computer problem

[Guest]

hey everyone, my daughters computer is messed up and i hope someone can help
me. when i turn it on it says a disk read error occurred and to press
ctrl+alt+delete to restart. on restart it says PXE-E61: Media test
failure,check cable. PXE-MOF:Exiting Intel PXE ROM. Boot failure: System
halted. i tried using my os cd to use the repair option but it said setup did
not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer. any one have an
answer to this? computer is 6-7 years old and has xp. is this a fatal issue
or can it be fixed?

 

[Malke]

hey everyone, my daughters computer is messed up and i hope someone can help
me. when i turn it on it says a disk read error occurred and to press
ctrl+alt+delete to restart. on restart it says PXE-E61: Media test
failure,check cable. PXE-MOF:Exiting Intel PXE ROM. Boot failure: System
halted. i tried using my os cd to use the repair option but it said setup did
not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer. any one have an
answer to this? computer is 6-7 years old and has xp. is this a fatal issue
or can it be fixed?

The error message means that the hard drive is not being found so the
next place the system is looking for boot files is on a network drive
(PXE) which of course doesn't exist.

Either the hard drive has failed or the drive connector on the
motherboard has failed, or both. If it is just the hard drive, you can
certainly replace it and reinstall Windows and that won't be too
expensive as long as you have the original XP installation media. If the
motherboard has failed, I wouldn't bother replacing it on a 6-7 year-old
computer. It will not be worth spending the money on.

Based on your post, with all due respect I suggest that you take the
machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local version
of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad).


Malke

 

[NoConsequence]

The error message means that the hard drive is not being found so the
next place the system is looking for boot files is on a network drive
(PXE) which of course doesn't exist.

Either the hard drive has failed or the drive connector on the
motherboard has failed, or both. If it is just the hard drive, you can
certainly replace it and reinstall Windows and that won't be too
expensive as long as you have the original XP installation media. If the
motherboard has failed, I wouldn't bother replacing it on a 6-7 year-old
computer. It will not be worth spending the money on.

Based on your post, with all due respect I suggest that you take the
machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local version
of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad).


Malke

It could also be a bad power supply line/connector. That doesn't
happen ofte - usually the entire power supply will fail - but I have
seen this happen. We switched to a different connector from the PS
and all worked fine. I recommended to the owner that they consider
replacing the PS and/or case, however.

 

[Chuck B]

If the motherboard has failed, I wouldn't bother replacing it on a 6-7
year-old computer. It will not be worth spending the money on.

Based on your post, with all due respect I suggest that you take the
machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local version of
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad).

Here I disagree. You can usually pick up a new mb for under $100. If he/she
can find a mb that will take her CPU and memory it'll certainly be cheaper
than throwing down $500+ for a new computer. Of course that would imply a
minimal level of technical knowledge and a willingness to get your hands
dirty.

 

[Malke]

Here I disagree. You can usually pick up a new mb for under $100. If he/she
can find a mb that will take her CPU and memory it'll certainly be cheaper
than throwing down $500+ for a new computer. Of course that would imply a
minimal level of technical knowledge and a willingness to get your hands
dirty.

As you point out, this only works if you can install the new motherboard
(including transferring the processor and memory) and reinstall Windows
yourself. I think it's apparent from the OP's post that this isn't
something he's going to be able to do. Of course I could be wrong. If he
needs to pay someone for the motherboard (assuming one can even be found
that will work with a 6-7 year-old processor and that's a big
assumption) and all the installation, it's going to run $300-400. Since
he's probably going to need a new processor and new memory to go with
the new motherboard, the cost may be even more.

On a 6-7 year-old machine, it's my opinion that putting $300-400 into it
isn't cost-effective.


Malke