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Question

DellInspiron15R errorwhilebooting:mediatestfailurecheckcable

May 27, 2013 4:51AM PDT

i have a dell inspiron 15 r laptop.it came with installed windows 8.i wanted to install ubuntu besides windows 8.for this, i firstly partiioned the hard disk into 3 parts.1 is for windows 8, 1 is for ubuntu 1 is for my important files.
everything is ok untill here.but when i tried to boot the laptop from DVD Rom it says "mediatest failure check cable". i am sure that this is not a hardware problem.because my dvd rom works good with windows 8.
moreover it also says same thing while trying to boot from hard disk.what can be the problem?thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
What's on the DVD you're trying to boot from?
May 27, 2013 5:04AM PDT

Have you tried to copy the DVD? It could be that when the DVD was created, it had an error that wasn't detected.

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cd does not have any problem
May 27, 2013 5:06AM PDT

cd does not have any problem i can open it in windows 8.

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Opening it & booting it are different things
May 27, 2013 5:08AM PDT

What's on the disc you're trying to boot from?

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it is ubuntu iso file
May 27, 2013 5:10AM PDT

it is ubuntu iso file

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ISO files aren't bootable
May 27, 2013 5:13AM PDT

You can't boot a disc with an ISO file, you have to burn the ISO image to a disc which THEN becomes bootable. I use Nero or Roxio, but you can use the free Imgburn program to do it as well.
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Good luck.

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The ISO on the dvd is not bootable.
May 27, 2013 5:14AM PDT

If you see .iso on the DVD then it was made incorrectly.

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Answer
Re: media test failure
May 27, 2013 5:01AM PDT

That means it can't boot from the hard disk or the DVD-ROM. Then it tries to boot from Ethernet. If that doesn't work it gives this message.

If you can't boot from the Windows 8 DVD to do a startup repair or from the Dell recovery partition to go back to factory conditions, you've got a big problem. But I'm sure Dell will be able to fix it, although it won't be free.

Kees

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Answer
A tar pit of issues.
May 27, 2013 5:13AM PDT

It's possible that this laptop has the new secure boot bios (EFI) and you may have to enable CSM (corporate stable mode). But I don't want to start yet another discussion on that. Are you sure that booting from the DVD is supported in the selected BIOS and settings you have now?
Bob