the laptop locate the CPU chip which is near the Memory, (also double check your memory is installed correctly) take them both out and plug them both in if you have too. after that you need unscrew 2 tiny screws that piece is holding down the HEATSINK, remove the wierd copper looking thingie as thats the best descrip. i can come up with for it! now you can simply remove the HEATSINK and look at you CPU, if its all dried up you need to put new thermal paste on it, once you do that put the screws back on, not so tightly but not too loose you dont want the mobo screwing up again because the screws were plugged in tight. If that doesn’t solve it, I would suggest you try to find another CPU to test out.
thx and goodluck!
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April 26th, 2009 at 3:34 am
O yeah I know post before this sounds “stupid” and a buncha “bull” but trust me, this fix actually does work and this problem is very common in acer laptops. and this solution DOES work. look up CPU/AMD Acer Issues, or something along those lines. So please give a chance before you throw your laptop out the window!! happy troubleshooting!
if its under warrenty i suggest you send it to them because what they do is replace the whole mobo…
April 26th, 2009 at 3:38 am
sorry one last thing, I also remember some people actually replacing the weird copper thingie hold the HEATSINK in place of the CPU and the actually HEATSINK and adding thermal paste and they have NEVER had a problem since!
I still get a blue BSOD every now and then about the kernel but for what its worth I havn’t got the media failure since I did the previous solution i posted!
September 26th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Hi,
I have the same problem as shown above, Fast ethernet failure ,,, What should I do? is replacement of hard drive is the only solution for it? please help to sort the problem.