Media Test Failure, Check Cable
All PXE-E61 bugs are caused by Preboot eXecution Environment, a technology supported by some motherboard series. It is a specific startup mode that allows a PC to search for and download an OS from the Internet without a physical storage device. The PXE-E61 error warning on the PC may appear when trying to download from a network hardware that is not present. The problem is most likely caused by incorrect BIOS settings or HDD curve.
There are 4 common error modifications:
- PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
- PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.
- PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent.
They are displayed at the stage of turning on the computer and have a simple appearance – light text on a black screen. There may be other text along with the code.
How to fix Error PXE-E61?
Let’s start in order, and for ease of reading, we suggest performing the actions in the order of the algorithm of actions:
- Changing the startup priorities in the BIOS. First, you should go to BIOS or UEFi and select the priority launch from the physical drive, and not the network. This is how most computers work and, in theory, such an action will prevent the error from occurring.
- We check the performance of the disk. Sometimes the HDD cannot be properly processed by the system and therefore the computer switches to an alternative startup option – from the network. We recommend that you go to the “Boot” menu inside the BIOS and check that the drive model is indicated there. If the message “No Boot Drive” is displayed, you should check the correctness of the disk connection: fix the cables, replace the power cords and run diagnostics on another device. In extreme cases, you will have to replace the HDD.
- We check the possibility of starting the disk. It might have a missing operating system or a damaged boot partition. First, it is worth replacing the drive with another, obviously working. An alternative way is to make a bootable utility like Rufus on the second PC and mount it on a USB flash drive.
- Turn off PXE in BIOS or UEFI. If this feature is not needed, it is better to disable it. To do this, open the “Boot” section and look for something like “Ethernet” or “Boot to Network”. Turn off the option.
- Updating the driver for the network card. If it is damaged or missing, the computer loses its ability to communicate with the network, which affects the appearance of the PXE error. To do this, you should try to start in safe mode or from a LiveUSB drive.
- We take out the BIOS battery and leave the computer without a network connection for 15 minutes. If this is a temporary bug, such a solution should work.
Some of the above should help remove the PXE-E61 error on the computer, at least we went through all the possible causes of the failure and figured out how to fix them.
