Asus X554LA not recognizing the hard drive

[jcasado94]

Hello.

I've been using this laptop for more than a year, and a while ago it decided to not boot the OSs anymore, just showing a message on startup, saying, amid other things: "PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable", "PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM". I add the whole picture below.

If I try to access the BIOS, it just doesn't show the hard drive as a boot option.
I have to say that, when it started happening, it just happened now and then, sometimes booting and sometimes not. Now it just doesn't seem to boot anymore (well, I don't know if I tried a hundred times, but I obviously won't). Also, before it first happened, I had to turn off the computer while windows was performing some updates, and when I eventually got it to work (or, boot), it eventually would shut down due to some weird Windows-died message, I guess hard drive-related.

What's your guess? In my humble opinion, it is a problem of the hard-drive connection, cause it would make no sense to me that the hard drive could be damaged, when the laptop is only a year or so old, and when I could still boot it when the error happened - also, it happened while travelling, so maybe with all the movement... Do you think the only way to know it is by opening it?

Thank you in advance.

Josep.

PS: it's a HDD, not SSD, just in case.

 

[webworkings]

Hard drives can be damaged without being dropped, banged etc. It sounds to me like the hard drive is the problem.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @Josep!

I'm afraid that @webworkings is right, a drive doesn't necessarily need to be dropped or physically damaged to wear out. Either way, I'd not advise you to tamper with it physically now. You mentioned that your laptop is almost a year old, so it should still be covered by the warranty. If it is, make sure you contact the reseller's or manufacturer's customer support for assistance. If it's indeed the HDD that failed, they should be able to take care of the replacement for you.
If you tamper with the laptop physically, you will void the warranty, so better get in touch with them.

Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD