What does "Verifying DMI pool data" mean?

B

Bobby

I was installing a new hard disk in a family PC when my daughter
accidentally knocked over the PC and it crashed on its side.

Now when I try to boot I get to "Verifying DMI pool data..." and the PC
freezes.

I've tried messing about with the BIOS settings (including resetting to
standard settings) but the PC still hangs.

BTW prior to this problem the PC booted from CD OK but then died in the
middle of reading from the CD-ROM (screen goes blank and monitor light goes
amber). What causes the monitor to go blank and the light on the monitor to
go amber?

Cheers.

Bobby
 
B

bigbear

You likely could have a crashed hard disk at this point. I think the
monitor problem is due to no video signal being transmitted.

I would first try to open up the computer and remove all connectors and
boards and maybe clean things out if they are dirty and then plug everything
back in and see if the situation changes.
 
B

Bobby

I'm using an ATO board (9600 Pro).

Why would it suddenly turn amber (and monitor switch off) after it has been
loading Windows from the CD?

Bobby
 
B

Bobby

That should be "ATI card".

Bobby said:
I'm using an ATO board (9600 Pro).

Why would it suddenly turn amber (and monitor switch off) after it has
been loading Windows from the CD?

Bobby
Click to expand...
 
L

Lil' Dave

Unplug the PC from the wall. Remove all external cables except the AC
power, and keyboard. Open the PC, reseat all cards, reseat memory, reseat
all power connectors, ide/scsi/sata cables all connectors. Remove the cmos
battery, then reinsert it. If no success, remove all internal cards except
video card. Reseat the cmos battery again. If no success, swap the video
card with a known working video card. If no success, take to a PC repair
shop. You're down to RAM, motherboard, cpu, power supply. If your PC also
has onboard video, try connecting the display monitor to that.
 
C

Cyde Weys

Lil' Dave said:
Unplug the PC from the wall. Remove all external cables except the AC
power, and keyboard. Open the PC, reseat all cards, reseat memory, reseat
all power connectors, ide/scsi/sata cables all connectors. Remove the cmos
battery, then reinsert it. If no success, remove all internal cards except
video card. Reseat the cmos battery again. If no success, swap the video
card with a known working video card. If no success, take to a PC repair
shop. You're down to RAM, motherboard, cpu, power supply. If your PC also
has onboard video, try connecting the display monitor to that.
Click to expand...

There is a way to test the power supply ... take it out of the
computer, plug in a single optical or hard drive, short green to black
on the mobo connector with a paper clip, plug in the PSU, and turn it
on. If the fan starts running then you know at least the PSU isn't
totally dead.
 
L

Lil' Dave

Cyde Weys said:
There is a way to test the power supply ... take it out of the
computer, plug in a single optical or hard drive, short green to black
on the mobo connector with a paper clip, plug in the PSU, and turn it
on. If the fan starts running then you know at least the PSU isn't
totally dead.
Click to expand...

If the power supply was dead, there would be no response whatsoever. That
is not the case here. Read the OP.
 
B

Bobby

When the screen blanks and the monitor shows the amber light, the PC is
still powered so I don't think that it's the power supply.
 
L

Lil' Dave

Could be alot of things.
The DMI pool verification bounces the cmos configuration data against the
onboard configuration, and determines if its workable as well. This
configuration data is assembled when the PC goes through the bios routine.
The bios routine checks the onboard components including addons to the
motherboard like cards, and assembles the data.

Thats why I gave you a routine to follow on another reply to narrow it down,
and renew the configuration data by reseating the cmos battery.
 
G

Gary Hendricks

Hi Bobby

Oh dear - sad thing about the PC crashing over.

To explain the "Verifying DMI pool data", you need to understand that
DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface.

This is just a layer between the BIOS and your computer's components.
When the computer BIOS is "Verifying DMI pool data" it is simply
checking with that the table of data it sends to the operating system
is ok.

If this is unsuccessful it should have an error or a freeze in your
case. My suggested fix is to remove the hard drive, change it to a
different bay. Then try rebooting again.

It definitely sounds like a hard drive problem.

Best Regards,
Gary Hendricks
http://www.basic-digital-photography.com
 
B

Bobby

Thanks for the feedback Gary.

But it freezes with a brand new HD installed (the PC fell over with the old
drive in it).

Could it be my DVD drive?

Bobby
 
B

Bobby

Thanks for feedback. I will certainly try your procedure.

