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Dell XPS 15 (l502x): Installed new hard drive and getting this error: PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable
I had this issue after an accidental laptop drop, the HDD (Seagate 750GB 7200RPM Sata 3GB/s) started making short consistent beep sounds and my laptop would no longer boot. It would take about 1 minute on the first loading screen (I believe trying to read my HDD), and then show the error: "PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable" followed by "PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM" . As well as whenever I go to the BIOS main page, my HDD was not recognized there.
So I took it to a repair shop that confirmed the HDD was gone so I brought the laptop back, bought a new bare HDD (Western Digital 1TB 10,000RPM 64MB Cache Sata 6GB/s) and replaced the old one. However I still have the same problem, this time around though no beep sounds and it loads much quicker, but the same error appears and it isn't recognized under my BIOS main page.
I've no idea what else is to be done, or what might the hardware failure be. I also ran diagnostics and no error was received, except for a "Warning: Hard Drive not found."
DELL-Sundeep B
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July 22nd, 2013 16:00
Hi Courageous999,
I am glad the issue has been resolved. Dell XPS L502X has been tested to work with 1TB hard drives, however, with max 7200 RPM. It appears the 1TB HDD you purchased had 10,000 RPM in specifications. That might be the reason, it is not working or getting detected.
Please reply if you have any further questions.
Courageous999
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July 19th, 2013 14:00
Hi ejn63, thanks for your reply.
Yes, I tried through a DVD. However the Windows installation did not detect any media drive to install Windows to.
ejn63
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July 19th, 2013 14:00
Check the BIOS setup (f2 at powerup). Is the hard drive detected there? If it's not, and you've tried more than one drive, it sounds like the damage done in the drop was more serious than that it destroyed the hard drive.
ejn63
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July 19th, 2013 14:00
The new hard drive is blank -- did you install Windows onto it?
DELL-Sundeep B
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July 19th, 2013 14:00
Hi Courageous999,
If both the hard drives are not getting detected in BIOS, it might be an issue with system board. As you stated that the system was accidentally dropped, the system board might have been damaged and will need replacement.
If the system is under warranty, please private message the service tag and name on account (Click on my name and click Start Conversation). I Will look into the details and inform you about further course of action.
If the system is out of warranty and you are located in US, you may contact OWR on 1800-288-4410.
Please reply if you have any questions.
Courageous999
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July 19th, 2013 18:00
Thanks for the replies, but I went to a computer repair shop and found out that a 20GB and a 180GB HDDs worked just fine on my laptop. So I contacted Dell to ask about the maximum capacity of HDD that my XPS 15 (l502x) supports and they told me 750GB. That is the size of HDD I had before, and the one I bought it actually 1TB. Replacing the 1TB with a 750GB and hopefully that will be fine.