New SATA DVD-RW burner -- Hangs at Verifying DMI pool data

[Muse]

It just arrived today from Amazon:

Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive - Bulk - IHAS124-04 Version C (Black)

Came packed well enough but there wasn't even a packing slip. :\

My mobo is really old (Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro Motherboard, Specs) but does have a 2 port SATA controller. I have had a 500GB drive on SATA0 and I just connected the Lite-On drive to SATA1, gave it power and turned on the system. The drive is seen (I can see it and the 500GB HD in the POST), but then the light in the front of the drive goes on for a split second, I hear a real fast and kind of loud stutter ("dot-dot-dot," all told about 1/4 second max), coming from the drive and the POST hangs at the message:

Verifying DMI pool data...

If I press the eject button on the drive at any time the tray comes out but immediately goes back in. :\

If I remove the data cable from the drive, the system boots normally and a press of the eject button causes the tray to come out and stay out until you press the button again.

Is this drive a for certain RMA? I tend to think so, but I don't have another system to test it on.

 

[Engineer]

Have you tried a different SATA cable? I had a new build last month that I finally scapped the OS and started over because I assumed it was something wrong with the OS. Discovered the SATA cable was causing the system to hang with the DVD burner. Showed up fine in BIOS but would not access in Windows and caused weird system hangs and the anti-virus (MSE) refused to run automatically. New cable fixed it all.

Good luck.

 

[Muse]

Have you tried a different SATA cable? I had a new build last month that I finally scapped the OS and started over because I assumed it was something wrong with the OS. Discovered the SATA cable was causing the system to hang with the DVD burner. Showed up fine in BIOS but would not access in Windows and caused weird system hangs and the anti-virus (MSE) refused to run automatically. New cable fixed it all.

Good luck.

Yep, I've had a bad cable issue in the distant past that caused problems you'd never dream was due to a bad cable. Absolutely it could be a bad cable and truth of the matter is I have another SATA data cable I could swap it with (they look identical, both never used) but it was such a bitch to get it plugged into the motherboard I didn't even consider it. I suppose I should have tried that anyway before calling Amazon, but I didn't. They are cross shipping me a replacement that I should have tomorrow (Monday). It's 10x easier to put the replacement drive in there and see what happens. It could also be a problem with the SATA1 port on the motherboard. I think there's a 90+% chance the drive is bad, though.

 

[Engineer]

The cable that I had was brand new also. A cheap one, but it was new. I had used about 3 or 4 just like it with zero issues and it did show up on BIOS, just would not work in Windows. Again, good luck. Hope the new drive solves your issues.

I know what you mean. When I discovered it was a bad cable, I had to re-route the new one behind the motherboard tray and zip tie it in. I cut the ends of the old one off so I did not have to remove all of the zip ties holding the bundle of wires in behind the board try.

 

[Muse]

Both cables came with the motherboard back in 2008. Fingers crossed it was the drive, otherwise I'll be sheepishly embarrassed! Honestly, it didn't occur to me to try the other cable yesterday. However, I did think I should maybe wait for replies to this thread before RMAing the drive but called Amazon anyway. I suppose I could keep both drives, they're pretty cheap at under $20 taxed and shipped. Well, maybe they'll tack on shipping if I decide to keep it, don't know. I could just send it back, of course, they provided me with a shipping label.

 

[bbhaag]

That kinda stinks that the new drive doesn't work. If the replacement drive and new/different cable doesn't work let me know. My offer still stands from the other thread.

 

[Smoove910]

so you aren't able to try a different cable without rerouting it? I would just unplug the suspect cable from the drive and mobo and leave it hanging there while I ran the new one over the top/easiest way possible just to see it worked.

If the new cable/drive doesn't work, I am suspecting your MBR (Master Boot Record) could be corrupted. Not too hard to fix.

 

[Muse]

so you aren't able to try a different cable without rerouting it? I would just unplug the suspect cable from the drive and mobo and leave it hanging there while I ran the new one over the top/easiest way possible just to see it worked.

