Calling - All - Computer Geniuses!

[Brauap]

Hey guys!

I was over my uncles house today and he had bought a new house. I was looking through it and I had found a laptop he said I could have. It was in the original box with all the paper work, cables, and 5 recovery cds. The computer is used, but is still very nice.

I had gotten home and I charged it up, then I started it. It starts fine but then it goes to a black page with white lettering. It reads:

Argon PXE Boot Agent v2 01 (BIOS Intergated)
(then all copyrights an that)

Pre-boot eXecution Enviroment (PXE)
(C) Copyright 1999 Intel Corp.
All rights reserved

(then thats it for a few seconds then the following shows up underneith the above text)

PXE-E61 Media Test Failue: Check Cable

(the screen goes black then more text pops up:)

Operating System not found

(after that next goes away, the computer either goes back to the text above that or it shuts off)






What is up with that?! WHAT DO I DO?! I mean the computer was free, but it is very nice and I would love if I could use it! I looked in the lititure that was in the box and mixed in with it all was a recipt for the laptop. It says that had bought it from Best Buy for $1300 !! I deffently want to get this thing going!





Computer Information:

HP Pavilion ze4500
ZE4560US

(If you need any other information, PLEASE let me know and I will try my best to answer it!)






PLEASE HELP ME OUT!

[k4f5x0r]

Was this after you recovered it?

[Brauap]

I hadn't put any of the CD's in it yet. I just just plugged it in and I had started it. That is where I am at. Putting the CD's in it are my absolute last resort!

[kfx400rider03]

it doesnt go to the main windows screen at all?

did you try pressing f12 i think it is or one of the f buttons at the top should start it up in safe mode or bring u to a thing to wipe the whole entire labtop and make it how it was from when it was bought. i will ask my buddy he knows more than me about them

[Brauap]

When it first starts it says HP then it goes to the text.. I never see Windows XP.

I just got off tech support .. biggest frikin waste of time I have spent in a longggggg time! All them frikin non-speaking Indian's and shove it up their....

[k4f5x0r]

Restoring it with those disks simply sets it back to the original state it left the factory in. Just do that and your newly received laptop will work perfect.

[Brauap]

Originally posted by k4f5x0r
Restoring it with those disks simply sets it back to the original state it left the factory in. Just do that and your newly received laptop will work perfect.

Just one possibly large problem.

I have:

Disk 1
Disk 2
Disk 4
Disk 5


There are 5 restore disks, but I only have 4 of the 5! What should I do!?

[k4f5x0r]

It's possible you may be able to find the 3rd disk online in a .bin, or another poweriso file, and you can use a program such a poweriso to mount it to your DVD burning drive, and burn that disk.


Or you can possibly go an easier route and buy a new disk :p

if you can find the missing disk file online then i can walk you through the burning process.

[Brauap]

Originally posted by k4f5x0r
It's possible you may be able to find the 3rd disk online in a .bin, or another poweriso file, and you can use a program such a poweriso to mount it to your DVD burning drive, and burn that disk.


Or you can possibly go an easier route and buy a new disk :p

if you can find the missing disk file online then i can walk you through the burning process.

Where could I purchase one and how much would that cost me? I had just installed the first disk and it is cleaning it out.... I'll tell you whats up after it finishes the first disk! :)

[k4f5x0r]

Ebay, whatever company the laptop is from ussually sell's recovery disks on their website under the support section. I know i have this problem with my computer every once in a while.

I have my recovery disks handy :p

[Brauap]

It keeps powering down. I'm am just going to let it stay charging all night and I'll play with it tomarrow. And also, tomarrow, we are going to Best Buy to take my other (my main laptop) to get fixed so I may take my new HP along and see what the guys there say.

But, if anyone has an idea on what I can do to fix it.. PLEASE TELL ME!


(I was in the middle of the recovering and it say to insert disk 2, but it shut off, but I didn't try again because I know I'd just be screwed when it comes to disk three! UGH!

I may see if they sell either just disk three or just one 5:1 disk at Best Buy .. this is such a PITA!

[jigg14]

Even if you recover it you're not going to fix the problem.
The problem is in the bios. It is set to pixe boot (PXE). You will have to go into the bios and set the HDD as the primary boot device. Yours is probably booting to the Ethernet port.

kfx400rider03 is correct about pressing one of the f buttons. It varies from computer to computer on which one takes you to the bios screen.
It is a little confusing if you're not familiar with what you're doing.
Here is a link to a video on youtube, this guy sounds like an idiot but he is correct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5glywJnDPB8

Here is another one, you want hard drive first...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smL4hDBrN2A&feature=related

Hope this helps

[Newt327]

Well, the PXE boot may or may not be a problem. If the hard drive is bad or the boot partition has been deleted then it may be going to the PXE boot becasue it can not find a bootable hard drive partition. If this is the case, once the drive was recovered he would no longer have a problem with the PXE boot unless like jigg14 said it is configured to go to the PXE boot before the hard drive. It should be configured to boot from a floppy, then the CD drive, then the Hard drive, then PXE. My guess is the hard drive has no bootable partition because someone deleted it or the drive crashed or is corupted. If the laptop has the Windows CD Key label on it somewhere you could load Windows on it if you have the right version on CD that matches the key, probably Windows XP Home OEM. It's not as easy as the recovery disks but it can be done.

The bigger problem is it shutting off like it is, this could be due to a number of problems, bad battery, bad motherboard, who knows without looking at it.

This is my professional area of expertise and just my best guess without looking at it.

[miller821]

Download LINUX, and install that for a free OS.

[Sjorge450R]

Its going to PXE because he doesnt have an OS installed on the hard drive. Sounds like your uncle wiped it 100% clean before he put it in that box. You need to get a copy of some OS. Whether is Windows, XP, Vista, 7. To make sure the laptop is alright, i would just download a copy of Ubuntu, burn the iso to a cd using imgburn and then throw that disc in and follow the directions.

[jigg14]

Originally posted by Sjorge300EX
Its going to PXE because he doesnt have an OS installed on the hard drive. Sounds like your uncle wiped it 100% clean before he put it in that box. You need to get a copy of some OS. Whether is Windows, XP, Vista, 7. To make sure the laptop is alright, i would just download a copy of Ubuntu, burn the iso to a cd using imgburn and then throw that disc in and follow the directions.
That could be the case.

But there could be an OS on the hard drive. When we image multiple laptops at a time we use a PXE boot to run our ghost server. He first needs to check the boot sequence, the if there isn't an OS he needs to get one.

[Sjorge450R]

Yeah I see what your saying. What he needs to do it get into the system menu ( via pressing f12 or f10). Then find the section that says what your primary boot is selected you prob have it on pxe with like DVD secondary. Switch the primary to hard drive then tell us what happens