Booting Problem

jai6638

Golden Member
Apr 9, 2004
1,790
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hey dudez.. im having a problem ....

When i start my laptop it starts the INTEL BOOT AGENT and then it says :

"Media test failed ( somethin like this... ) , check cable
exiting boot agent
Insert System Disk
Press any key to continue."

this happens sometimes when i try booting after shutting down my laptop... after a few tries the laptops starts but sometimes it may not start too.. so i'd have to wait for a day and try and then it would work.... plz note that this happens before the windows xp home loads ..

thanks
 

jdiddy

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2004
3,905
44
91
Your hard drive may be on the fritz. Your computer is trying to boot from the nic card becuase the hard drive is not being detected. It may be as simple as reseating your hard drive. Check in bios to see if your hdd is being detected when your having these fits of boot problems. It may be time to get your hard drive replaced. Backup your data asap before you can't get it too boot period.
 

cy7878

Senior member
Jul 2, 2003
394
0
0
you need to be nmore specific about your system when asking a question like this, because a 1 month old system will have different problem than a 1 year old, and 3-4 year old system will likely be more a hardware problem than software.

Assuming the system is relatively new, things to check is boot sequence in BIOS. What you described sounds like the BIOS is set to book off network, instead of from HD. Newer system can be set to boot off network, USB, or HDD, so you will need to go into BIOS and check. Assuming that the sequence is set correctly, you may have a problem with the HD itself. Another possibility is that a config file is messed up in windows after installing some apps. If you have a recover function, than you can restore your Windows to a prior config state.

Try these things and keep us updated.
 

jai6638

Golden Member
Apr 9, 2004
1,790
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hey... i have a toshiba satellite 5205-s703 which is 1.5 yrs old.. ( 2 ghz p4-m , 1 gb ram , win xp home )

its set to boot off the HDD > FDD > CDROM > LAN... my laptop has one of those bios ( its called luxury bios or something .. read an article about it .. coz ive tried all the keys for bios but to no avail ) which can only be accessed from windows with the help of the utility i got with toshiba...

This prob started after i got my laptop back from Comp usa ( they replaced the dvd-rw drive ) and used the recovery cds and reinstall the operating system..

im not sure if i should try using the recovery cds coz i read somewhere that a guy tried doing it and the recovery process ended midway coz of an error..

also, i reseated the hdd but to no avail..
 

jai6638

Golden Member
Apr 9, 2004
1,790
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hey... i got my laptop back from Comp Usa and apparently all they've done is change the DVD-RW/CD-rw drive and have reformatted... do u think this is a permanent fix to the problem? it boots fine now...



i thought the problem was with a HDD ( or a connector ) because it woudnt detect a HDD and then it woudnt detect the DVd-rw drive and would hence go to the Network ... so that means the fault lies in both, the dvd-rw drive and the hdd right?



thanks much