If the new cable/drive doesn't work, I am suspecting your MBR (Master Boot Record) could be corrupted. Not too hard to fix.

Should have replacement drive tomorrow.

The hard part isn't running the replacement cable, it's really plugging it into the motherboard. For one thing the cable is barely long enough, and for another it's a very cramped space and there's a firewire cable 1/2 way blocking connecting the cable to the mobo. It's 5-10 minutes of work, maybe less if I'm lucky. I had to push on the connector with the tip of a screwdriver. I guess I've figured out how to do it now. Anyway, the easy thing to do at this point is to swap the drives and see what happens. If I still get a hang, I'll replace the cable. If it still hangs then, I'll ask you how I fix my MBR! Thanks...

That kinda stinks that the new drive doesn't work. If the replacement drive and new/different cable doesn't work let me know. My offer still stands from the other thread.

OK, thanks. But if connecting another drive and cable instead also hangs the PC I have to think there's either a problem with the mobo's SATA1 port or the MBR.

 

[wirednuts]

its not your new drive, i would suspect. i bet if you just switched your ACHI mode it will work fine. youre probably in IDE compatible mode. or maybe youre in ACHI mode and it just wants to use IDE compatible. mind you, before you do that you need to change a reg setting in your os for it to fully boot the os, but at least its something you can try to see if that fixes it.

 

[Muse]

its not your new drive, i would suspect. i bet if you just switched your ACHI mode it will work fine. youre probably in IDE compatible mode. or maybe youre in ACHI mode and it just wants to use IDE compatible. mind you, before you do that you need to change a reg setting in your os for it to fully boot the os, but at least its something you can try to see if that fixes it.

I don't believe this mobo has ACHI, it's an old Gigabyte GA-K8n Pro motherboard Specs: http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/page/mb/ga-k8n_pro/

I did scour the BIOS after the hang (had to disconnect the data cable before I could do that). I didn't see an IDE compatibility mode, I pretty much looked at all the BIOS settings. There's an SATA mode selector, BASE or RAID, and I figured I want to just leave it in BASE. The SATA controller is Silicon Image siI3512, two connections, SATA0 and SATA1. It's pretty primitive. The board has tons of IDE support, scant SATA support.

Hell, if I can't get it to work I may just buy a new motherboard. I've been looking, haven't decided. I have some issues with this one besides this possible one with the burner on SATA. It's my HTPC (I do other stuff with it too), HDTV, for the most part. It works but has some annoying HDTV playback (MyHD MDP-130) issues I think would be done away with if I get another motherboard (fingers crossed). I need at least a couple of PCI slots, preferably more. The one I have has 5.

BTW, I'm booting off an IDE HD right now.

 

[Muse]

OK, so the replacement drive comes today and I swap it for the other one and the same thing happens.

So, I do the obvious thing and swap the SATA cable for the other one that came with the mobo. Same thing happens again. I tried to boot 3 times. But the 2nd time I got an additional message right after Verifying DMI pool data... That message was this (and it hung there):

DISK BOOT FAILURE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

I switched off power to the machine, switched it back on and started the POST and it hung at Verifying DMI pool data... and stayed there, the way it did every other time. Well, I don't know what to make of the 2nd message, but it didn't happen the next time. I removed the data cable and the system again boots fine.

So, I suppose the next thing to do is fix the MBR? Or try to. How do I go about doing that? Or is there another test I can do? Or should I just chuck the mobo and buy another? I'm in the market for one, TBH. However, meantime it would be nice to have a functioning DVD burner in this system.

so you aren't able to try a different cable without rerouting it? I would just unplug the suspect cable from the drive and mobo and leave it hanging there while I ran the new one over the top/easiest way possible just to see it worked.

If the new cable/drive doesn't work, I am suspecting your MBR (Master Boot Record) could be corrupted. Not too hard to fix.

Please help!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is the HDD plugged into the other SATA port? Can you unplug the HDD data cable, and leave the DVD connected, and select the DVD in your boot order, and try booting off of a Memtest86+ or a Linux liveCD bootable CD/DVD distro?

