Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
Hi:
My Gateway system did not boot-up yesterday. Instead, I hear the hard drive spinning up, slowing down, spinning up,and then no sound. "PXE-MOF Exiting Intel PXE ROM Boot Failure--System Halted" is the message. Subsequent power cycle is "PXE-E53 No boot filename received". I placed the Win Xp Home Ed. CD-R in the drive looking to Repair, but "no hard drive found" is the return. I placed a Norton 2003 CD-R in the drive to use as emergency boot but only the A:\ drive is scanned for viruses and this is puzzling since A is my 1.44 MB floppy drive (empty). I made a bootable floppy from another WINXP machine and get as far as the A:\ after it boots up--I do not know anything about MS-DOS syntax. Can someone write the syntax for me for a scandsk or chkdsk for the hard drive (C:\) in case this is something fixable? I reseated all my cables, changed the CMOS battery, and verified the boot order of my drives/devices. I have read that hard drive failure is a real possibility, but while the drive still spins I want to maximize my attempt at a scan/fix.
Thanks.
Adam
PKE boot is trying to boot from the network.
Do you have an OS CD you can boot to and run chkdsk?
Life is more painless for those who are brainless.
0 
mmm... if this drive is playing up... power system down for while - totally remove the power cord. Leave it cool down for an hour or two. Then power up again and reboot etc... There is possibility it will spin up OK and boot thru'. If it does... immediately copy off all critical data etc. to optical media.
Do NOT waste time running a chkdisk/scandisk routine...; your prime concern is to recover data etc! The drive may not last long enough in a working state (although another cooling off period may allow to work again briefly...) so go after your data first.
Then replace the drive with a new one and install OS etc. afresh. Then having let the current drive cool down again... slave it to the new one and see if you can again copy data off - to the new one...
Ideally configure the new/replacement drive with both Primary and Extended partitions; Primary for OS/apps/utils etc, and Extended for data only.
A couple of weeks ago in SLC/Utah I had just this situation with friend's PC. The drive "died" - but after cooling down (system power totally removed) it did re-activate for a while. Consequently we were able to recover data - before it "died" again... We installed a new drive etc as above. I have the old drive with me chez-moi and maybe able to recover a few other not so critical data items too by slaving it to one on my working systems. It may/may not re-activate again - who knows; but worth a try?
Some folks have found wrapping a drive in cloth and putting it the fridge will temporarily re-activate a failed drive... A more extreme version of the cooling off as above...?
0
Hi:
Did exactly that last evening. Opened case, let sit in the A/C for 18 hours. Power-up this morning: "PXE-E61 Media Test Failure--Check Cable. PXE-M)F- Exiting Intel PXE ROM Boot Failure- System Halted".
Does this smell of hard drive failure, period? Not worth checking to see if the boot sector is flawed/damaged? Nothing to briefly use MS-DOS and my A-drive floppy to scan the drive?
0
Jennifer:
I did place the blue WinXP CD-R in the drive-- "No hard drive found" was returned". I wanted to use the REPAIR utility.
0
Do a google or similar trawl using:
PXE-E61 Media Test Failure
as the string, and you'll get a plethroa of hits about this issue... And as Jeffiner suggests... it is apparently/probably trying to boot from the network... And if you read some of the hits of the trawl you'll discover it's a not uncommon issue with laptops. Frequently they are imaged etc. via a network access... - as per discussions at:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/threa...
Another possibility is two devices both set a Master on the same ribbon as per:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/threa...
I wouldn't give up on this drive yet.
If you can slave it to another working system... you may at least be able to recover data?
Equally if you boot with Knoppix (or similar) CD - Linux on a CD... you may well be able to see/access the drive contents that way; and again initially preserve data off the drive to optical-media. After-which set about restoring the drive to a working state (i.e. able to boot up as it orta...)
0
Hi:
After hitting F1 and entering Set-up, can you tell me where to look to see if a "Network boot" is selected? I scrolled through the tabs and could not easily see a selection for booting from/through Network. Also, to be clear, I have a desktop, not a laptop.
Adam
0
Contact Gateway support. They can walk you thru useing GWSCAN. GWSCAN will check the harddrive.
Server
PIII 500 Mhz
256 MB Ram
40 GB Harddrive
Windows XP ProLaptop
Intel T2060 @ 1.60 Ghz
1GB DDR2 Ram
120 GB Harddrive
2 Partitions
C: 83.89 GB WinxpPro
D:
0
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHER...
and scroll down a little to:
Boot Options
Select this item and press ENTER to see the submenu, in which you can select several parameters that affect the computer's start-up configuration.and immediately below...
Providing your bios matches the example used in the above references, there may/may not be a network boot option? If there is - is set as the boot option rather than the hard-drive etc.? Logically if it is then change that option to HD?
Did a little more digging around Gateway stie - support area for your basic model. Entered the error message (as in your initiall post:
PXE-MOF Exiting Intel PXE ROM Boot Failure--System Halted
in the search option (top right of page) and came up with a few items... (Note do not use the quotes " " as in your initial post... otherwise it won't search the support area.)
