'verifying DMI Pool Data'

Gracie · February 18, 2003, 18:54 hrs

hello folks - it is cold here, brrr :)

A computer has been brought to me which hangs on the bootup screen at the above message, before the OS ( win 98) is loaded. It won't respond to a floppy boot or to safe mode. I have looked on the web and followed bits of advice about disabling caches, going to setup defaults, clearing CMOS and tried them all, but nothing has worked. I don't want to have to repartition or format at least until I have spoken to the machines owner. It is a fairly old machine and I don't see any indication that it can be flashed. If it is a BIOS problem there is no point me slaving the drive to my own machine to access it. Can you advise please?

Gracie:)

By the way... I have been coming to you for some time now, on and off, for help with some of the problems that come my way. I appreciate the help you give me. It occurred to me that you might think I am gaining financially out of the help you freely offer. I would like you to know that my help to others is equally as free, so your kindness is passed on in the spirit it was given :)

dcsun · February 18, 2003, 19:10 hrs

Do you know the make and model of the motherboard? Does it have this problem on every boot or just occasionally?

Gracie · February 18, 2003, 19:13 hrs

um.. will have to go back in to get the number. Has SIS chip, Ess sound, Cyrix cpu, Award bios. It happens every time. It is a 'Time' machine.

'Kay. the two strings are:

09/15/1998-SiS-5598-2A5IIG3BC-00

50-0102-2A5IIG3B-V1.02 (251-T-76)

Neon · February 18, 2003, 19:22 hrs

Did you try checking the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic utilities? It may be a bad drive.

Gracie · February 18, 2003, 19:25 hrs

oh, d'you reckon?.. I have a Seagate util that has a generic test. I will give that a go. I was thinking about doing that but all the stuff on the web seemed to point to BIOS. Microsft simply says it is a hardware fault - so p'raps it is the drive...
thanks Neon.

It IS a SEagate Drive, so I am testing it now. It passed the short test, so now it is doing the extended. As it is nearly 2.00 am here I shall retire as soon as it is finished, and come back here tomorrow to tell you what the result was. I hope it is the hard drive - I can do something about that, but if it is BIOS, she might have to get a new mobo :(

night folks.

query · February 18, 2003, 20:24 hrs

Given the chipset (SiS Jedi) and BIOS it's 4-5 years old. Have you changed the CMOS battery?

The board is from Gemlight - the only two references I could find are

http://www.hongfaith.com/bios.htm

http://www.vextrec.com/vtitech/vtibios.htm

Gracie · February 19, 2003, 04:26 hrs

thanks for the info Query. I haven't changed the battery. I don't really think that is the problem,no indications that the battery is low, but I will 'bookmark' that as a 'to-do', just to exhaust the possibilities. I will go to the links you gave now :)

Gracie · February 19, 2003, 05:34 hrs

hmm. Doesn't look as if this board is flashable, so, if it isn't the hard drive, or something really easy like the battery ( sir is going to get his voltmeter out in a minute), then I guess that only leaves the BIOS....Award V1.02 is the chip PCI PNP 586 Sn 135441408 1998.

We could get it out, but can we replace it?Do they still make them? I have had a look on the web but not got any clear guidance as yet. Otherwise, it is a new mobo..:(

Chandler · February 19, 2003, 06:28 hrs

It could be due to dodgy CMOS data. Try clearing the CMOS (not the BIOS) totally. There should be a jumper near the battery to do this. Alternatively remove the battery overnight and turn the computer off.

I remember that you can invoke a reset on some BIOSes by pressing a key combination when you turn it on. I think it was INS, but that may only apply to AMI BIOS.

Gracie · February 19, 2003, 15:11 hrs

I did clear the CMOS by removing the battery, but for only a brief period. I had to autodetect the hard drive when I got back in, so I assumed the CMOS had been cleared ok, do you not think so? what would make the CMOS develop corrupted data?

dcsun · February 19, 2003, 15:38 hrs

If you can still access the bios you should be able to clear the settings from there too.

Allie-Baba · February 19, 2003, 15:40 hrs

How long was the battery out? You may need to leave it out 30 - 60 seconds to really let the input circuits to near zero enough to reset the CMOS.

One other thing - voltage isn't necessarly a good indication of a bad battery. A bad battery can show full voltage under no load - and then drop to zero when a load is applied.

One thing to try maybe is to pull almost everything but the floppy and see if you can get it to partial boot past the error message. Also - for grins boot without memory and see if you can get the BIOS to produce the Memory error message.

THNX
BRAD

query · February 19, 2003, 17:54 hrs

There is also the possibility that the NVRAM is corrupt - Windows stores plug and play information in nonvolatile RAM on the mainboard - those data are not cleared by removing the battery. There usually is a jumper or CMOS setting for clearing that RAM.

The other issue is that NVRAM can only be written to a set number of times before it wears out - if the system has been in use for five years, the NVRAM may simply have expired (in which case, the only solution is to replace the mainboard).

