PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable

[Mad_Monarch]

A friend of mine has been having this problem ever since a family member of hers cleaned out the fan of excess dust and hair which it badly needed.

It worked fine for a day and then since then will not boot past the error message in the subject.

I reset to default BIOS settings which did not fix or change anything that was happening. I suggested it was a possible HDD problem and she purchased a new one to replace it. This did nothing either and is still experiencing the error.

We attempted to do a fresh Windows install as well and it comes up stating that it is having problems detecting an HDD with both the new and the old HDD installed.

Unsure what else to do next. We have disassembled the laptop to check all connections and pins, everything seems to be fine.

anyone have any ideas?

[2k_dummy]

It sounds like it is trying to boot from a network device. Go into bios and make sure the PXE is the last selectable device.

[Mad_Monarch]

It is set as the last bootable device, Floppy, CD, HDD, then LAN