I am in the process of assembling my first pc.During the final boot up, I am getting following error message

Intel Base-Code, PXE-2.1 (build 083)
Copyright (C) 1997-2001, Intel Corporation
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0f: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.
Boot Failure: System Halted

Some people advised me that it is due to BIOS is trying to boot from the network card. I am using Intel845WNL motherboard. My boot device priority is

1-Removable Dev.
2-CD-ROM
3-Hard Drive
4-IBA 4.0.19 Slot 0208 [I don't know what this means]

I tried 1,2,3 in different orders, but didn't work. Please advice how can I get rid of this error. Thanks in advance.

my first screen says secondary ide channel no 80 conductor cable installed

floppy disk fail (40)

***i dont even have a floppy drive)****

then press F1 to continue or del to enter setup.. and well setup doesnt get me to bios.. just to a few things and the advanced bios, but nothing anyone has talked about on here.. or anything that comes close to what someone has tried on here to try in this setup area.

so if i go to continue i get

"verifying DMI pool data....

boot from cd:

nvidia boot agent, pxe 2.0 (build 082 v1.82)

pxe-e61: media test failure, check cable

pxe-m0f: exiting nvidia boot agent

disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter.

* C: CD ..
* C: ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini
* C:ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini
* C:ATRIB -R C:\\boot.ini
* C: del boot.ini
* C: BOOTCFG /Rebuild
* C: CHKDSK /R /F
* C: FIXBOOT

Your computer is unable to boot from your hard drive, and unable to boot from your CD, and unable to boot from any other sources. So now it is trying to boot from the network. This error message means that you do not have a network cable plugged into your computer. Therefore it is failing to boot from the network as well.

This means that either your hard drive has crashed, so your computer can't find it. Or you are using a bogus boot CD, that the computer can't read.

Hope Intel would have done better messaging with boot failure.. as it was in previous releases..

I took turned the comp off, unplugged it, took out the battery, removed my 160GB hdd replaced it, removed my 1GB RAM replaced it, and turned it on and same thing, or nothing happened.

then i again removed everything, shook the comp a wee bit, undid some other screws had a look in side, jiggled it some more, replaced everything, put in my old 40GB hdd and wow it worked!!!! it's a bloody miracle!
so of course i'm thinking, it's fixed and swap hdd's and now it doesn't want to work... so i swap the hdds again and WOW!!! it's working!

so it works with the 40GB and not with the 160GB??? beats me!
any ideas?

i'm thinking of taking it to a computer technician and getting the data from it onto another hdd. as well as asking them if there is a fault with the hdd, if there is and i can find my receipt i should get some money back!

I will try resetting the boot order in the BIOS, as explained below.

what am i supposed to do?
i have tried everything.
my boot sequence is
1. hard drive
2. cd rom
3. floppy drive
4. nic

also in the boot sequence it says the hard drive and cd rom drive are not installed.

I was getting this error on my Toshiba Satelite P205 -s6237

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exciting PXE ROM'

first HD - Harddrive

second cd-rom

third remote-device

forth diabled floppy-disk

I am in nearly same position at my laptop, but when I press switch-on button is off. After 10 times trying laptop is on.
Than on my black screen is repeating PXE-E61 and MOf ...

There is no function to operate, no reaction on any button, just black screen and repeating sbout mistake.

I try CD recovery but is stopped after 10 or 20 sec after start.

Any idea for BIOS connection in my situation ?!

Any help and advice
Please

"I just found that setting in the BIOS, changed it so that the A drive was assigned to my floppy drive and everything worked"

Hope this helps anyone who needs it.
********************************************************
Referring to the above previous and very old post I have this
I too am getting that awful error PXE-E61/PXE-E53 type errors everyone else is experiencing with their laptops. Our is an ACER Aspire 5100 series; Windows XP Media Center Edition Version 2002; SP2.

I have restored to factory conditions from the D: drive factory install. After install has been completed, I see that the hard drive is a FAT32 file system. I do not have install disk from acer for my machine as I never got one when it was new. Just the Recover Program on drive D.

As far as "PXE-M0f: Exiting Intel PXE ROM." I'm not really sure of, It sounds like its trying to boot from somewhere else, perhaps on an external harddrive or something. And that it can't find that drive, so it exits, thus resulting it the "PXE-M0f: Exiting Intel PXE ROM." error. My guess is that it can't find the boot volume.

You may try resetting the bios, or simply making sure the boot order is set to boot off your local hard drive as first priority. And then to make sure that you have a valid OS installed on that hard drive.