 

[Muse]

Is the HDD plugged into the other SATA port? Can you unplug the HDD data cable, and leave the DVD connected, and select the DVD in your boot order, and try booting off of a Memtest86+ or a Linux liveCD bootable CD/DVD distro?

The boot drive is IDE. There is a 500GB SATA HD on SATA0, but there's no bootable partition on it, it's just one big data partition. I suppose I could swap them, make the SATA0 the burner, make the HD the SATA1. Would that be a sensible test? My guess would be that the burner would work, the HD wouldn't work, but the only way to find out is to do that test. But does it make sense to do that test?

Optical drive is already selected as first boot option in the BIOS. I have various bootable CDs, Ghost 2003, among them, Windows installation disks, etc., memtest86+ too.

 

[Smoove910]

So the first thing I would do is take the DVD drive completely out, then see if computer boots. If it boots, it's not the MBR.

If you still get the Verifying Pool Data error, then you can try rebuilding the MBR.

Here's a link with step-by-step process:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104341-bootmgr-missing-fix.html

 

[Muse]

So the first thing I would do is take the DVD drive completely out, then see if computer boots. If it boots, it's not the MBR.

If you still get the Verifying Pool Data error, then you can try rebuilding the MBR.

Here's a link with step-by-step process:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104341-bootmgr-missing-fix.html

Read post #11, the one I made at 3:53PM today Pacific time. Disconnecting the data cable from the DVD drive stops the hangs, it boots OK. So, it's not the MBR? What can it be? Something wrong with the motherboard? Just that one SATA connection? Never heard of that, but I suppose it's entirely possible.

What about swapping the positions of the two SATA devices? The 500GB SATA HD is on SATA0, the DVD drive is on SATA1. The system hangs at POST. What if I put the HD on SATA1 and the DVD burner on SATA0? Is it possible they'll both work? Is there any danger of harming the HD doing that test, or something else? It's the only thing I can think of other than getting an IDE DVD burner, a USB one, or another motherboard.

 

[Engineer]

Read post #11, the one I made at 3:53PM today Pacific time. Disconnecting the data cable from the DVD drive stops the hangs, it boots OK. So, it's not the MBR? What can it be? Something wrong with the motherboard? Just that one SATA connection? Never heard of that, but I suppose it's entirely possible.

What about swapping the positions of the two SATA devices? The 500GB SATA HD is on SATA0, the DVD drive is on SATA1. The system hangs at POST. What if I put the HD on SATA1 and the DVD burner on SATA0? Is it possible they'll both work? Is there any danger of harming the HD doing that test, or something else? It's the only thing I can think of other than getting an IDE DVD burner, a USB one, or another motherboard.

There should be no danger of swapping the burner and the HDD, and yes, it's possible that both will work.

 

[Muse]

There should be no danger of swapping the burner and the HDD, and yes, it's possible that both will work.

Ah, just saw this, but I just did go ahead with that experiment:

Swapping the cables (the one that was going to HD, I put to the DVD burner and vice versa) I got the same Verifying DMI pool data... hang. So, I disconnect the HD, just the DVD burner on SATA0, where the HD was happy. Still get the same hang!

So, don't know why but this motherboard/SATA controller (Silicon Image siI3512) don't seem to like this burner. :hmm: Argh. Any thoughts?

Edit: Having had issues when I used the SATA HD for data using my HDTV PCI card in the machine, I did (some time ago) look for updated driver for the controller, so I don't believe I'm going to find one that fixes this problem. My workaround for the crashes I was experiencing not infrequently was to use a USB external HD for that data. A guru on the support thread for that HDTV card at AVS Forums ventured the opinion that the controller was at fault for my problems and eventually I decided he was correct. On my shopping list is a new motherboard (and of course, I'll need a CPU, memory, likely a PCI Express graphics card), I have a few motherboard candidates on my list.

