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

[Muse]

Did you get a chance to read my posts above?

No, I missed the last one (quoted below in this post), answered the ones before. So, what exactly can I try? Thanks a ton for helping me with this. I was writing up a critique for the drive at Amazon, but I'll refrain from posting it. I may be out for 3 hours pretty soon, will be back later this afternoon.

OK, when looking at the board, it appears to have a Silicon Image SiI3512 serial ATA controller. It is enabled since you are using the SATA DVD drive. But it is probably also taking control of the boot process. I need time at work to research this, but I believe it is failing to boot because the SI has never been used when booting in the past, since sounds like your first SATA drive on it.

I am thinking the MBR needs to be updated so that it can see this 'new' controller.

The SATA controller has never been booted to, except for the insertion of the Windows XP setup disk into the burner this morning. There's never been a bootable partition on the SATA HD. What do you mean by "sounds like your first SATA drive on it?" Should I restore the MBR at this point? Not sure I've ever done that, I think it's real simple to do though, right?

Edit: Does it matter which SATA device is on which connector? I had the HD on SATA0 originally. Now it's on SATA1 and the burner is on SATA0. In the IDE days, the more demanding devices were usually placed on the first IDE connection (master) and the less demanding ones were slave. Is it like that with SATA? Is the position of the devices possibly significant here?

 

[Ketchup]

No, I missed that. So, what exactly can I try. Thanks a ton for helping me with this. I was writing up a critique for the drive at Amazon, but I'll refrain from posting it. I may be out for 3 hours pretty soon, will be back later this afternoon.

NM, just saw your update.

 

[tcsenter]

Flashed OK, but the behavior is the same.

If you wanna give it one more try, I think I may have made a mistake on the last BIOS mod. Read some tips that say its better to use identical filename of the option ROM that was in the original BIOS. The original option ROM filename was 4374.bin and I inserted 4384.bin.

I'll create a new one in a few hours, can't do it right now, but check back later if you want to give it once more go.

 

[Ketchup]

If you wanna give it one more try, I think I may have made a mistake on the last BIOS mod. Read some tips that say its better to use identical filename of the option ROM that was in the original BIOS. The original option ROM filename was 4374.bin and I inserted 4384.bin.

I'll create a new one in a few hours, can't do it right now, but check back later if you want to give it once more go.

If you want to try something before this occurs, try rebuilding the MBR with instructions found here:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/repairmbr.htm

 

[Muse]

If you wanna give it one more try, I think I may have made a mistake on the last BIOS mod. Read some tips that say its better to use identical filename of the option ROM that was in the original BIOS. The original option ROM filename was 4374.bin and I inserted 4384.bin.

I'll create a new one in a few hours, can't do it right now, but check back later if you want to give it once more go.

Absolutely! Meantime I'm going to rebuild the MBR. Thanks!

 

[tcsenter]

OK, uploaded to same URL. Give it a whirl.

 

[Muse]

OK, uploaded to same URL. Give it a whirl.

Well, the behavior is different. Instead of hanging at

Verifying DMI pool data...

it goes to this message:

A disk read error occurred
Press ctrl+alt+del to restart

This although there are no disks in the DVD burner or in the floppy disk. At the time the boot order was floppy/CD/HD. I changed it to CD/HD/floppy (what I had last week, etc.), and the same thing happened. So, I unplugged the data cable from the DVD burner, otherwise there's still no way I can boot the machine.

I guess the last thing to try is to fix the MBR. The WinXP setup disks I have, well, one turned out to be unreadable, the other somehow doesn't offer the Recovery Console! I see some stuff online about fixing the MBR without setup disks, and I found a site that offered mbrfix.exe. It appears to be usable but not for the unsophisticated. The site gave me a command that presumably will do the trick: mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr

I think I'm supposed to put this on a bootable floppy and run that at the command prompt (I can't imagine any other way to use it), but an Anandtech thread I found by searching had a guy who said when he tried this and got a message that it couldn't run from DOS! Hey, I don't know. Anyway, I didn't save that URL but the URL of the page where I got the utility is this:

http://www.ambience.sk/fdisk-master-boot-record-windows-linux-lilo-fixmbr.php

I'll give that a try, figure it's not likely to screw things up, but who knows?

