Member Avatar for james.f.william

Hi,

I'm trying to fix my housemate's laptop, it's a HP Pavillion dv4000.

I turn it on, the screen with <f2> enter setup <f10> change boot order
It then goes to the windows xp loading screen with the blue scrolling bar for an abnormally long time... maybe 2 minutes. Then the blue bar freezes, a blue screen flashes past too quick to read and it goes back to the "HP invent" startup screen with the change boot order, enter setup and boot from LAN options like at the beginning. After leaving it running for a bit it comes up with a black screen with the following written on it:

For Realtek RTL8139(x)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.

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Brief diagnosis and where to start — the system is trying to boot Windows, then crashes and finally falls back to a network/PXE boot because it can’t find a bootable hard drive. is right to point at the drive/connection as the most likely root cause, and ’s suggestion to stop the machine trying to boot from the network will prevent the long PXE hang while you troubleshoot.

Try these checks in order:

  1. Enter BIOS/setup (the screen shows which key to press) and confirm whether the hard disk is listed. If the HDD does not appear, the problem is hardware-level (drive, connector or motherboard). If it appears, set the hard drive as first boot device and disable network/PXE boot.
  2. If Windows starts to load but then goes to a quick BSOD, press F8 at boot and try “Disable automatic restart on system failure” or boot to Safe Mode/Last Known Good Configuration to capture the STOP code. If you can’t reach Windows, boot from a USB/CD rescue disk (Windows Recovery Console or a Linux live USB) and run disk checks.
  3. Physical checks: remove AC and battery, ground yourself, open the HDD bay and reseat the drive and its connector. Listen for drive spin-up or unusual noises. If possible, remove the drive and connect it to another PC (SATA→USB adapter or directly) to test accessibility and copy important data.
  4. If the drive is detected but reports errors or SMART failures, replace the drive and reinstall; if the drive tests OK on another machine but isn’t seen in the laptop, suspect the laptop’s SATA/IDE interface or power delivery.

Cautions: avoid powering the laptop with the case off for long periods, and, if the machine is under warranty, contact HP before opening. If data is critical and the drive shows mechanical failure, consider professional data recovery.

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Member Avatar for mechbas

You didn't mention which OS ver you're using, but the only OS ver's that did have a blue scroll across the bottom was W9x. XP doesn't.
The first line is simply telling you the VGA adapter info, and, if you are able to read the screen the adapter is basically O.K.
The second line is the most telling. The system board is unable to establish communication with the hard drive. While this COULD be evidence of a failing/failed drive, it could also simply mean a bad connection with the drive, defective ribbon (Y) cable, and/or a bad power cable, the latter of which is the most likely. In fact it indicated "check cable", good advice.
The last line is the machines way of telling you that there is no info to base any kind of boot on.

Member Avatar for cguan_77

hi james, it could be a faulty network controller on your mobo, try to disable the network booting on your CMOS setup..

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