 

[Muse]

So, check this out.. once Windows XP SP3 is booted, I can hot plug the DVD burner and it appears and is evidently working. :\ Device manager says it's working properly. I figure I can't POST with the data cable attached, however. This will never fly.

 

[Smoove910]

Whoops, sorry, didn't see your post on #11.

So I would have to agree with it being your Chipset... what driver do you have loaded for it? I would try downloading from Silicon Image if you haven't done so already and see if it changes anything:

http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=29&cat=3

If you've tried the Silicon Image driver, maybe the driver from Gigabytes website would do the trick (scroll down to the last entry for SATA RAID/AHCI):

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=1700#dl

 

[Muse]

Whoops, sorry, didn't see your post on #11.

So I would have to agree with it being your Chipset... what driver do you have loaded for it? I would try downloading from Silicon Image if you haven't done so already and see if it changes anything:

http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=29&cat=3

If you've tried the Silicon Image driver, maybe the driver from Gigabytes website would do the trick (scroll down to the last entry for SATA RAID/AHCI):

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=1700#dl

Ah, well, I went that route when I tried to solve the lockups I was getting when writing data to the SATA HD when using my HDTV card's timeshifting application. However, I'll give it another stab.

Edit: I downloaded all 4 SATA drivers for Windows XP from the Gigabyte link you gave for the motherboard. Will see if I can do something with them. I tried one last ditch thing before shutting down the machine for the night (I'm on a laptop right now). I changed the SATA mode in the BIOS from BASE to RAID, figured WTH, I'll try anything at this point. When Windows booted it said I had a new device and it wanted me to install a driver. I looked high and low and couldn't find a disk, didn't think of downloading it. But I imagine I have it now. However, I don't think RAID is going to help. I think I likely have the lates driver for the controller already on there, but I'll give it a shot tomorrow. In the past I have gone to Silicon Image's page for the board and tried to get a better driver for the SATA controller, but didn't succeed in getting anything that solved the problem I was having. It's been a while. Will give that another look if what I just downloaded is no help. Thanks for the help.

Edit2: Silicon Image isn't a lot of help. The page you link has this message, which I've seen before:
- -
End-Users: Silicon Image does NOT support End-Users directly. Silicon Image designs and develops chips for manufacturers. These manufacturers develop their own drivers, firmware and software for their boards. Silicon Image does not have information or access to the Drivers, Software or boards that these manufacturers create and sell. We typically assist these manufacturers when they have problems with our chips. End-Users should contact product manufacturer of the board for technical support.
- -
That's the problem. The drivers they have there are for their PCI cards with SATA ports. They assist MB manufacturers in developing drivers for SATA ports on the boards, but leave it to them. Gigabyte's driver didn't help me. I doubt they've done anything with it. I'll give it another try tomorrow. Maybe there's an alternate one I can try. I'll even try a legacy driver if I can find it, maybe it will solve the problem.

 

[Engineer]

Muse, have you looked to see if there is a BIOS update for your board?

 

[Smoove910]

Edit2: Silicon Image isn't a lot of help. The page you link has this message, which I've seen before:
- -
End-Users: Silicon Image does NOT support End-Users directly. Silicon Image designs and develops chips for manufacturers. These manufacturers develop their own drivers, firmware and software for their boards. Silicon Image does not have information or access to the Drivers, Software or boards that these manufacturers create and sell. We typically assist these manufacturers when they have problems with our chips. End-Users should contact product manufacturer of the board for technical support.
- -
That's the problem. The drivers they have there are for their PCI cards with SATA ports. They assist MB manufacturers in developing drivers for SATA ports on the boards, but leave it to them. Gigabyte's driver didn't help me. I doubt they've done anything with it. I'll give it another try tomorrow. Maybe there's an alternate one I can try. I'll even try a legacy driver if I can find it, maybe it will solve the problem.