Hope that helped.

i too am having above problem of 'Media test failure/ Check cable' on my home PC today..

but for me, I am trying to awake from my hibernate state of my PC.
In my dualboot system with XP and Server2k3, after my installing SP3 to XP, the problem emerged. May be XP booter / service pack would have reconfigured few files regarding booting/sequence to read harddisk/network boot..

My MAJOR question / WORRY is.:
Whether open files mainly JSP/HTML/JAVA/TXT would be corrupt if the computer, for god's sake, opens after troubleshooting properly...

I'll try few options of troublshooting 1] changing boot sequence, 2] disable logfrom network etc. when i go to home...3] Try default BIOS setup...4] lastly, go for hardisk cabling, tighten its position.. then will revert...

Wish me good luck...

a.rajadurai, newdelhi

Funny thing is, the TOSHIBA RESTORE disk does load entire windows/OS on the hard driv, i see the LED blinking flashing.... but strange it doesnt boot... appreciate any help ata ll.

Start the notebook
press F2 to enter bios
it asks a password
press F12 > it generates a number

with HP/Compaq software you insert the 5 digits and it generates an unlock code that makes you enter bios and reset nios password.

For realtek rtl8139(x)/8130/810x pci fast Ethernet controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61 Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F Exiting PXE ROM.

First my laptop stopped working and I called in a technician, who said my hard drive was gone. But he copied all my information from the old hard drive and said he would come back and install the new hard drive (after I bought it) and reinstall the information. I never saw him again. I bought a new hard drive and now I am getting this error message.I contacted HP customer support, but I think I am in contact with somebody in India, who gives me no help.

I am older and not very good with computer language, but I am usually pretty good at solving my computer problems.

Try if you can run a hardrive diagnostic.
Look if you see some linklights at the LAN connector.
Check the Primary IDE cable that goes to you HDD. (if you have a voltmeter check for continuity through the wires, that will tell you if the wires are getting any power, if not change wires)
Try to boot into DOS
Try a known good harddrive, or try this hdd in a different system and check if it is booting in a KG system.
If you can rule out the hdd you might have a mobo issue.

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.1 (build 082)
Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation
For Realtek RTL8100E/8101E Fast Ethernet Network Adapter v1.02 (060510)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE-ROM.

From: Pete on 04/21/2008
Help! Im not great with computers but my computer is bein very very loud and I'm getting this message (which seems to be fairly common). I've read some of the responses below but I'm afraid they dont make much sense to me. I took out the hard drive and battery and cleaned 'em out. Didnt see any loose wires. This happened to me a few months back and after a few days of leaving my laptop unplugged, it suddenly started working again. I have a HP Pavillion. Please help me!!

For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exciting PXE ROM'

-----------------------

reason+solution1:

From: stoney on 04/15/2008
i had the very same error in the top of this list today and found it to be a bad ide cable from motherboard to 2 hard drives i replaced it and everything is fine

----------------------------

reason+solution2:

i've had that problem before too, it was when the hard drive was faulty, i had to get a replacement hard drive for it

-------------------------

another problem:

i've been trying to do a dual-boot [have two operating systems at once] but it cannot read the CD, i'm trying to install linux as well as windows, but it has the same error

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exciting PXE ROM

For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exciting PXE ROM'

I've taken out the HD, cleaned everything, and closed back up. Still receiving error message. I've changed the boot order to no avail.

Thanks a lot for the detailed instructions. I had problems with a beeping keyboard and found your post by googling "PXE-E61" which I'd noticed at startup. The IT guys at my school told me it was a hardware problem and that I would have to take it back to Toshiba technical service to get it fixed. Not so, it was something with my BIOS and my problem was solved by setting it back to default. Took all of 30 seconds. Many thanks!

-your Windows installation is corrupt (unlikely for this kind of error): run windows installation of the install CD with repair option

-reformat your hard-drive.

-go into bios and reset the PXE detection in the security section.

-check if the cable to the hard drive is defective.

-the computer is booting to a non-existent external hard-drive, instead of the internal drive. remove or disable the non-existent drive in BIOS setup (see above)

-try a different or new hard-drive.

-disabled the quiet boot in BIOS setup after removing the battery

these fixes go back as far as slashpile on 09/20/2007. if none work, look on this thread before slashpile on 09/20/2007.

(feel free to vote for this post!)

The problem is caused because your computer is not launching the hard-drive when you turn it on.

