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November 30th, 2017 00:00

Not genuine message & now no boot device found

Help!  One of my youth has been using a Dell E6420 i5 8G CPU 2.60 GHz.  This computer was donated by a company in the USA where they were replacing their computers.  They handled wiping and reloading Win 7 Pro.  The computer has a Win 7 Pro product Key and had been working great since I received it in January 2017.  About 1 wk ago when the youth turned on the computer he got a message in the bottom right hand corner saying:

Windows 7
Build 7601
This copy of Windows is not genuine

He indicated that he could still use the computer to view study files, etc, however it was very slow.

I have the computer now to try to solve the issue.  Currently when I turn on the computer the message I get is:

PXE-E62: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent

No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot the machine.

I have powered it off and when restarting it I pressed F8 to try to get into Safe Mode.  Regardless of whether I go into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with networking it loads a bunch of lines such as:

Loaded: \windowns\System32\drivers\.....   BUT then it stops and at the bottom it says:

Please wait...      and doesn't seem to do anything after this.

I don't know what is going on and what to do.  Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Janet

9 Legend

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87.5K Posts

November 30th, 2017 03:00

Sounds like the hard drive failed.  Check system setup (F2 at powerup) -- if there's no hard drive listed, power off, remove the battery and hold the power button for 30 sec.

Remove and reinstall the hard drive.

If you still don't see it, it's toast - replace with a new 2.5" SATA notebook drive, 9.5 mm or slimmer.

If it IS then seen, run an extended diagnostic  on it -- if it fails, replace as above.  If it passes, reload Windows.

1 Rookie

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14 Posts

November 30th, 2017 09:00

Thanks again ejn63.  I ran the diagnostics (ePSA Pre-boot) - it ddoesn't give me an option of running an extended diagnostic test.  All was fine with the exception of the battery.

When I then exit and restart it I get the same message that I got before about no boot device found.  Does this mean the HDD is working, but just needs the OS reloaded?  I'm not sure what to do from here.  Any suggestions/recommendations?

9 Legend

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87.5K Posts

November 30th, 2017 09:00

Run the extended diagnostic on the drive (it'll take a couple of hours).  Given the symptoms, I can almost guarantee it'll fail with bad sectors -- in which case, replace the drive before reloading Windows.

4 Operator

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11.1K Posts

November 30th, 2017 12:00

Wit that model you can download Windows 7 Pro directly from Dell.

Find your Service Tag # and go to http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/osiso/win

and download Windows.

However, in all likelihood your hard drive is failing. That is why it is so slow.

My suggestion:

1. copy any data files from that failing hard drive to a USB flash drive as backup

2.  replace the failing hard drive with a new one

3.  re-install Windows 7 Pro

4.  install the drivers starting with the chipset

 

1 Rookie

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14 Posts

November 30th, 2017 10:00

So although I did not see a specific "extended diagnostic test", I did see a box I could tick that said "Thorough test mode" and checked it.  It took about an hour or so and at the end it said "Pass PSA V4200 ePSA extended test pass".  The only thing that was recorded under event data was that the battery is reaching the end of its usable life".

Regardless when I then exit and it shuts down and reboots it says gives the same message.

So, since I'm in South Africa and it costs an arm and a leg to call. I'm thinking I will try and see if Linux Lite 3.4 installs on it and then maybe look into seeing about getting a windows 7 Pro OS since I do have a product key...Does this make sense..?

1 Rookie

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14 Posts

November 30th, 2017 20:00

Thanks ieee488, so since the computer we’re talking about doesn’t have internet access would I be able to download the Win 7 Pro on another computer, create a bootable USB then reload?

Is it feasible to download it on to this particular computer if I access the internet on this laptop by running a live session of Linux Lite ?

So in terms of HDD function...is it such that an HDD works well till it doesn’t. In other words no warnings or indications on the extended test that indicates it’s failing?

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