The reason I added that link is because of it specifically saying what you said "does NOT support End-Users directly", but this doesn't mean the drivers won't work. Reason I believe that is because years ago I had an old Asus A7N8X motherboard which had a finicky (NForce2) Silicon Image (3112?) chip on it. I could never get it to run correctly with the Asus drivers, but was able to get it to run perfectly with the Silicon Image driver. Felt it was worth a try.

After looking a little more at the Silicon Image website and with driver 1.3.68.2 it states this:
Use this driver with the latest BASE BIOS to access non-RAID hard disk drives, CD-ROMs, CDRWs, DVD-ROMs, and DVD-RWs. Latest SiI3512 BIOS: 4.5.02 ro SiI3112 BIOS 4.4.02. This driver does NOT support Windows Vista 64-bit.

Now I'm not really sure what BASE BIOS, but I felt pretty confident that it does support DVD-ROM's. I could be going down the wrong path here though. Figured it would be easy to download, then go to your chipset in the Device Manager and update the driver by pointing to the location where this file is. Otherwise, I would try Engineer's suggestion with updating to the latest BIOS...

 

[Muse]

Muse, have you looked to see if there is a BIOS update for your board?

The very last BIOS is F14, and I've run it from the beginning because, according to Gigabyte, it's the only one recommended for my CPU, the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754, FSB1600, E6, Venice, 90nm, L2-512KB). Which gives me an idea. Gigabyte's notes (Gigabyte BIOS info for my motherboard) has as "description" for the F14 BIOS "Update DMI information." Hell, I could try one of the previous BIOS versions. Dumb idea, probably. :|

 

[Muse]

The reason I added that link is because of it specifically saying what you said "does NOT support End-Users directly", but this doesn't mean the drivers won't work. Reason I believe that is because years ago I had an old Asus A7N8X motherboard which had a finicky (NForce2) Silicon Image (3112?) chip on it. I could never get it to run correctly with the Asus drivers, but was able to get it to run perfectly with the Silicon Image driver. Felt it was worth a try.

After looking a little more at the Silicon Image website and with driver 1.3.68.2 it states this:
Use this driver with the latest BASE BIOS to access non-RAID hard disk drives, CD-ROMs, CDRWs, DVD-ROMs, and DVD-RWs. Latest SiI3512 BIOS: 4.5.02 ro SiI3112 BIOS 4.4.02. This driver does NOT support Windows Vista 64-bit.

Now I'm not really sure what BASE BIOS, but I felt pretty confident that it does support DVD-ROM's. I could be going down the wrong path here though. Figured it would be easy to download, then go to your chipset in the Device Manager and update the driver by pointing to the location where this file is. Otherwise, I would try Engineer's suggestion with updating to the latest BIOS...

Ah, OK, I don't know that I ever tried using their card specific SATA drivers after reading their admonitions concerning motherboard based drivers being the responsibility of the motherboard manufacturers. I will try that route today and see if it gives a solution.

Yeah, I just double checked and F14 (my current motherboard BIOS) is still the latest.

Hey, I'm wondering here: What would the SATA BIOS have to do with not passing the POST? Isn't the SATA BIOS specific to how Windows deals with SATA devices as handled by the SI3512 controller? The failure to pass POST I'd think is specific to the motherboard BIOS, right? Uh, like I said, the DVD burner appears to function when I hot plug it with Windows XP booted, just doesn't pass POST.

 

[Muse]

Hey, I'm wondering here: What would the SATA BIOS have to do with not passing the POST? Isn't the SATA BIOS specific to how Windows deals with SATA devices as handled by the SI3512 controller? The failure to pass POST I'd think is specific to the motherboard BIOS, right? Uh, like I said, the DVD burner appears to function when I hot plug it with Windows XP booted, just doesn't pass POST.

I'm hoping to get feedback on the above.

While that's pending, I have a mind to try a couple of other things:

1. Reset BIOS settings to default, see if that fixes it.

2. Clear CMOS either with setting a jumper or removing the battery for a few minutes.

If none of all these things works (including the driver changes) I will see if I can get that DVD drive from bbhaag offered in post #6. I figure there's at least a fair chance it will work in the system. :\