This one is closest to your situation?
http://support.gateway.com/s/Server...
It does refer to a server but the actual how to resolve the problem may serve as a useful model for your system (you useF-1 to enter bios not F-2 as you already are aware...).
The laptop reference was mainly to highlight the method used for them - as commented in one of the refs. I gave you; and logically it's probably equally applicable to desktops too...?
aAnd if you do a similar search in support for your model using:
PXE-MOF Exiting Intel PXE ROM Boot Failure
you get some slightly different responses lower down the first page; and one or tw do refer to a PXE istuation/boot etc...
And finally... A trawl (google etc.) using:
PXE ROM Boot Failure
brings up a range of hits: one of them is pretty straightforward about the why etc... - and it may not be what you want to hear at the end of it all...
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/...
And this one offers a possible insight etc:
http://www.pcformat.co.uk/tips/defa...
Perhaps duplicate the trawl I did and browse the results various?
At which point I will exit stage left...
0
Thank you, Trvlr. I just made a bootable GWSCAN 5.12 on a 3.5" floppy, so I will start there. I will read through your hyperlinks after I try looking through the Boot Options again.
Adam
0
Well, the bootable GWSCAN.exe does not work as I get "Boot Failure: System Halted". I also noticed in Bios Setup, under Advanced, that there is no Drive Configuration. There is a Boot Configuration, Peripheral Config., IDE Config., Diskette Config., Event Log, and Video Config. Lastly, for Boot order, the 1st item is my RW/DVD, 2nd is Intel (R) boot Agent Ve, and third is Peripheral device. I noticed on another Gateway WinXp machine that I have that the third boot device is my 3M Maxtor HD, and under Advanced (Bios Setup) on this other Gateway, there is a submenu for Drive Configuration.
Does this point to a hard drive that is not seen/loaded in the system?
0
Well, the bootable GWSCAN.exe does not work as I get "Boot Failure: System Halted". I also noticed in Bios Setup, under Advanced, that there is no Drive Configuration. There is a Boot Configuration, Peripheral Config., IDE Config., Diskette Config., Event Log, and Video Config. Lastly, for Boot order, the 1st item is my RW/DVD, 2nd is Intel (R) boot Agent Ve, and third is Peripheral device. I noticed on another Gateway WinXp machine that I have that the third boot device is my 3M Maxtor HD, and under Advanced (Bios Setup) on this other Gateway, there is a submenu for Drive Configuration.
Does this point to a hard drive that is not seen/loaded in the system?
0
It does tend to suggest the drive is just not there...; not being detected etc., and it may be because it hath died a death...
But first...
Check all internal connections etc. - with the power totally off/removed from the system.
Check the boot configuration area; see what's in there...?
Check the IDE config too. That is possibly the drive-config equivalent. Not infrequently a given area of the bios settings will have a different name in different versions of a given bios; and also between the various "makes".
A last resort is to reset bios to the defaults... Usually that will remove the network boot condition if I'm thinking correctly; and that "may" resolve the issue... But I'm not really holding my breath..
And if you can get a Knoppix CD then boot up with that and see if you can view the drive as a resource or howeer it is described by Knoppix. If you go to Knoppix.com you can download an (iso) image of it there; burn it to CD and use that CD...
If you can by chance see the drive (via Knoppix or similar) then all may not be lost..? At the least you will be able to transfer data off it to removable media; and similarly slaving the drive to another working system may allow the same option?
0
Im sorry the GWSCAN didn't work. The drive may be dead. But look in BIOS to see if its being detected.
Thanks
0
The drive is ALMOST dead. Removed the drive and delivered it to my neighborhood computer store and for $35.00 the drive was verified as barely wheezing and my data was pulled off and burned to a few DVD's. For $69.00, I am replacing the drive and will reinstall the OS and apps.
Everyone, thanks for troubleshooting this issue with me.
Adam
0
Hi:
New HDD arrived and with no previous experience installing a clean drive I shuddered at the same error messages on boot-up, not realizing that until an OS is loaded there would be no booting possible. The HDD is in the Bios Setup utility and everything is fine now. Quick question: how did all of the drivers get installed for this Gateway system (Device Manager is loaded with all hardware and drivers already)--I only loaded the WinXp Home Edition CD-R and the entire computer works. I have the original apps and driver CD-R's that came with the system, but it looks (and sounds) like the PC works as it did out of the box in 2002. Should I run the CD-R apps and drivers in case something needs loading? I had forgotten how long it takes to load everything to get IE 6 and SP2, with updates, security bulletins, and so forth, loaded.
Thanks.
Adam
0
If it works... - and it ain't broke... don't phyx it...
As to why etc it all works...
If the XP CD you used was a full version... it will likely have all reasonably current drivers for whatever you have in the system (physically). If it was recovery CD then that would logically restore/re-install/rebuild the system as new - to the new drive?
Now ensure you have a regular session copying all those very important files (pics/music/letters and so on) to optical media; and maybe even to an external hard-drive...; and verify they are truly OK/readable regularly... Then if anything goes amiss.. you have all those files safe and sound off the system...
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
