PXE - 61: Media test failure, check cable

rastacom · Jan 21, 2010

The Toshiba TECRA laptop crashed (Pentium M 1700MHz), startup, an error message as follows:
Pre-boot exection environment (pxe) v2.1
(c)copyright 1997-2000 Intel corporation.
PXE - 61: Media test failure, check cable.
PXE - MOF: Exiting PXE ROM.

In the Bios, "no disk"

Is it just the hard drive that has failed or there may be something else?

Thank you in advance

DavidGP · Jan 21, 2010

Hi

Try if you can to enter the BIOS and see if it has a reset to default setting? (I would have suggested reseting the BIOS/CMOS by removing the motherboard battery but on laptops this is not that simple as many a time they are hard wired in)

While in the bios check the boot order and see if the HDD is 1st boot device and see if that works, if not and same message then try setting the boot oder to CDROM as 1st boot device and boot to a bootable CD/DVD (Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or a Live bootable Linux version like Ubuntu) to test.

Also just in case and if you are ok with PC hardware, unplug the hard drive and then plug it back in as it may have become loose as laptops are notorious for loose connections as they get bashed around more than that of desktops.

sach2 · Jan 21, 2010

Just so you know the PXE is about the laptop having tried to boot from a network device. Most home users don't have a network boot device.

Usually PXE is the last item in the Boot Order. So that message is saying that the laptop probably looked to boot from a CD/DVD then the Hard Drive and when it couldn't find an Operating System on either of those it looked for a network device. Which it didn't find. Which is normal for most home systems.

You should try Halo's troubleshooting tips.

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PXE - 61: Media test failure, check cable

rastacom Private E-2

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