Help! Error msg after factory reinstall

[Maxbert]

I have just run a factory reinstall on my neighbour's laptop (Acer Aspire 9423)- After the installation finishes, I get the following message (on black screen):

E-E61: Media test failure, check cable

followed by

PXE-MOF Exiting PFE ROM

Quick search on internet suggested re-seating HD, done but no joy.

The laptop used to boot fine, albeit with some error messages, but now, after 2 attempts to reinstall, all I get is the above

Any help welcome, t'is the neighbour's lappy, not mine

In despair,

Maxbert

[Sprogget]

I've seen this before. My mate had it on his box. He did two things & wasn't sure which one fixed it: He took the power lead out & the battery, then reset the bios by clearing the jumpers & renoving & re-inserting the cmos battery for good measure. He also jiggled around the hard drive & reseated the ide ribbon connector & it fired up ok.

Like I say, he wasn't sure if he hit the problem on the head or got lucky, but it worked for him.

[Maxbert]

Ahhh... OK Sprogget, thanks... But how do I go about these things, with a lappy which isn't mine, to boot (sorry...)- I unpowered the machine, took the battery out and managed to remove the HD. The BIOS jumpers are, however, another matter

Ditto CMOS battery, we're talking laptop here

[Sprogget]

Hmmm, I'm not sure if he had a lappy or a box. I guess a box then. You should still be able to unplug & reseat the hard drive though.

[Maxbert]

Done that- FWIW the install disc is running (again), it takes about 45 minutes and the HD light is flashing- Also, after a previous attempt I hit F2 at startup, and the laptop acknowledges the Hitachi HD- I tried moving it to the top of the boot list, but all I got was a black screen with a flashing cursor.... I moved it back where it belonged

[cdtaylor_nats]

Try getting it to boot from a Windows CD, it it does boot then it would point to a hard disk problem.