PXE-E61 Media test failure check cable is a black screen boot error you may receive accidentally on DELL/Acer/HP/Lenovo…. This error will stop the computer from booting successfully. To get rid of this issue, MiniTool Solution collects 7 solutions. You can read this article to select a suitable method.
At times, when you boot your computer, you may see the machine boots into a black screen with an error message saying PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable. You can see this error on different brands of computers like DELL, Acer, HP, Lenovo, and more.
The full name of PXE is Preboot eXecution Environment. Do you know what it means?
“In computing, the PXE specification describes a standardized client-server environment that boots a software assembly, retrieved from a network, on PXE-enabled clients. On the client-side, it requires only a PXE-capable network interface controller (NIC), and uses a small set of industry-standard network protocols such as DHCP and TFTP.” From Wikipedia
Do you know why PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable appears on your DELL/Acer/HP/LENOVO? Keep on reading.
The Main Reasons for the PXE-E61 Error
This error message of PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable means that there is something wrong with the computer booting. Why does this issue happen? There are some main reasons as follows:
- Your computer has power issues
- The Ethernet cable is damaged or not connected properly
- The boot order is misconfigured in BIOS
- The system hard drive or network drive is physically damaged, corrupt, or crashed
- The boot sector is damaged
- And more…
Focusing on these causes, we collect some solutions that can effectively solve the PXE-E61 Media test failure check cable issue. If you don’t know the exact cause of the issue on your computer, you can try these solutions one by one to find a suitable one.
Solution 1: Check the Power Supply and Cables
When you open your computer, it will try to boot from the configured bootable drive. If the connection between the computer and the hardware is improper or lose, the boot process will fail and you may receive the error of PXE-E61 Media test failure check cable.
No matter your computer boots from a network drive or a hard drive, you need to go to check the power cables and all the cables inside the computer to see whether they are connected well.
If all the cables connections are well, but you still receive the PXE-E61 error, you can go to try the next solution.
Solution 2: Check the Ethernet Cable
If your computer boots from a network drive, you need to make sure that the Ethernet cable is not damaged. If it is damaged, you can replace it with a new one and then check whether you can boot your computer normally without the PXE-E61 Media test failure check cable error.
If you have ruled out this reason, you can continue to use the following method to have a try.
Solution 3: Remove the Non-System Disk from the Computer
If the BIOS of your computer is misconfigured by mistake and USB boot has the highest priority in the boot sequence, your computer will try to boot from the USB device first. This will, of course, leads to the computer unbootable issue and you may get the PXE-E61 error.
Moreover, to guarantee the success rate, you’d better remove all the non-system disks from your computer. You can refer to these steps:
- Unplug all the USB and 1394 (Firewire) devices that are attached to your computer.
- Remove all the CD/DVD discs from the drives on your computer.
- If there is a floppy disk drive, you need to remove it from the drive.
- Press and hold the Power button for about 5 seconds to turn off the computer. Then, press the Power button to turn on the PC.
Then, you can wait and see whether the computer can restart successfully.
While, if this method doesn’t work, the next one may be helpful.
Solution 4: Check the Boot Order of Your Computer
There are two different situations:
1. If your computer is going to boot from a network drive and then encounter the PXE-E61 Media test failure check cable error, you can go to check whether your computer is set to boot from the network drive in BIOS.
You can enter the BIOS utility to check whether the boot order is set correctly. If not, you need to set the network drive to be the first boot order and then check whether your computer can start successfully.
2. On the other hand, if your computer needs to boot from the hard drive but it is set to boot from a network drive that doesn’t contain the system, you can also enter BIOS to correct the boot order to get rid of the PXE-E61 Media test failure error.
While, if this is not the real cause of the PXE-E61 Media test failure check cable issue, you can go to use the next solution to see whether it can solve the problem.
Solution 5: Reinstall Windows on the Hard Drive
If all of the above solutions can’t help you solve the PXE-E61 issue, the Windows OS on the drive may be damaged. Reinstalling Windows is a good choice.
However, the whole Windows installation is not a single step. You can refer to the following steps to do the job.
Step 1: Prepare a Windows Installation Drive
You need to download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from the Microsoft official site on a normal working computer and then use the tool to build a Windows installation boot medium.
However, if you already have this boot medium, you can skip to the next step continue.
Step 2: Rescue Your Important Data on the System Disk
Usually, the Windows OS is installed on partition C and most of you prefer to reinstall the system to that partition, while the reinstallation process will delete all files on that partition. If there are some important files on partition C, you need to recover them to keep them safe.
