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    Laptop not starting -operating system not found

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by cill_dublin, Apr 29, 2009.

  1. cill_dublin

    cill_dublin Newbie

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    My laptop will not start up properly and i cant access the hard drive or anything. i get a black screen with this messages on it

    PXE-E61:Media test failure, check cable
    PXE-M0F: Existing SiS191 PXE BootROM.
    Operating system not found

    I have tried rebooting the system but it says theres no hard drive and I dont have any CDs to work off either. The system worked off vista and the whole system ran slow for the whole time I have had the laptop.

    Is the system completly gone or can i recover my files etc and get it back working esily enough?
     
    cill_dublin, Apr 29, 2009
    #1
  2. Silas Awaketh

    Silas Awaketh Notebook Deity

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    Check whether the hard drive is being detected in the BIOS. If it is, it's probably just a case of boot order gone wrong.
     
    Silas Awaketh, Apr 29, 2009
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  3. hwa1201

    hwa1201 Notebook Evangelist

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    also make sure to check the boot order
    and try to disable "boot from network" from boot priority order.
    my friend had exactly same issue and it turns out the hard drive
    was bad and had to replace hard drive.
     
    hwa1201, Apr 29, 2009
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  4. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    You didn't say what your configuration is. If you have Raid, make sure Raid is enabled in the bios.
     
    Rob41, Apr 29, 2009
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  5. KimoT

    KimoT Are we not men?

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    What they said: see if BIOS sees the drive. The next step is to get our hands on a bootable disc and see if that will work. I would recommend getting a copy of Ultimate Boot CD...it has a lot of hardware tests on it that can help diagnose your problem.

    I just had the same thing happen to me, and it was a hard drive with physical defects that caused it. But you could get lucky, it might only be a bad setting.
     
    KimoT, Apr 29, 2009
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  6. Rob41

    Rob41 Team Pirate Control

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    Ditto,
    and another good boot cd is Hiren's.
     
    Rob41, Apr 29, 2009
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  7. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Do you have the ability to boot from a network? I ask because "PXE" refers to the " Preboot Execution Environment" that is used to boot computers off of a network interface. Since the two errors you describe both involve the PXE, it's possible that you either (a) have a problem with your network boot capabilities, if those are supposed to be there, or (b) have inadvertently enabled booting from a network and made it the first in your boot order in the BIOS.

    It might also have to do with your system partition if you converted it to a dynamic storage volume. I don't know why (didn't research it) but I found a reference to that as a problem in this thread from a Microsoft MSDN forum.

    Have you tried googling on the error codes? There are a lot of different hits that come up when I google PXE-E61, so it might be worth your while to work through some of those to see if anyone's had your problem as well.
     
    Shyster1, Apr 29, 2009
    #7