I have a Dell PC PIII that I am getting the following error: PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable. I know PXE has a connection to NIC's but I am wondering if this error is more serious. Is the motherboard fried or is this PC recoverable? Des
Going to need some more details to be able to better solve your problem. Whats the specification of your pc? When do you get this error? Have you changed anything recently? Updates / Added or Removed new hardware? I would open your computer up and make sure that the IDE cables are not damaged in anyway, and are correctly seated in the drives they are connected to. Same goes for the power to them. Post back with your answers to the questions above. Good Luck - PX
The Specifications are: Dell PIII 666 128 SDRAM 40GB HD Onboard NIC and secondary PCI NIC I don't know what the video card specifications are. It is a standard Dell GX110 from the factory. I am not sure what kind of modifications have been done on this PC. I swapped out the hard drive because it was making noises and am using another hard drive with an old operating system. The new hard drive may be questionable. It has been a while since I used it and am not sure how good the OS is. When the old hard drive was in place it was giving driver errors on Windows NT System32 folder. Does this help?
By the sounds of it you have a corrupt installation of windows, either that or a bad partition. I would suggest backing up any important data from the drive, if you can, if you have but have no means of backing it up to then just ask and ill tell u how to do it via msdos. Format your hard drive and do a clean installation of Win98 or Win2000, your pc could quite easily handle XP, although it would struggle with just 128MB of memory. Once formatted reinstall your chosen operating system and download / install all the latest drivers / chipsets for your audio, graphics, network & chipset for your motherboard. Also make sure the computer is upto date with the latest microsoft patches and service packs: Windows Update Site Also make sure that your Microsoft Office is upto date if or once installed: Office Update Site Also, if the machine is connected directly to the internet or is going to be make sure you have a firewall installed, i recommend Sygate Personal Firewall (now at version 5.6), and make sure it has a good anti-virus, i recommend Grisoft AVG use www.google.co.uk to search for these, make sure the Anti-Virus is set to update automatically at a scheduled time that your sure it will be on, or everytime it is run to check for updates.. Also for browsing use: Mozilla FireFox instead of Internet Explorer, this will help provide protection against Spyware and malicious attacks against IE. And download: Spyware Search & Destroy and Spyware Blaster, again make sure they are upto date. On the firewall basis, make sure that your computer that is connected directly to the internet or controls the internet has a firewall on, as suggested: Sygate Personal Firewall. Hope this helps, if you need more detailed instructions, just ask :good: If none of this helps, post what you have tried and done and whats happening, or if there is anything different. - PX