This also explains why I am having this problem after resetting the BIOS to
its "standard" settings. I thought that this might help but instead it
appeared to cause this boot problem.

But the monitor/dead PC problem was happening whenever I tried to re-install
Windows so there is something wrong with my PC.

Cheers.

Bobby
 
C

cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)

On 16 Oct 2005 03:34:36 -0700, "Gary Hendricks"
To explain the "Verifying DMI pool data", you need to understand that
DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface. When the computer
BIOS is "Verifying DMI pool data" it is simply checking with that the
table of data it sends to the operating system is ok.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is BIOS checking the PnP information stored in NVRAM,
sometimes referred to as ESCD or even NVRAM. But the problem is
usually not here, especially if you see no error.

More to the point, this message is usually the last that is displayed
by BIOS before an attempt is made to boot disk - a process that
displays no messages until IO.SYS (in the case of DOS or Win9x) loads
and shows "Starting...". XP loads NTLDR instead; I'm not sure whether
it is this or later code that is first to display signs of life.

So anything that fails between that message and successfully starting
IO.SYS or NTLDR will either display an error message from the
pre-file-system boot code, or (more typically) nothing at all - which
is why so much attention is mis-directed to "ESCD" and "DMI".

Causes for this "silent" failure to boot include:
- bad HD (HD LED on, clanking noises or silence)
- bad HD controller
- corrupted boot disk
- incorrectly-addressed boot hard drive
- failed detection of some other device, with no timeout
 
B

Bobby

Thanks for this helpful response.

It's a brand new HD so it has nothing on it.

But I have a (bootable) Windows XP Pro (SP1) CD in the drive and I want it
to boot from this drive (I have configured BIOS accordingly i.e.. CD as
second boot device) but it doesn't read CD - it just freezes at "Verifying
DMI...".

Bobby
 
C

cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)

On Sun said:
It's a brand new HD so it has nothing on it.
Click to expand...

OK. That suggests it doesn't have a valid MBR on it either; BIOS may
blunder into this and lock up, if it doesn't check for a 55AA
signature, or if for some reason a 55AA signature is present.
But I have a (bootable) Windows XP Pro (SP1) CD in the drive and I want it
to boot from this drive (I have configured BIOS accordingly i.e.. CD as
second boot device) but it doesn't read CD
Click to expand...

What is the first boot device?

Does the problem go away if the HD is disconnected?

Is the relationship between HD and CD correct, with respect to data
cable connections, IDE channels, and Master/Slave/(Single) jumpers?
 
B

Brian G

Bobby said:
Thanks for this helpful response.

It's a brand new HD so it has nothing on it.

But I have a (bootable) Windows XP Pro (SP1) CD in the drive and I
want it to boot from this drive (I have configured BIOS accordingly
i.e.. CD as second boot device) but it doesn't read CD - it just
freezes at "Verifying DMI...".

Bobby
Click to expand...

Dave,

I'm not an expert here but the statement "CD as second boot device" may give
a clue as the computer is looking to boot from an unformatted hard drive
first (presuming that the boot order is 1st boot - hard drive, 2nd boot -
CD-ROM.

Try changing the CD-ROM to 1st boot and see what happens.

Brian G
 
R

R. McCarty

Go to your Motherboard vendor site and locate the BIOS firmware
update listings. Check the latest versions # and compare with version
used on the motherboard. Most will have a history or Readme.Txt.
Read the update history and see if any BIOS updates address any
type of DMI update issue(s). If your existing BIOS firmware is say
3 or more down-level revisions, you might consider doing a upgrade.
I would also remove & reseat the Memory modules and the mouse
and Keyboard plugs.
 
R

Rock

Bobby said:
I was installing a new hard disk in a family PC when my daughter
accidentally knocked over the PC and it crashed on its side.

Now when I try to boot I get to "Verifying DMI pool data..." and the PC
freezes.

I've tried messing about with the BIOS settings (including resetting to
standard settings) but the PC still hangs.

BTW prior to this problem the PC booted from CD OK but then died in the
middle of reading from the CD-ROM (screen goes blank and monitor light goes
amber). What causes the monitor to go blank and the light on the monitor to
go amber?

Cheers.

Bobby
Click to expand...

Computer stops at verifying dmi pool data...:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm
 
G

Gary Hendricks

I still think it is hard disk related. Can you try switching in another
hard disk if you have one? If it works, it proves there's nothing wrong
with the motherboard.
 

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