DMI pool data hang

[bergis]

Hi
Recently my computer stopped after the message 'Verifying DMI pool data' with the message 'Boot error, insert system disk and press enter'.
However, doing this had no effect as there was no contact with the floppy. But after a few tries the computer actually booted up, at the 'verifying DMI pool data' stage it said 'NSCD (or similar, sorry, didn't take notes :-/) update successful' and then Verifying DMI pool data .... update successful.
So now the machine runs, but with no access to floppy or cd-r, so of course I need to rectify this. In system properties there seems to be nothing wrong with eiter, reports that they are both working fine, which obviously is something of an overstatement...
But what has actually happend here?, and what is the best way to correct whatever is wrong? Should I upgrade the BIOS?

regards
Kjell

 

[bacillus]

suggest you first look in bios for reset configuration data & set it to enable. exit bios saving changes. if that doesn't make a difference then if you're using win98/ME have a look in device manager to see if there are any yellow exclaimation marks. report back with your findings before offering you more suggestions!

 

[neuralfx]

what motherboard/bios do you have?...
-neural

 

[bergis]

Abit kt7a-raid, wz or something bios, have to check that
athlon tb
256mb ram
WD BA205 20G HD
Creative CD-Rom
Yamaha 4416s scsi cdr with tekram dc390(f?) card
Sb live, gainward gf2mx, isa isdn card

anyway, thats about it, I will try out some of the above suggestions when I get home from work....

rgds
kjell

 

[MattStone]

I had this problem once and it was a bad stick of RAM...but I was never able to successfully get into windows...I got stuck at a General Protection Error or something similar.

 

[Mem]

I also had this problem, in my case it was CPU gone faulty,so it could be a computer hardware gone bad.

 

[bergis]

Hi
I've entered the bios and reset to fail-safe defaults, got a 'Verifying dmi pool data.....update success', still unable to access scsi cd-r and floppy, although if I put an cd-rom in the cd-r it sees it, but I can't access it. Same with floppy.
Tried disconnecting both before I reset bios, but that had noe effect, still got 'boot error, insert system disk and press enter'.
So status now is: my comp. runs, but can't access floppy and cd-r. Reinstall? Well why not try...

 

[bacillus]

suggest you update your virus definitions & do a scan in case this is a boot virus.
any exclaimation marks in device manager?

 

[bergis]

hi
I run Norton Av, and always keep the latest virus definitions and it's set to scan at startup, but has had no warnings, but I haven't done a full system scan in a while. I'm also running Norton personal firewall.
There is one exclamation mark in device manager, under 'other devices', pci mass storage controller, but that has been there since I built the machine, don't remember what it was, but I sort of had a understanding that it didn't matter.
We did have some serious thunderstorms a week ago, but the machine was off at those times, although the power cord was connected (I weren't home, otherwise I would have disconnected it), maybe that could have something to do with it, although the machine has been running fine after.
The only thing I've done recently were uninstalling some games and do a defrag of the hd.
I'm totally at a loss here..

 

[bacillus]

all I can think of at present is that your master boot record is somehow "bad".
you can try rewriting it by booting up with a good startup floppy &amp; at the A: prompt type fdisk/mbr <enter> then type sys C: <enter>.
that should rewrite your mbr &amp; hopefully solve your problem!

 

[bergis]

is there any way of checking the mbr? I may have a problem since it seems that the floppy isn't recognized on boot.

 

[bacillus]

<< is there any way of checking the mbr? >>


not to my knowledge!

 

[fastman]

I had a simular problem years back. Saw this thread and saved it:


<< DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface, and it is a part of the bios that allows HW &amp; SW to talk. If the boot hangs there, then your startup or bootup files probably have been damaged or corrupted and you should boot to a floppy and restore the system startup files....
Put your Win95/98 boot disk in drive &quot;A&quot; and boot the system. You should arrive at the DOS prompt. Type &quot;sys c:&quot; (no quotes) and then reboot without the boot disk. This will rebuild your system files. >>

Hope this helps.

 

[bergis]

Well, removed scsi card, I've changed my psu (just in case..), reset cmos, booted, set bios to fail-safe default, floppy works fine. Now I will try to reboot to see if everythings still fine...

 

[bergis]

Well, rebooted with fresh boot disk (made before I restarted), did a sysc:, worked fine, rebooted, still fine.
It's late, tomorrow night I will reinstall my scsi card and cd-r, if things are still ok after that I will try to replace psu to the other (more power), but before doing that I will try to make the backup cd I've tried creating for a couple of days now. If things are still working ok with the original psu I will go back to my 'enhanced' bios settings
I really do think that resetting cmos was the thing that did the trick, but as I am no expert I wouldn't object if anyone said it was something else.
BIG thanks to all of the replys