PXE-E61: Media Test Failed check cable

[slackerx]

Ah, okay i tried to follow the original link provided by a member to another forum thread to post this irritating question about this subject which i have read ample about without a solution. So if you need bump this to the right spot i totally understand, first time poster here.
OKAY, here is the deal, after reading countless times on this, i have yet to run into a solution that works for me. I have a Gateway laptop a MX6421 in which the original hard drive completely died in so i of course bought a new hard drive for. The problem is i get the PXE-E61: Media Test Failed check cable Error EVERY time no matter what i try. The hard drive is completely new, i mean i just took it out of the box so HIGHLY doubt it is suddenly bad or manufacture defective after 5 mins. I have reseatted it 10 times with no changes, it DOES recognize the hard drive in the bios and being the stupid gateway bios allows you to manually change VERY little. So it sees the hard drive and i have the boot sequence to cd/dvd drive then hard drive from the start..doesn't work still get the error. Thought maybe it not formatted..so i swapped out the recovery cd i had and tried a brand new windows xp disc...Nope same error. Here's the thing too.. in the gateway bios you CAN NOT disable the network boot, only change the order in which things boot. I have also checked the power cables inside, i have checked everything over and can't get it to work. I have tried it every which way and can't figure it out any solution or help i'd be Forever in your debt. Thanks.

[shadowpr]

Are the drives jumpered corrrectly?

Have you tried a different ide cable?

[glc]

This is a laptop, Shadow..........

Will it boot to the CD if you remove the hard drive?

[shadowpr]

Originally Posted by glc This is a laptop, Shadow..........

I did indeed miss that part. My apologies to the OP.

[minsonngo]

Try this:

Originally Posted by http://www.asklaptopfreak.com/laptop-notebook-help/2006/07/06/pxe-e61-failure-error-when-booting/ if you change hard drive on your laptop and it gives the above error, download the pin out setting of your hard drive from the manufacturer site, and check how to make it work in cable select mode.