Boot Problem in Windows

DamienH

Just wondering if anyone could give me a hand sorting out a problem on my parent's PC. I'm not sure what to do tbh.

When the computer is started it tries to boot from the harddrive, but it goes into the NVIDIA Boot Agent. Then gives an error saying
"PXE-E61 : Media test failure check cable," an then quits.

It will boot from a CD no problem. I tried to re-install windows thinking something might have been corrupted. I formatted the hard-drive and then after it was finished the PC tried to boot back up into the windows installation process. It just gets right back to the error above though, it's like it's jsut not even reading the hard-drive

Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks,
Damien

Jackovarian

i remember getting an error like that before with a differnt piece of hardware.
is the gfx onboard or slot?
if its slot you should take it out and then put it back in the slot. also, just check around that nothing is loose. could be something simple.

maybe not though.
turn it on, keep pressing f8 you'll hear it beep or it will go into a screen asking you how you would lkike to boot. if it beeps stop pressing f8 and it will go into the screen i just mentioned. try booting in safe mode.
does that work?

DamienH

I've tried that but I should of have mentioned that it won't boot into safe mode...

Capt'n Midnight

DamienH wrote:

When the computer is started it tries to boot from the harddrive, but it goes into the NVIDIA Boot Agent. Then gives an error saying
"PXE-E61 : Media test failure check cable," an then quits.

double check the boot order in BIOS/setup

PXE means it's trying to boot from the network card / NIC

if all else fails then make a boot floppy ,
format a disk on anouther XP PS and copy \ntlder \ntdetect.com and \boot.ini to it

the reinstall should have sorted out sw problems though

uch

Disable PXE driver in the BIOS

uch

Sorry should have said also, this is a board/cmos issue, nothing to do with windows so reinstall seldom does anything usefull

JethroC

If you can get a boot cd or floppy with fdisk on it, run fdisk and check if your primary partition (the partition with Windows installed) is set to active as the computer won't boot if it's not...

Jackovarian

would the boot sector have set itself to inactive randomly? (dont mean to sound like a fecker there, genuine question.)

maybe a quick jumper reset would fix it. or remove the cmos battry for a bit. might just clear the settings enough to fix it.

or, see is the bios flashable from boot disk. i doubt it is, but its worth a look.

DamienH

Ok I'll try and get fdisk from my laptop and make a boot CD. I'll try removing the battery aswell. How would I disable the PXE driver in bios? I've looked but couldn't see anything about PXE at all. Thanks for all the help!!

JethroC

Jackovarian wrote: »

would the boot sector have set itself to inactive randomly? (dont mean to sound like a fecker there, genuine question.

I have actually seen this happen before...only once or twice though but setting the partition back to active sorted the problem. It doesn't happen very often at all but it is worth a shot.

uch

DamienH wrote: »

Ok I'll try and get fdisk from my laptop and make a boot CD. I'll try removing the battery aswell. How would I disable the PXE driver in bios? I've looked but couldn't see anything about PXE at all. Thanks for all the help!!

Doubt if fdisk will make any difference as it's probably NTFS file system, check your bios manufacturers website and look for troubleshooting guide, if your technical you could flash the BIOS, but be careful very careful as you can fkuc up your PC very easily if you don't know what you are doing.

Overheal

Have you tried running the machine without the Graphics Card?

uch

Do you have the PC protected with a surge protector ?
If not the boot sector of your hard drive could be fried (this can happen from lightening in stormy weather and power surges from ESB ), check in the bios that your primary hard drive is being seen, if possible remove the hard drive and slave it into another pc and see if it picks it up.