A year or so ago there was an epidemic of failed NVRAM on Intel-built boards from the 1995-1997 or so.

Gracie · February 20, 2003, 12:39 hrs

well, it seems to be getting more complicated as we go on - but things have moved on here. I have been able to get another hard drive to load up on the machine without any problems, but cannot get the machines own hard drive recognized in Windows when I put it into another machine,even as a slave although it IS autodetected in BIOS. When I ran some Seagate tests on it, the utility did not pick up any faults with the physical drive. I stopped before it got to files and data because I had to go to work - so now I wonder if the problem is that the data on the hard drive is so corrupted that Windows can't load, and that is why it hangs at the DMI message, because loading the OS comes next. I can see the files on C: in DOS, and I noticed Kazaa was on there... I am thinking nasties now.... what do you think please? Sorry for delay in replying, I buried my mum today

Gracie:)

dcsun · February 20, 2003, 13:07 hrs

Very sorry to hear that. I hope you're doing okay. :)

It sounds like Windows is somehow corrupted, so I would start by re-installing the same version over itself if you can get your hands on the Windows cd that matches what's installed on there.

Gracie · February 20, 2003, 14:17 hrs

The machine has got some back-up software ( it's a Time machine) and, I assume, Windows 98 Second edition will be included, so that is hopefully not a problem. What is more of a bother is that I can't get an ordinary boot-disk to initiate before the machine locks up, though the diagnostics floppy works OK. I need a boot-up floppy to give me some real-mode drivers for the cd-rom to work. Hopefully I will find a way round that and can then reformat etc.

Thanks for your kind words re: my mum. yes, I am ok. She was 83, the last few years of her life did not have much quality in them.

Gracie:)

dcsun · February 20, 2003, 15:14 hrs

Odd that it's having problems with a boot disk. That may point to hardware as being the problem after all :(. It may be worth getting a blank hard drive and adding it in place of the other one and see if you can get Windows going on that. If you can, that would suggest that the hardware is fine. If not, then there probably is a hardware problem somewhere.

Chandler · February 20, 2003, 15:50 hrs

Maybe the boot floppy that you're using is dodgy. If you can get to an A:\ command prompt, then type FDISK /MBR to rebuild the master boot record on the hard drive.

Something else to check is that the hard drive settings are correct in the BIOS. Set hard drive parameters to Auto for all drives to ensure that the BIOS will detect settings when it boots.

Also, make sure that the hard drive cable is plugged in firmly. (I know this seems obvious but they can become loose).

To make a new boot floppy, get to a command prompt on a working Windows 98 computer and type FORMAT A: /S Then copy FDISK.COM onto the floppy.

pat · February 20, 2003, 15:54 hrs

Hi Gracie,
Just thought I'd pop in and offer my condolences for your Mom.
Nice to see you back in the forum. I'm sure you will get this straightened out.
pat

Gracie · February 21, 2003, 08:43 hrs

thanks Pat - kind of you.

I have moved on a bit more with the problem. I moved the drive to another machine and then ran a Vexira floppy diagnostic on it, and discovered that it had the Vienna virus code on it. I looked up on the web and found that there are many variations of this, and the one that seemed to fit is one that makes it so that the OS can't see the C: drive because the FAT is altered. When you go to Fdisk it sees it but says it is in an unknown format. I repartitioned the drive, reformatted and got Windows 98 installed via my old Pentium Pro machine, and thought the problem was fixed, but when I put the drive back in its own 'Time' machine, everything ran VERY slowly. I wondered if it would be better to run setup again, so that it loads stuff which is to do with that mobo, thinking maybe there was some controller it wasn't happy with, so that is what I am doing now, but it is crawling along so slowly, Windows reckons it will be 169 minutes before it is done! I think there is adequate memory - I will check it out, but assume the system would not have been sold with less than it needs to run Win 98, and the mem check at beginning seems ok, plus the bios beep - so what could it be? CPU failing? PSU failing? Any thoughts oh wonderful ones?? :)

Chandler · February 21, 2003, 10:18 hrs

Yes, the older computer probably sees the hard drive as a different capacity (very small difference) and so when put in the Time computer, it's BIOS has to accomodate the formatting, which doesn't match what it expects.

So, yes, the best thing to do would be to FDISK and Format again on the Time. It will also ensure that the correct drivers are loaded. Also, you will need to do various things such as enabling DMA once Windows is installed, otherwise things will be slow.

Gracie · February 21, 2003, 13:44 hrs

ahh! okay, makes sense. I will do that right now- thanks, catcha later.

Gracie:)

mmm, done that - not much faster, disappointing - I thought that would sort it. Oh well..... I will let it plod on until it is fully installed and then see if I can get any clues.

If it isn't a software thing it must be hardware...?

The lady whose machine it is needs it for a course she is doing and can't afford to get another as her husband has just lost his job, so I gotta fix it somehow. All ideas appreciated :D

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