Dell will not boot

I

Irishwhistle

New Member
I am trying to boot up a Dell OptiPlex GX1 and it will not start. It say that the media test failed and to check cables. I could not make sense out of this.

Thank You For You Help,
Jordan
 
I do not know what cables it is that I need to check. It can't be the hard drive cables because I am trying to boot from a CD. By the way the error looked like this

PXE-E61: Media test failed, check cable.

Thank You For Your Help,
Jordan
 
it might be the Cables in wrong Spots. Make sure there configed in Bios 2. I had this problem and they werent configed in bios. But try on the cables and but new ones on ! :) try that .
 
I will have to try that. By the way I have no Hard Drive plugged into the PC, does that matter if I'm booting off a CD? Is it possible that the computer just got too covered in dust to run (there is a lot of dust in there)?

Thank You For Your Help,
Jordan
 
JordanII said:
I will have to try that. By the way I have no Hard Drive plugged into the PC, does that matter if I'm booting off a CD? Is it possible that the computer just got too covered in dust to run (there is a lot of dust in there)?

Thank You For Your Help,
Jordan
Click to expand...

Wait, what good would booting from CD do if you don't have a hard drive?

Basically. If you have no hard drive, you can't boot from the CD. Booting from the CD can mean several things:

1. You can boot into Windows from the CD only if Windows is already installed on a hard drive. You would usually do this if you have a corrupted system file and repairing Windows won't work.

2. You can boot into the Windows setup and install it onto the hard drive.

Sadly, that's all I can think of at the moment. But, I was just trying to give you an idea of what booting from the CD means. So, correct me if I'm wrong. But if you don't have a hard drive. You don't have an OS.
 
Last edited:
Halian said:
Wait, what good would booting from CD do if you don't have a hard drive?

Basically. If you have no hard drive, you can't boot from the CD. Booting from the CD can mean several things:

1. You can boot into Windows from the CD only if Windows is already installed on a hard drive. You would usually do this if you have a corrupted system file and repairing Windows won't work.

2. You can boot into the Windows setup and install it onto the hard drive.

Sadly, that's all I can think of at the moment. But, I was just trying to give you an idea of what booting from the CD means. So, correct me if I'm wrong. But if you don't have a hard drive. You don't have an OS.
Click to expand...


It is correct that you do not have an OS, but I am trying to boot off a live Knoppix Linux CD(No HD is needed for that). I got the problem fixed by changing my IDE cable(the old one must have been bad) and then told the BIOS to boot from the CD and I did plug a Hard Drive in and am installing Windows 2000.

Thank You For Your Help,
Jordan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top