Operating system not found

[burns334]

I'm troubleshooting a T43 2668 6CU using a known good hard drive and it gets to the Bios screen all right (when F1 is pushed) but when it continues I get a screen that says that PXE -E61 media test failure check cable, but since the hard drive connects directly to the motherboard that seems like a good place to look for problems. Have the solder joints that connect that connector to the mobo been a known defect location?

[ajkula66]

You should check whether the drive is "seen" in BIOS.

Enter BIOS>Startup>Boot...can you see it there?

[RealBlackStuff]

Don't forget that T43 HDs go in upside down, i.e. label pointing to the bottom of the laptop!

[burns334]

Good advice, drive in upside down but it is not seen in the bios. The machine label is 2668 6CU but the bios says 2668 CLU, is this a T42? or would it see the drive regardless?

[ajkula66]

Anything 2668-xxx should be a T43/p...

Now, the drive is properly secured in its caddy with all 4 screws, no jumpers on it?

[burns334]

Anything 2668-xxx should be a T43/p...

Now, the drive is properly secured in its caddy with all 4 screws, no jumpers on it?

Well I put all 4 screws in the caddy and now everything is fine, bios sees drive, drive boots, how come, do the screws make a ground or what

PS thanks for making me think

[rkawakami]

Don't believe that there's anything electrical that's performed by securely attaching the hard drive caddy with screws. Only that the drive would be properly positioned when sliding it into the bay so the pins on the end of the drive line up with the socket on the motherboard.

[kiwipad]

PXE "error" suggests the machine is trying to boot from a network source (rather than an internal disk) and there is no network cable connected.

Usually when PXE (network) boot is prioritized there wil be a delay before the BIOS even looks for an alternative (e.g. hdd) boot source.

Check the boot order in BIOS

IG

[kgoto]

I have the same problem with my T43 (2687-DEU). If I remove the LAN from the boot devices, then I don't get the PXE error, just the "Operating System Not Found". However, it will boot fine when in my mini-dock, so I don't think it is the hard drive. It seems very strange to me that it boots fine when in the mini-dock, but can't find the OS when un-docked. Please post back if you find a solution. thanks...

UPDATE: My problem turned out to be a partition table error which Norton Disk Doctor found and fixed. So it was a SW problem rather than HW.