Toshiba Satellite cd rom help

[Vitaliy]

Alright so basically my friend gave me his laptop that he had in his basement that had broken on him. Free laptop? Don't Mind if I do.

So he gave me the charger and cd installation disks to go along with it.

I brought it home that day and first off it did not even power up with the charger working fine and the screen would not stay up (probably the hinges are busted but not important right now). So I took it apart and found that the button to turn on the computer was not connected so i connected it and bam, it turns on. I also cleaned everything out inside of it. He had mentioned to me the reason why he couldnt fix it was that the laptop had gone weird so he tried to reinstall windows but he says it doesn't read the disk. So I checked the cdrom and it seemed to be connected fine.

I put it all back together to see if I could find the problem. So it starts and goes to the menu where you chose how you want windows to start. No matter what I press (safe mode, normal etc) it goes to the loading windows xp screen and then just restarts.

So I went into bios and made it start up using the cd first and it gave me this message: PXE-E61: Media test Failure, check cable.

The cdrom seems to work and opens up and allows me to put the recovery disk in, but will not read it im guessing.

So now I am stuck :facepalm:. I had taken the product # of the cd rom: 19770980-34. Im thinking of replacing it and seeing if it will work, but I can't find one online!

Recapping, Should I replace the cd rom, any ideas where to look for this? Or is it a different problem?
This is a toshiba satellite 2415 series.

Thanks guys everyone is always helpful here:)

[Luke122]

The toshiba laptops use a standard slimline optical drive, and can be replaced with pretty much any unit you find. The only catch might be that the cover on the end of the tray may be different.. just snap off the old, and attach the new. :)

If you have another laptop around, try to swap the optical drive.. it'll likely work. You could even just try to remove and reinsert the drive.. it could be a bad connection (dirty contacts, etc).

There is usually a single retaining screw on the bottom of a notebook that holds in the drive. Pull that one screw out, and then eject the drive, and pull it out by the tray (GENTLY!).

[Vitaliy]

Alright im switching the cd roms from my compaq right now. Sadly, the toshibas cdrom wont come out so easily so i have to open it all up.

[Vitaliy]

Well it won't fit =\.

I can buy any toshiba cd rom drive?

Edit: I got it to fit but I don't think its compatible. The light on the cd rom was blinking but then it goes off and won't eject.

Are you sure can use any cd rom? Should i buy a toshiba one?

[Vitaliy]

alright I have been researching this and it might be the hard drive:
http://www.asklaptopfreak.com/laptop-notebook-help/2006/07/06/pxe-e61-failure-error-when-booting/

How can i be sure??

[Will]

Is network booting turned on in the BIOS? The PXE error has something to do with that, maybe.

Have you tried to boot windows with the drive removed?

[Vitaliy]

Just tried to boot windows without the hard drive and it kept on giving me that message over and over...

BUT I have purchased a 40g hd for $43 on ebay and it should be here soon!

I'll check back once I get it.

[Vitaliy]

Just tried the new drive and I don't think it is working. It just gives me that error and goes nowhere. On a new hard drive, I have to put in the disc for it to install windows on it correct?

I think i have to buy a new cd rom so it can read the disc and download windows on the new drive :(. Where do I find this cd rom ??

[TheGreatSatan]

For your CD drive: Run the Microsoft tool Fixit (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9645377)

[Vitaliy]

How? I can't put ti on the computer since it won't read any disks and I can't start it up to save it from the internet?

[TheGreatSatan]

download from another PC and use a flash drive