# [SOLVED] Error message PXE-E61 ?



## Stevenb43

I am receiving the following error message when I try to start my son's computer. PXE-E61 Media Test Failure check cable.

Needless to say I checked all cables but to now avail. I went into bios and the computer doesn't recognize the hard drive. I put in a new hard drive but still no good. 

It is a Dell Optiplex Pent II 350, Windows 98, 6 gb hd, 64mb ram.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve:


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## yomaddog

Hi,

Not sure about the messeges, but here's some advice-

Are you familiar with single,slave & master pin jumpers? (on the hard-drive unit) Also, the ribbon cable usually has 2 spots to plug in drives: slave & master...

You need to set the pins to a single drive, and the ribbon as master...


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## Jedi_Master

PXE seems to refer to a pc that is trying to boot from the Network...

Can you go into the BIOS and disable Boot from LAN or Network ??


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## Stevenb43

I am familiar with jumper settings on hard drives and I did set the new hard drive correctly but the jumpers have not been touched on the original drive that worked last night. I did go into bios and disable the nic but still the same. I wonder if it means that the hard drive is no good. Is it common for 1 to go out instantly?

Thanks,

Steve


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## Jedi_Master

Well... I gues what I should've said was to check the Boot order in the BIOS and make sure that is isn't set to Boot from LAN or Network first as the error "PXE XXX Media Test Failure" ( where XXX refers to the NIC card ID ) does in fact refer to a pc that is trying to Boot from the LAN or Network first... and yes if it is enabled to Boot from LAN or Network first and it could also mean a bad hard drive or one that doesn't have an OS installed...


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## Stevenb43

Jedi_Master;

I disable the lan boot w/no pxe support in the bios and put in a new hard drive 30 gig and it is great now.

I believe the hard drive went bad and it then tried to load an os from a previous network, which caused the PXE error. The true culprit was the bad hard drive.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

Steve


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## Jedi_Master

Well gald to hear that it is working now...


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## cranehunter

hello, 
i have been having the same message of "media test failure" "check cable" "operating system not found"
i have had this problem now for over a year along with other strange unsolved problems. sometimes i can wrangle my way back into windows and i usually loose everything and have to sart over. i crashed 3 times in one week this fall and could not get back in. i took my computer to the local shop and got a new hard drive. i thought it would be the end of my problems but it was not. i crashed again and my computer guy had to remove my hard drive and put it into another computer just to reinstall windows. he could not get in it any other way. he said what ever happened really scrambled my data and he said there was something really weird going on in there that he had never seen before. december 21st it crashed again. i am now working off a "hand me down" from a cousin till i decide what to do. i really like my computer and except for this problem it works wonderfully for what i do ( geneology ) does anyone think that maby there is something wrong in the power supply ?


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