The computer is unbootable now. You need to perform data recovery using a third-party file recovery tool. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is worth trying because it can not only detect the deleted data on the data storage devices but also find the existing items on the drive.
This software has a bootable edition that enables you to recover data from an unbootable computer. But, you first need to use the MiniTool snap-in WinPE bootable builder to build a bootable medium that allows you to boot your PC into MiniTool Power Data Recovery Bootable Edition.
Do these preparations on a normal working computer:
- Prepare a USB drive or CD/DVD.
- Go to the MiniTool official store to choose a proper edition that contains the bootable media builder. For example, if you are a personal user, the Personal Ultimate edition can fully meet your requirements.
- After purchasing the suitable edition, you will get a download link and a license key. Download and install the software on the computer. Then, open it and register it.
- Connect the USB drive or CD/DVD to the computer.
- Press the Bootable Media button that locates on the lower-left side of the interface and follow the wizards to build a MiniTool bootable medium.
After these steps, you can remove the prepared bootable medium from the computer and then connect it to the computer that is bothered by the PXE-E61 error.
Follow these steps to rescue your computer data:
1. Prepare an external drive that is large enough to save your computer data and connect it to your computer.
2. Set your computer to boot from the prepared MiniTool bootable medium.
3. The software will enter the This PC interface directly after booting. Just stay at this interface and select drive C to scan it.
4. To ensure the recovery effect, you need to wait until the whole scanning process ends. Then, you will see a path list on the left side of the software interface. You can unfold each path to find the files you want to restore.
On the other hand, you can also use the Type feature to make the software show you the scan results by type. If you still remember the name of the files you want to retrieve, you can use the Find feature to locate those files one by one.
5. After checking the files you want to restore, you can press the Scan button and then select the plugged external drive to save them.
Tip: If you also want to recover data from the rest partitions on your computer, you can repeat these steps to do the work.
Now, your important data has been recovered. You can remove the external storage drive from your computer.
Step 3: Reinstall Windows 10 on the Hard Drive
To reinstall Windows on an unbootable computer, you need to follow these steps:
- Connect the Windows installation medium to your computer.
- Set your computer to boot from the medium and you will see the following interface. Click Next and follow the on-screen wizards to complete the Windows installation.
You can also refer to this post to complete the whole Windows reinstallation process: Detailed Steps and Instructions to Reinstall Windows 10.
Perhaps, you still receive the PXE-E61 error or the Windows installation fails. You will need to check and repair the computer hard drive.
Solution 6: Use CHKDSK to Check and Repair the Hard Drive
To use CHKDSK to check and repair your hard drive, you need to follow this guide:
1. After three successive unsuccessful bootings, your computer will boot into the Automatic Repair interface as follows. Press Advanced options to continue.
2. Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.
3. The Command Prompt is run as Administrator. You can type in the following command and press Enter:
chkdsk c: /f /r
CHKDSK will begin to detect errors and bad sectors on the drive. If it finds errors and bad sectors, it can automatically fix the errors and recover readable information.
It will take some minutes to complete the whole checking and repairing process. You need to be patient.
However, if this solution doesn’t work, the hard drive should be damaged and you need to replace it with a new one.
Solution 7: Replace the Damaged Hard Drive
If you discover that your computer hard drive is completely damaged, you have to buy a new one to replace it. You can search for an assembly instruction online and then do the hard drive replacement by yourself.
If you are not good at this, you can order a hard drive replacement from the manufacturer or ask a professional for help.
Important: Back up Your Computer Data Regularly
You see that computer issues always happen unexpectedly. To keep your computer data safe, you’d better form a good habit of backing up your files regularly.
Regarding computer data backup, you can try this professional data backup software: MiniTool ShadowMaker. This software can be used to back up the Windows operating system, files/folders, partitions, and the whole disk. It also supports automatic backup, full backup, incremental backup, and differential backup.
You can press the following button to get the trial edition of this software to have a free 30-day try.
You can read this post to get more information about using this software to back up your computer data: How to Back up Computer to External Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7.
Bottom Line
After reading this article, you must know how to deal with the PXE-E61 Media test failure check cable issue using different methods. No matter you are using DELL, Acer, HP, Lenovo, or some other brands of computers, you can always find a suitable solution here.
Should you have any questions when fixing this issue or using our software, you can send an email to [emailprotected] or let us know in the comment. You can also share your suggestions with us.
