My system won't boot up.

I'm getting a PXE-E61 message saying "Media test failure. Check cable. when
I try to boot up.

It's a Toshiba laptop running WinXP Home and was working fine before I made
some changes.

Can anybody offer some help or steer me to where I might get some help?

Thanks.

John Williams

On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 06:12:09 GMT, John Williams wrote:


> Can anybody offer some help or steer me to where I might get some help?

Have you disabled network-boot in the BIOS?

Why don't you just undo the changes you made? Then make them again - ONE at
a time. Test after each change.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"John Williams" <John@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:ZQLrf.9681$3Z.5957@newsread1.news.atl.earthli nk.net...
>
> My system won't boot up.
>
> I'm getting a PXE-E61 message saying "Media test failure. Check cable.
> when I try to boot up.
>
> It's a Toshiba laptop running WinXP Home and was working fine before I
> made some changes.
>
> Can anybody offer some help or steer me to where I might get some help?
>
> Thanks.
>
> John Williams
>

Thanks, Thomas.

I haven't solved my problem, but looking at the BIOS gave me an
understanding of what's going on: I've either clobbered the C-disk boot or
disabled it. So, the computer tries to boot from alternate sources until
finally it gets to LAN.

So, how to fix things so the C-disk boot is OK or enabled (if it's disabled)
is my problem now and I guess I'll have to go to Toshiba for an answer
(which will no doubt be reload my system).

John Williams


"Thomas Jespersen" <jespersen.thomas@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:9brqkdwnow1a.kssmd0eaoaaz.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 06:12:09 GMT, John Williams wrote:
>
>
>> Can anybody offer some help or steer me to where I might get some help?
>
> Have you disabled network-boot in the BIOS?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I believe I've reached the point of no
return.

John Williams
"Richard Urban" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:O49i55gCGHA.2664@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Why don't you just undo the changes you made? Then make them again - ONE
> at a time. Test after each change.
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
>
> Quote from George Ankner:
> If you knew as much as you think you know,
> You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
>
> "John Williams" <John@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
> news:ZQLrf.9681$3Z.5957@newsread1.news.atl.earthli nk.net...
>>
>> My system won't boot up.
>>
>> I'm getting a PXE-E61 message saying "Media test failure. Check cable.
>> when I try to boot up.
>>
>> It's a Toshiba laptop running WinXP Home and was working fine before I
>> made some changes.
>>
>> Can anybody offer some help or steer me to where I might get some help?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> John Williams
>>
>
>

John Williams wrote:

> Thanks for the suggestion, but I believe I've reached the point of no
> return.
>
> John Williams
> "Richard Urban" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:O49i55gCGHA.2664@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Why don't you just undo the changes you made? Then make them again -
>> ONE at a time. Test after each change.
>>

Go back into the BIOS and make sure the boot order is something like
CD-ROM drive 1st, hard drive second, floppy third. Make sure booting
from the hard drive is enabled. Now try and boot. If you do, then all
is well. If the machine won't boot, post back with the text of the
error message.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

In BIOS, the root priority is HDD->FDD->CD-ROM->LAN. If I insert my
Symantec recovery disk, the system will boot up. With no CD inserted, it
falls thru to LAN and displays the stuff in my above post. So, I have
concluded the master boot record is corrupt.

Therefore I am starting a new thread about "Recovery Console" because I
should be able to restore the master boot record with it.

John Williams


"Malke" <notreally@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:ewxiq$kCGHA.3820@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> John Williams wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the suggestion, but I believe I've reached the point of no
>> return.
>>
>> John Williams
>> "Richard Urban" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:O49i55gCGHA.2664@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>>> Why don't you just undo the changes you made? Then make them again -
>>> ONE at a time. Test after each change.
>>>
>
> Go back into the BIOS and make sure the boot order is something like
> CD-ROM drive 1st, hard drive second, floppy third. Make sure booting
> from the hard drive is enabled. Now try and boot. If you do, then all
> is well. If the machine won't boot, post back with the text of the
> error message.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic"

99 times out of 100 this means the hard drive is toast. Sorry.

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
and those who don't.
"John Williams" <John@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:ZQLrf.9681$3Z.5957@newsread1.news.atl.earthli nk.net...
>
> My system won't boot up.
>
> I'm getting a PXE-E61 message saying "Media test failure. Check cable.
> when I try to boot up.
>
> It's a Toshiba laptop running WinXP Home and was working fine before I
> made some changes.
>
> Can anybody offer some help or steer me to where I might get some help?
>
> Thanks.
>
> John Williams
>