laptop won't startup shows error message?

[Chippy1]

Hi Just wondering if anyone can help?

As soon as I turn on my laptop I get an error message saying something like "Realtek PCI Fast Ethernet Controller" Media test Failure, Check cable, Operating System not found" I have tried altering boot order in f2 setup as instructed but everytime I try and load backup disks it says loading RAMDISK image then when it usual enters ACER recovery screen its just stays blank. The laptop is an ACER 5050. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[vehelpfulguy]

Not sure what other people have suggested but to me it looks like it is trying to boot Windows from your network drive rather than from your hard disk "C" drive.

It seems you may have already done this, but my first suggestion would be to go into the BIOS and make sure your hard drive is the first device in the boot order.

Maybe even remove every other device from the boot list so ONLY your hard drive is listed as a bootable device.

Another option could be your hard drive is not seated properly in its slot. Have you been swapping hard drives perhpas, or maybe it has worked lose if you have been moving the laptop around a lot.

I would find where your hard drive is and make sure it is well seated in its slot.

Again, go in the BIOS and check the BIOS can actually SEE the hard drive. That way you know at least the hardware knows it is there.

I have not seen any previous appends of yours but why are you trying to load backup disks ?

Did you have a working Windows and if so did it just stop working ? Did you change anything ?

[Paulst30]

Yeah as vhelpfullguy said, maybe previously a function key was pressed on boot mistakenly to boot from network drive. Seen it in work, need to watch out for that one i think :S

[Chippy1]

Hi many thanks for your detailed answer.

I actually struck the laptop on the righthand side of the mouse pad, then suddenly the screen jammed. I then switched off and when windows didn't start and I got this message I thought I would be able to correct it using the recovery disks. Why I don't know? lol

I will give your advice a try now and get back,


Thanks : )

[Chippy1]

I have tried your suggestions regarding boot order and I am just getting an "Operating system not found" message.

Also I have taken out the hard drive and made sure its fitted securely, this dosen't seem to have made any difference.

The position of were I struck the laptop seems to be over the hard drive.


I don't know if you have any more suggestions?


Many Thanks

[vehelpfulguy]

Well I suppose the worst case may be that you have broken your hard drive.

Inside the hard drive are some small disks spinning round, and flying over these disks is a read head that is a fraction of an inch from the disk surface.

If you knock the hard drive sometimes the read head can crash into the disk surface making it unreadable (this is called a hard disk crash)

Here is a picture showing the disks, and the arm with the read head.

You may be able to see the stratches on the disk where the read head has crashed into the surface of the disk:

http://rodrigo.typepad.com/english/hard_2Ddisk _2Dcrash_2D29_small.jpg

If this has happened your disk may be unusable and you MAY have lost everything on it.

I am not saying this has happened but if your laptop cannot find the operating system on the hard drive it may be the case.

You could try and find a utility that tests hard disks and run that. It would need to be one that runs from a diskette if you can find such a thing.

[Chippy1]

Thanks once again : )

[fiesata]

I agree with the previous answers looks like your hard drive has failed.
The error message about the network cable is not an error it just indicates the cable is unplugged