Try hitting the F2 continually while the Dell screen shows - it is not always recognized on just one hit.

I've got the exact same problem with an Inspiron 4000.  Can't access the setup screen and can't boot from a floppy (to reflash the bios).  Pressing the F2 key lots and lots of times does not work either.

Any suggestions on how to gain access to this machine?

You could always pull the hdd or a memory module so you get an error offering to go into the BIOS.

I tried forcing an option to access the BIOS setup page by removing the hdd (and a memory module) without success.  An appropriate error message is displayed ("Primary hard disk drive 0 not found" and/or "The amount of system memory has changed"), followed by the original PXE-E05 error and the system hangs.

Any other suggestions on how to access the BIOS or boot the machine from a different device?

 

 

Huh, on my 4000 when the memory changes, you get a choice to F1 continue or F2 go into BIOS.

Thanks for the information. By repeatedly hitting F2, I've managed to get into BIOS. This works about 10% of the time. Would reinstalling my Operating System fix the error?

Thanks

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@joemouse wrote:

I've got the exact same problem with an Inspiron 4000.  Can't access the setup screen and can't boot from a floppy (to reflash the bios).  Pressing the F2 key lots and lots of times does not work either.

Any suggestions on how to gain access to this machine?

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try hitting F12 at startup to give you the one-off booting menu.

No - F2 and F12 are BIOS calls.

Hello,

I have the same problem with my inspiron 8100, that had occured after instaling xp than RedHat 9, and did some things out of my degree with MBR table partitions., or who knows what I did?

This is what I found:

http://www.cil.pt/docDell/IntelNIC/int40man/bootAgnt.htm

PXE-E05: The LAN adapter's configuration is corrupted or has not been initialized. The Boot Agent cannot continue.
The Boot Agent determined that the adapter EEPROM checksum is incorrect. The agent will return control to the BIOS and not attempt to remote boot. Try to update the flash image. If this does not solve the problem, contact your system administrator or Dell Customer Support either by telephone or over the World Wide Web. Phone numbers and web sites are listed at the back of this manual.

Anyway, I'm not professional to use this info.

Please!, give a help ( step by step) if you can.

Thanks

ps. reinstaling os didn't fix the error

For my case with Inspiron 4000, I remove Modem module (near memory module and quite similar to removing Memory module except for two cable connectors) and the problem solves.

I owe thanks to all reply for the Hints.

Removing the modem module also fixed this problem on my Inspiron 4000.  I noticed the Boot POST was set to 'thorough' in the BIOS, so I'm wondering if that had some effect on the error causing the system to hang.  I reset the Boot POST to 'minimal' (the default setting).

 

I still have this problem after reinstaling OS. so the problem is not the partisions as i suppossed.

 

I think re-flashing the bios is the cure-all.  I had to remove the modem module to allow the machine to complete it's boot cycle, reflash the bios (from a floppy), and then re-install the modem.  Everything seems to be ok now...

I replaced modem-nic module, and yes! a can start the computer. But how did you flash the bios? What I tried didn't worked.

Please, send a step by step info or a link.

I  appreciate your kindes for help. Thank you!

Get the latest bios version for your laptop model from the dell download site at:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

(Select FlashBIOS updates under download category.)

Typically the update is loaded on a bootable floppy or cd-rom and executed when you reboot your machine.

good luck ...