There are several potential causes of this:

-The motherboard startup settings (BIOS) are out of wack. SOLUTION: Turn on the computer and press the F2 or F10 keys (at the top of the keyboard) as soon as you see anything on the monitor. You should see a message on the screen telling you which F key to press to get into SETUP (getting into toshiba satellite bios you need to keep holding the power button and the escape button until youve been aske to press F1). In setup, select the option to "Reset to Default Settings", and then the option to "Save and exit". If that does not work, go back into the Setup screen, and look for "Boot devices" or "Boot sequence"-- it may be inside a screen called "Boot Settings" or "CMOS Settings". You may have to dig through sub-menus. You want to make sure that LAN or Network is not in the boot device list ahead of HD or Hard Drive. The boot order should be:
1. Floppy
2. CD
3. Hard Drive
4. anything else

-The hard-drive has a mechanical problem, such as a loose connection, or incorrectly installed. SOLUTION: Unplug and open the tower, remove the hard drive gently, making note of all connections. If necessary, label each cable with a bit of masking tape before disconnecting. Get the dust out of the tower, and reinstall the hard-drive securely. If necessary, use a match or bit of cardboard to secure it-- be inventive, but GENTLE. Make sure the cables and jumpers are firmly and correctly connected. If this is a new or intermittent problem, you can assume the cables and jumpers are correct.

Other fixes from this page which may apply to you:

-due to a disconnected keyboard cable (forgot to plug it in after replacing the HDD), of all things.

-disable "Boot to LAN" or "Boot to network" in the BIOS boot sequence (first solution above).

-Check for a RAID setting on your HDD in your bios, switch to IDE.

-the hard drive power cable was not connected

-download and install new BIOS from your computer or motherboard manufacturer: On a working computer, go to their website, and download the correct BIOS Update for your computer. This may take some research. Install the BIOS onto a floppy or USB drive according to their directions. Put the floppy or USB stick into the sick computer, and turn it on (you may need to set startup sequence so that the USB stick is recognized, see first solution above). Your BIOS will get updated. Remove the floppy or stick, and restart the computer.

-if you used the restore disks to reinstall Windows, and your drive is larger than 80 GB, it's possible that the restore disks formatted the drive as a FAT32 system instead of NTFS. FAT32 cannot handle a boot disk larger than 32GB - it becomes unstable. SOLUTION: reformat the drive using the restore disks or a windows install disk as NTFS, not FAT.

1) Go to Microsoft and download Windows XP Setup boot disks http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

The Setup boot disks are available so that you can run the Setup program on computers that cannot use a bootable CD-ROM. (I think the X22 supports bootable CD-ROM but I did not want to waste any time finding out)

2) I use a USB floppy drive and a PCMCIA CD-drive (both from Ebay)
(I think the X22 will work with USB CD-drive as well.)

3) Leave Windows XP CD in CD-drive

4) Insert floppy into floppy disk and follow steps, i.e. insert disks 1 to 6

5) After disk 6, the system switches over to the CD-drive and starts installing windows.

When i tried the Disable on board lan control i didnt get the error message all i got was a black screen with the _ flashing

nothing else happens. if I re-enable the on board lan control it goes back to the same error message

I checked the harddrive and scaned everything for problems using PSA (pre-bios scan assesment) or somthing like that

Intel Base-Code, PXE-2.1 (build 083)
Copyright (C) 1997-2001, Intel Corporation
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0f: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.

And then computer went into a unrelenting reboot cycle... grrr

I went into the bios set everything to default, noticed bios still sees the hd info. hd test said no hdd present.

Changed the boot order since it was showing floppy disk as first to boot from that didn't work, still recycles boot with errors

What worked for me was, I attempted one last time to look at every single option in the bios and noticed one setting that showed boot floppy drive enable/disable i changed it to disable and the system booted.

My harddrive and files were intacted!! So really dig in your bios at every option for boot orders or floppy disk that might be enabled before you go beserk and trash the computer hehe

When I powerup I see:
Broadcom UNDI PXE-2.1 (build 082) v6.2.11a
Copyright 2000-2003 Broadcom Corporation
Copyright 1997-2000 Intel Corporation
All rights reserved

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable

PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
Operating System not found

I've attempted the following solutions offered so far without any success.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-010254.htm#pxeerror

describes this error message:

Quote
Error "PXE-E61 Media Test Failure" at Boot
The error PXE-E61 Media Test Failure can occur at boot, if all the following are true:

Boot to LAN is enabled in BIOS Setup.
A network cable/connection is not present.
Network Boot is in the boot order before a present boot device.
To resolve this, remove Boot to LAN from the list of boot devices in BIOS Setup.
End of Quote

Open your BIOS and check to see if Boot to LAN is in the startup order. Then remove or disable it.