PXE-E61 Media test failure

I have read the other posts that the title of this one brings up (FYI, a system search brings no responses to PXE-E61) and they do not help.

Situation:
Restarting a 2005 HP Laptop that has been out of service for six months due to what I thought was a busted power jack in the unit.

I pulled the old hard drive and installed it in a case as a backup to the new laptop I bought. It works fine there.

Discovered that old laptop powers on with a new plug, so I pulled the old HD out of the accy case and reinstalled it in the old laptop. Tried to boot.

Problem:
Try to boot from reinstalled old HD and it reports the PXE error. BIOS does not report a hard drive in place.

Try to boot from the XP setup disk. The hard drive activity light illuminates and I can hear the HD working. Screen msg shows that it's installing software. Then it calls for pressing ENTER to set up Windows.

Press ENTER and get error msg saying setup did not find any hard drives installed.

Change boot order, disable network boot up, etc. No joy.

At this point, web search tells me that HD is probably bad, so go buy another one of the proper type, but much larger capacity.

Run through same install/setup routines with new HD in place and get same results: see HD light, hear HD, but get same PXE error msg when it comes time to do Windows setup.

Tear hair. Gnash teeth. Get on line to Major Geeks.

What's happening here?

Pilgrim

 

Delayed realization of a DUH!!! moment.

I reported hearing the sound of the hard drive and seeing the hd activity light. The sound, of course, was the CD drive as the system loaded files from it. And I didn't know the disk activity light goes on for the CD - but it apparently does.

Disregard that section of the post, please.

Pilgrim

 

Pending on the age of the laptop, you may have to install the hdd drivers. Put the drivers on a floppy, then boot the xp cd. Hit F6 when you see it at the bottom. More than likely you will need a USB floppy drive though.

 

Thanks for the response.

Installing drivers makes sense, I guess, but none came with this Western Digital, 160 gig HD, so I'd assumed none would be called for. As you point out, though, that's more a function of the computer's age than what HD I install.

This computer dates back to early 2005. What do you think in light of that? Try to find drivers?

If I can find drivers, can they be fed in from a thumb drive in a USB port?

 

Was talking about the storage drivers from the laptop itself, not the hard drive.

 

Now I'm really in over my head. What's a storage driver? I never heard of that particular critter.

Where would I get 'em? How can I install them if I can't access even a command prompt?

This laptop was working just fine the last time it was powered up, and I shut it down normally before I parked it. Why would it have decided on its own not to recognize its own old hard drive, much less a brand new one?

Pilgrim

 

What is your make and model of your laptop?

 

It's an HP Pavilion, mod ZV5000. Manuf date is early 2005.

 

Thanks to all who responded.

I have identified the problem, no thanks to the HP "how-to" video. I am lacking a pin extender for the HD - apparently I took it off the original HD when I moved it to the external case and I KNOW I forgot it should be there. Obviously (by now) the pins are making connection when I close the carrier. When it finally came down to "Gotta be a hardware problem" it came back to me. The HD vid makes no mention of that portion of the drive swap, so it took my a while to remember what could be wrong.

Naturally, I can't find it now, although I never thrown anything away, as my wife would be quick to tell you. Nevertheless, I must buy one. Where can I find one? HP does not list it as a part.

Pilgrim

 

It is a Pavilion Ze2000 notebook Thanks for your help!!