mb/bios issues?

At least that's What I'm assuming it is.

The motherboard was switched out a couple days ago (tech came to the house, as it's still under manufacturer's warranty, yay for that. RAM was replaced at the same time). However, if I have my jump drive in the USB port (any of them) when it boots, it gives me an error message of 'Missing Operating System.'

I figure, no problem, go into the BIOS, exclude all the USBs from the boot order, and we should be good. It had the same issue when I first got the computer and that solved it. This time it didn't work. The only things it should be booting from are the hd and the cd/dvd according to the BIOS settings, yet I still get the error message if my jump is in. (Leaving my external hard drive plugged in, on the other hand, has no error/effect.)

Strangely enough, I tested it with some others, just for kicks. With jump #2, I get error 'No bootable partition in table.' (From this one I cannot do control+alt+delete to reboot, I have to hard shut down for some reason). Jump #3 boots just fine.

Not sure if it's related, but when the technician came, he said he's talked to the Lenovo techs a few times and they claim there's no way to input the serial number of the mb in the system, so when it first starts up it beeps at me. It also gives me the following messages after the Lenovo splash screen but before the Windows start up:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting boot agent.

He looked at it funny a couple times, then just shrugged it off and said that since the computer appeared to be working fine (though it has been stalling a bit since the switch out - yay!) it was likely just related to the serial not being inset correctly. Here's hoping. So if that's nothing to worry about, awesome, but I just have no idea if that might have any bearing on the other issue.

Windows 7 Home Premium
ACPI x64
Intel i3 2120
8g RAM (2x4g)
Intel Boot Agent GE v1.3.65
BIOS update 1/13

 

Since it's still under warranty, the monkey is on Lenovo's back.

The error messages you're describing should not have been "shrugged off" by the tech. As someone who is in the PC repair business, I do not consider a PC "fixed" until it boots up properly and runs for at least an hour or two in my shop without any error messages or BSODs.

The Catch-22 is that - if you start tinkering with the problem yourself - Lenovo may use it as an excuse to void your warranty or charge you for an additional service call.

Contact both Lenovo and the retailer you purchased it from and demand a quick, proper repair or a replacement PC. If they drag their heels, send a letter to your state's Attorney General with specific details of when you first contacted Lenovo, what the tech did (and didn't) do and the fact you expect them to honor the warranty by either repairing the unit properly or replacing it at no cost.

Hope this helps.

 

Unfortunately I didn't see the boot issues with the USB until the tech had left my house, but the others still kinda confused me. Still, I've been trying to take it on because what I've learned from dealing with Lenovo is that the people I'm talking to there are not techs in any sense of the word. They're just call center people and know next to nothing about computers. I have to figure out what the problem is and tell them what to replace. Oh, and they don't do full system replacements. Joy. Have to deal with the retailer for that.

I'm calling them tonight anyhow because there's something else going bad on the comp, I just wanted to verify that I'm not being an idiot and there's not some user error going on in there somewhere. ^_-

But yes, time to end this, because it's been almost 3 months of back and forthing, and it's still not fixed properly, so I will follow your advice. Thanks on that.

 

I agree with gman, let them fix it.

It does seem that there is something wrong with your boot order. The PXE error is also related to boot order.

Usually the boot order would be CD, HD, USB then PXE (which is a network boot which most home users don't have). So it seems it tries to boot and goes through the list and says it found no bootable devices. Then it retries and either finds Windows or the USB depending what is available.

My guess is the CMOS battery may be bad (MB was sitting around a warehouse too long) which would explain why it has to go through the searching for boot devices each time. If it was retaining information from the last successful boot, I don't think you would be getting the PXE error unless the HD is failing too. If you are calling them leave the troubleshooting to them. You are not doing anything wrong by leaving a USB stick in the machine and you should never be getting a PXE error on every boot after a service call. They should check the CMOS battery and double check the HD too.