# Intel Server not booting, how to disable Network Boot?



## NefariousTechie (Dec 9, 2008)

I keep getting the following error in 2 servers:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM
Boot Failure System Halted

After doing some research, I realized that this is being cause because the server is trying to boot from the network, whether it's got an ethernet cable plugged in or not.

I'm having some extreme difficulty finding out how to disable this so it will boot normally, I've looked through BIOS with a fine toothed comb, and found nothing related to Network Boot.

I'm not really sure what serverboard it is, I can't seem to find the Intel logo with the number, but there are 3 black chips on the board which I will list below:

1. Adaptec AIC-7899W
2. Rage XL 215R3LASB41
3. Server Works SWC-SB7440-LP1

I have triple checked and made sure that hard drive was the first boot device as well. I've also tried setting BIOS back to defaults.

When booting up, there's a message at the bottom that says <F12> Network, I pressed it figuring it's the only thing I haven't tried. All that does is make it attempt a network boot, which then leads to the previous error. There is no option after pressing F12 that allows me to disable this or anything.

I am on day 3 of this miserable journey and any help.. any at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!


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## NefariousTechie (Dec 9, 2008)

Bump.


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## Sier (Apr 28, 2007)

Make sure Network boot is NOT listed on the Boot Sequence...
Also, look for something like..
Network Boot.. and choose: DISABLE


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## boethius (May 20, 2009)

NefariousTechie said:


> I keep getting the following error in 2 servers:
> 
> PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
> PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM
> ...


While the suggestion to change the boot order in the BIOS is the correct one, the only times network booting would cause your system to not be able to boot would be:

If the BIOS boot order did *not* have the hard drive in the boot sequence at all. This is possible--someone would have to go in the BIOS and purposefully set this up--but highly unlikely.
The hard drive is detected on BIOS POST but has no bootable operating system installed on it. This is the most probable reason why you are getting a boot failure error. 
The hard drive is not detected and thus you get the boot failure error message.
And I should make it clear that reasons #2 and #3 are not in themselves *caused* by the failure of network booting - they are in fact caused by a failure in the disk drive configuration or an issue with the hardware where the drive either doesn't work or it isn't connected/configured properly at the hardware level. Even a BIOS misconfiguration that excludes the hard drive from booting off IDE/SATA/SCSI/SAS direct-attached disk is still not "caused" by the failure to network boot.

In short, you've been wasting a tremendous amount of time pursuing a red herring. Network booting does not in any way cause a hard drive to fail to boot (though it is is possible a network bootstrap program - if you had a DHCP+PXE environment - could goof you up, but that's clearly not the case here). Changing the BIOS boot order just gets you to boot to the hard drive faster.


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## NefariousTechie (Dec 9, 2008)

Wow really? Thanks so much, I can't believe I've wasted so much time on the wrong issue. But would I really be getting a "Check Cable" message if it was the simple matter of there being no OS?


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

Typically Network boot is last. If it tries to boot from the Network it means that no bootable items were found, so it fell through to the Network boot. If there was no cable plugged in, you'll get a media test failure -- the Media is the cable.

If a cable is plugged in, but you are not setup for a network boot, it will time out, and proceed to the next boot device. Getting the Boot failure message right after it exits means it was the last Boot device in the list.

If you disable the Network boot, it will go directly to the Boot Failure message.
Time to confirm that the BIOS can still see the hard drive, check/replace the cables, and run hard drive diagnostics.
Or test the drive in a different PC, or with a Live CD.

You can download and run drive diagnostics to test the hard drive:

Seagate/Maxtor http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
Western Digital http://support.wdc.com/download/
IBM/Hitachi http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
Fujitsu/Seimens http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/storage/hdd/support/utilities.html

Free Hard Drive Testing Applications:
HD Tune
HDAT2 (Diagnostics and bad sector recovery)
MHDD Low-level Diagnostics
Bootable Hitachi Drive Fitness Test Floppy or CD Image (works on most drives)

HTH

Jerry


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