Press F2 to go into the setup utility and verify that CD-ROM comes before HDD in the Boot Order.

Yes, it does and it's still not reading it.

"PXE-E61 media test faliure, check cable" means it couldn't find any bootable devices at all. Are both the HDD and optical drive listed in setup? If not, check the jumpers on both and that the IDE cable and power cables to both drives are correctly connected.

See if this thread helps you :

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread18870.html

"PXE-E61 media test faliure, check cable". Wouldnt this signify an error in the PXE boot process (PXE=Preboot eXecution Environment). As in, using a server on the network to boot the computer so that it can start the OS setup.

Anyway, check to see if the LAN cable is connected securely and your gateway is up and running.

As for the not being to boot off the CD, you sure the CD is bootable? (Ive seen this happen lots. ppl trying to boot off a non bootable CD)

With normal end users who don't boot from a server, the message means that it looked for all of the bootable devices (HDD, CD-ROM, etc) and didn't find a suitable boot device (and LAN is the final boot device listed in the BIOS).

Edit to my previous post: The error "PXE-E61 media test faliure, check cable" does occur when the system tries to boot from the LAN. However, PXE boot happens only when all other boot attempts have failed. Which means that either boot sector may have gone bad, or worse, the hard drive might have crashed.

In your case, however, you say that

[Quote-noonie]The agency I work for acquired four computers from a company called Progress Energy. I assume that Progress Energy cleaned their hard drives.[/quote]

Since they cleaned their hard drives (I'm assuming a thorough clean up -- deleting partitions etc), the computer can't boot from the HD. That's why it's trying to PXE boot. You need to use the Windows XP CD-ROM to start setup. Get a bootable CD and boot off of the CD itself