[Skoad]

Alright..... I started today off trying to fix this Gateway laptop because it wouldnt get past the splash screen. It would boot up and I would try to spam F2 (for BIOS) or F10 (for boot menu).. F10 would show some of the stuff loading(mem check and whatnot.. and would show "No TPM or TPM has problem".. The only fix I found for that was to remove one stick of memory and try.. I did that every sort of way with no luck.

Now im not sure if it tried to get past that part or not.. but after about an hour of messing with it(never getting past that splash screen) I am now getting the error "PXE-E05: The LAN adapter's configuration is corrupted .. can not boot"... That error is up for a minute and then its back at the spash screen. Just sits there.. forever and ever.

I cannot enter bios or boot from a CD/USB. Ive reset the ram. Ive tried removing the battery and draining power from the laptop.

Im not sure what else I can do. Ive Googled my butt off and cant find any fixes. Everything always mentioning to go into safe mode or Bios... neither of which I can get to.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

[pip22]

There's nothing wrong with the network adapter. The PXE-E05 error simply means the system is trying to boot off the network adapter (which it can't) because the hard drive is no longer bootable, so the system looks for the next boot device in the BIOS configuration.

Typically you get this error when the hard drive has failed, in which case you have to install a new one.
Another possibility is that the hard drive is not connected properly, so check that first before spending any money on a new one.

[Skoad]

I had thought it was a hard drive issue. I tried another hard drive I had laying around but got the exact same errors. I figured I would have some issues since the hard drive hadnt ran on that computer as the master drive.. but couldn't get past the same ol problems.

[DoubleHelix]

If it's not the drive, it's probably the motherboard. What's the history of this laptop? How did you come to have possession of it for purposes of fixing it? What happened to it?

[Skoad]

It is a friends laptop. They brought it to me a few weeks ago to fix and I was able to do so. It had problems booting up but I was able to get to the boot screen and have it boot from CD.. which I then had it format the drive. It started up fine for me after that. I gave it back to him. He said he only used it like once. Said it booted up fine and what not but the next time he went to power it up, it wouldnt boot.

Then I got it back and everything happened as I stated above. Cant get to bios or boot menu so no idea where to go from here.

[DoubleHelix]

What did you fix a few weeks ago? What happened to it? What was the problem?

If the hard drive isn't detected, and you've already replaced it, then there's more extensive damage. The next step is replacing the motherboard. If it's more than a year or two old and is a standard consumer grade laptop, it's probably not worth fixing.

[Skoad]

I didnt even look into it when I went to fix it the first time. I saw it was having boot issues. Tried to boot several times. Eventually got it to get into bios so I can set the boot order. Which I didnt think about it, but was probably the hard drive to begin with since it was trying to boot hard drive first but once I changed to CD I was able to reformat computer and get it to boot. From what he says, he only booted it once and after that it wouldnt work. So guess it could be a hard drive issue.. or what at least. Had no changes when I Switched drives though.

[DoubleHelix]

Either I'm not asking the right questions, or you just don't know the answers.

"Boot problems" is a symptom. What happened to the laptop? Was it dropped? Something spilled on it? Experience a power surge?

Obviously the hard drive is not the problem if replacing it with a known or new working one didn't resolve the issue.

[Skoad]

Ahh im sorry.

Im not sure what happened to the laptop. I had just assumed it got a virus or something of the sort as the owner isnt very computer literate. He says he did not drop it. Just said one day it wouldnt boot up. Could have beena power surge I guess but he doesnt know. =/