 

[Muse]

I guess the last thing to try is to fix the MBR. The WinXP setup disks I have, well, one turned out to be unreadable, the other somehow doesn't offer the Recovery Console! I see some stuff online about fixing the MBR without setup disks, and I found a site that offered mbrfix.exe. It appears to be usable but not for the unsophisticated. The site gave me a command that presumably will do the trick: mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr

I think I'm supposed to put this on a bootable floppy and run that at the command prompt (I can't imagine any other way to use it), but an Anandtech thread I found by searching had a guy who said when he tried this and got a message that it couldn't run from DOS! Hey, I don't know. Anyway, I didn't save that URL but the URL of the page where I got the utility is this:

http://www.ambience.sk/fdisk-master-boot-record-windows-linux-lilo-fixmbr.php

I'll give that a try, figure it's not likely to screw things up, but who knows?

Yup, I ran the command from a DOS prompt I got from a bootable floppy and got: This program cannot be run in DOS mode

Well, I'll try from the run command in Windows, running from the .exe from the floppy drive ...

It goes: You are about to fix MBR, are you sure? Y/N hehehe

So, I go Y and the window disappears. Hmm.

 

[Muse]

Yup, I ran the command from a DOS prompt I got from a bootable floppy and got: This program cannot be run in DOS mode

Well, I'll try from the run command in Windows, running from the .exe from the floppy drive ...

It goes: You are about to fix MBR, are you sure? Y/N hehehe

So, I go Y and the window disappears. Hmm.

I get the same behavior, message about the read error and have to unplug the burner and reboot. I have no idea if that utility did anything to my MBR. Well, I'm at wit's end. I figure I will get along with bbhaag's burner, keep one of the Lite-on burners and put it in my system when I get another motherboard.

I wonder if I should keep your modded BIOS in there, tcsenter.

 

[Engineer]

I don't know how to apply this but I wonder if you can update the firmware of this drive (seems to be 12/12/12 version):

http://www.firmwarehq.com/Lite-On/iHAS124+C/files.html

How to check firmware...

http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=288&Itemid=67

How to update? I have no idea nor do I know what the changes of these firmwares are.

 

[Muse]

I don't know how to apply this but I wonder if you can update the firmware of this drive (seems to be 12/12/12 version):

http://www.firmwarehq.com/Lite-On/iHAS124+C/files.html

How to check firmware...

http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=288&Itemid=67

How to update? I have no idea nor do I know what the changes of these firmwares are.

Hey, it's an idea, thanks. I updated the firmware IIRC on one of my old optical drives way back when, maybe my Pioneer (?) DVD ROM.

I'll check out a possible FW upgrade for the burner. It's apt to improve something!

Edit: Just downloaded it. It's an EXE file. Have to find out how to apply the update. Undoubtedly there's a way, I'll figure it out... not tonight, tomorrow!

 

[tcsenter]

I wonder if I should keep your modded BIOS in there, tcsenter.

Hmmmm....I'd try to flash back to the original. Remember to use the flash utility from my download, since Gigabyte included the wrong one. I'm wondering if the BIOS and MBR is just a wild goose chase and you have a failing component somewhere that is causing all of this. i.e. the hard drive?

 

[Smoove910]

Hmmmm....I'd try to flash back to the original. Remember to use the flash utility from my download, since Gigabyte included the wrong one. I'm wondering if the BIOS and MBR is just a wild goose chase and you have a failing component somewhere that is causing all of this. i.e. the hard drive?

If this was the case, why would it act normal when he unplugs the dvd rom and boots?

 

[tcsenter]

If this was the case, why would it act normal when he unplugs the dvd rom and boots?

Well it doesn't, anymore!

 

[Ketchup]

Muse, sorry that didn't work for you. Is the hard drive spinning up when the burner is plugged in?

 

[Muse]

Hmmmm....I'd try to flash back to the original. Remember to use the flash utility from my download, since Gigabyte included the wrong one. I'm wondering if the BIOS and MBR is just a wild goose chase and you have a failing component somewhere that is causing all of this. i.e. the hard drive?

OK, I figure with a PC sometimes you're barking up the wrong tree, yeah, chasing wild geese...

Alright, here's my thoughts on this:

1. I've tried two different SATA data cables, but they were both supplied with the mobo, so who knows, maybe since they are from the same batch, they're both bad in the same way. Plausible, but unlikely.

2. There are 5 HDs in the system:

120GB IDE (has three partitions, the first two bootable in Windows XP)
160GB IDE unbootable for data only
200GB IDE unbootable for data only
500GB SATA unbootable for data only, using the other SATA channel
2GB SATA in USB connected enclosure, unbootable for data only

Disk Management reports that they are all healthy, for what that's worth.

I'll try updating the firmware on the burner today, I figure that's possibly a solution.

