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Author Topic: Drive not ready, System halted  (Read 9043 times)

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Chickeedee79

  • Guest
Drive not ready, System halted
« on: April 17, 2006, 02:04:39 AM »
Hi,
Hopefully i have chosen the right topic for my problem - i am quite baffled as to what it could be.
I have a  intel pentium , operating system is windows 2000. When i start the computer up it goes through the process of starting then comes to a black screen with the following information.
PXE-MOF Exiting intel PXE Rom
PXE-E61 Media test failure, Check cable.
Drive not ready, System halted.

Previously today it loaded and the add new hardware screen popped up to add the ethernet, when i clicked on next to install it then said could not be located then jumped to the screen as above.

Can anyone tell me why i would be having this problem???
Thanks   :D

GX1_Man

  • Guest
Re: Drive not ready, System halted
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2006, 08:07:14 PM »
It is trying to boot from a network drive. For whatever reason (you may or may not know) you need to get to the BIOS and make sure the boot order is CD, then floppy, then hard drive, then PXE (or disable that one). Is this a Dell or an IBM by the way? What make and model? Those have their own idiosyncrasies.

Chickeedee79

  • Guest
Re: Drive not ready, System halted
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2006, 09:01:30 PM »
To get to the BIOS i need to enter the setup?? Is that right?? I am unable to get into that - when the computer loads it comes up with the page and you can briefly see at the bottom press F2 for setup but it will not do this when prompted and then it quickly goes to the screen that i advised before. As far as the make and model of the computer I am not sure how to determine that the only thing on the front is intel inside celeron and moebius. Is their a way to tell??
Thanks Tamara

GX1_Man

  • Guest
Re: Drive not ready, System halted
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2006, 04:33:43 AM »
Run Everest Home and it will tell you everything about the computer.  ;)

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Chickeedee79

  • Guest
Re: Drive not ready, System halted
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2006, 06:48:50 AM »
Hi

After following the previous advise i have changed the boot order as suggested. Now when the computer is turned on it comes to the screen where you can access the BIOS (F1) but then sits their for some time before eventully going to a black screen with Drive not ready, System Halted. I no longer have any of the other errors. I replaced the battery which seemed to help - especially the speed of the computer when starting up.

Any other ideas welcome.

As for the advise to run majorgeeks - i am unable to although this would be great, if i could get past this and actually into the desktop i could give it a go. But if i ever get that far i will do it for sure to test any other problems i may have.

Thank you  :-/

2k_dummy



    Specialist
  • A word, once spoken, can never be recalled.
  • Thanked: 14
    Re: Drive not ready, System halted
    « Reply #5 on: April 18, 2006, 06:19:38 PM »
    With an almost total lack of information, one can only make assumptions. If the computer was booting correctly before this problem occurred, one must assume that the hard disk has problems. If the BIOS boot order is, for example

    1. floppy
    2. cdrom
    3. hard disk
    4. network (ethernet with PXE on)

    and there is no bootable floppy or cd in, and the hard disk is corrupted, the BIOS will correctly try to boot from PXE. IF the drive is formatted FAT32, you might be able to boot from a floppy and run Scandisk to correct the problem.
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    Soviet_Genius

    • Guest
    Re: Drive not ready, System halted
    « Reply #6 on: April 23, 2006, 07:09:33 AM »
    Faulty wiring? just an idea :-/

    GX1_Man

    • Guest
    Re: Drive not ready, System halted
    « Reply #7 on: April 23, 2006, 08:40:06 AM »
    Not faulty wiring. Just trying to boot from a source that is not available.