If it's a problem with some failing component, well, I don't know what to try. I did try detaching the 500GB SATA drive on the other SATA channel, but that didn't allow the machine to boot with the burner attached. I could get a PCI SATA card, but you know, the easy answer to this tough problem is to use bbhaag's IDE burner for the time being and get another MB sometime in 2013, sooner or later. Happy New Year!

 

[Muse]

Muse, sorry that didn't work for you. Is the hard drive spinning up when the burner is plugged in?

Yes, the SATA HD on the other channel of the controller works, whether the burner is attached or not.

 

[Ketchup]

2. There are 5 HDs in the system:

120GB IDE (has three partitions, the first two bootable in Windows XP)
160GB IDE unbootable for data only
200GB IDE unbootable for data only
500GB SATA unbootable for data only, using the other SATA channel
2GB SATA in USB connected enclosure, unbootable for data only

Disk Management reports that they are all healthy, for what that's worth.

I'll try updating the firmware on the burner today, I figure that's possibly a solution.

If it's a problem with some failing component, well, I don't know what to try. I did try detaching the 500GB SATA drive on the other SATA channel, but that didn't allow the machine to boot with the burner attached. I could get a PCI SATA card, but you know, the easy answer to this tough problem is to use bbaagh's IDE burner for the time being and get another MB sometime in 2013, sooner or later. Happy New Year!

What kind of power are you running? That is a lot of hard drives.

 

[Muse]

What kind of power are you running? That is a lot of hard drives.

Corsair vx550w PSU

 

[Muse]

Hmmmm....I'd try to flash back to the original. Remember to use the flash utility from my download, since Gigabyte included the wrong one. I'm wondering if the BIOS and MBR is just a wild goose chase and you have a failing component somewhere that is causing all of this. i.e. the hard drive?

Well, I downloaded the FW update (12/12/12) for the burner, figured I'd run that EXE from Windows on the machine with the burner hot plugged. I discovered that with the latest BIOS, the burner doesn't show up when hot plugged! That was the clincher, and I just flashed the original F14 BIOS for the mainboard. I used the flash891.exe supplied by Gigabyte, it's entirely different from flash867.exe or the flash891.exe I used yesterday. Anyway, it successfully flashed and now I see the burner when hot plugged into Windows. I'll try to run LL0H.EXE, the new FW update for the burner. I figure it will either do it on the fly or extract some files.

Holy smokes! I ran LLOH.EXE and get this:

--------------------------------------------------------------
Error
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

X No Matched drive detected !
This utility is only for ATAPI iHAS124 C drive.

Detected drives :
1-0-0-0 L:ATAPI iHAS124 D 8L05

[ OK ]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Edit: So, I go look for a FW update for iHAS124 D and I find it and download it. But before running it I have a look at the other drive, the first one I got, which says it's version C. :\ I then look at the one in the machine and sure enough it says it's version C. Gotta do some research. It may not matter to me, but at Amazon some people are saying that different versions you might get have different capabilities. If you want to make xbox backups, for instance. I don't have an xbox. Hmm.

 

[Ketchup]

Question: when you boot the board, after the first POST screen, is there another one for the SI chip? and if so, does it give you an option to enter that BIOS?

 

[Muse]

Question: when you boot the board, after the first POST screen, is there another one for the SI chip? and if so, does it give you an option to enter that BIOS?

I see in the POST that the SATA controller is recognized and I see that the 500GB SATA drive is recognized. If the burner has the data cable on it, I see that right next to the SATA HD in the post. I don't have, to my knowledge, any access to the SATA BIOS.

 

[Muse]

The question right now is which one of these burners (if any) do I want to keep? One's revision C (manufactured April 2012) the other revision DU (manufactured September 2012). They are evidently significantly different drives. I'm researching at Amazon and Newegg, etc. BEFORE I flash either of them. Figure it's not wise, smart or maybe even ethical to flash a burner and then return it to Amazon. The one that people covet seems to be revision B, hard to come by now. Been reading reviews at Newegg, hard to find any info in those, but there are 1600 reviews there, so there must be something...

 

[Muse]

OMG, I decided before doing anything I would retest the hang at POST for both drives. I have the revision DU still in there and it actually booted. Don't know why, I'd just this morning reverted to the original F14 mobo BIOS. Gotta go for a while, but will come back and test with the other drive. I have NOT flashed either burner.

Edit: What I'm thinking is that the mbrfix.exe function coupled with reverting to the original F14 mobo BIOS is what did it. That's all I can think.

 

[Ketchup]

Edit: What I'm thinking is that the mbrfix.exe function coupled with reverting to the original F14 mobo BIOS is what did it. That's all I can think.

That is very possible. Glad it's working, let's hope it stays that way.