Dodgy Boot up

[pensive hamster]

Windows XP SP3 with automatic updates turned on. Standard XP firewall.
Microsoft Security Essentials. I've run a full scan, no infections.

On booting up the computer, it gets to 'Verifying DMI Pool Data .....'
and then says:

'Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: Failure ...
Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press Enter'

So I put in the XP disk, press Enter, it loads up some files (which
seem to be mostly drivers), and then gives me three options: continue
setup of windows; do a repair install; or press F3 to quit setup
witout installing Widows XP. So I press F3, the computer then boots up
normally, and everything seems to work fine.

As far as I'm aware, the computer used to boot up from the hard disk,
not from the CD, which it now seems to want to. I have never been into
the bios or Setup to change anything. And I haven't installed any new
software or made any hardware changes recently.

My first guess is that the motherboard battery is getting old and
weak, and this has confused the bios. Any other suggestions, or things
to check?

With thanks.

 

[choro]

I'd suggest you check your BIOS settings first and if you think the
battery is getting weak just replace it. They don't cost a fortune, you
know! And while you are at it make sure you clear cmos as well and see
how it goes from there!

Or you could always try huffing and puffing and see if THAT works! ;-)

 

[Paul]

Windows XP SP3 with automatic updates turned on. Standard XP firewall.
Microsoft Security Essentials. I've run a full scan, no infections.

On booting up the computer, it gets to 'Verifying DMI Pool Data .....'
and then says:

'Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: Failure ...
Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press Enter'

So I put in the XP disk, press Enter, it loads up some files (which
seem to be mostly drivers), and then gives me three options: continue
setup of windows; do a repair install; or press F3 to quit setup
witout installing Widows XP. So I press F3, the computer then boots up
normally, and everything seems to work fine.

As far as I'm aware, the computer used to boot up from the hard disk,
not from the CD, which it now seems to want to. I have never been into
the bios or Setup to change anything. And I haven't installed any new
software or made any hardware changes recently.

My first guess is that the motherboard battery is getting old and
weak, and this has confused the bios. Any other suggestions, or things
to check?

With thanks.

Download the hard drive diagnostic software. Some versions come as
a test floppy, which you can boot. You need to check the brand
of hard drive, to be able to figure out what web site to
get the software from.

Example - Seatools for DOS, available for floppy or CD
The "DOS" part implies, the disc is self-booting.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=480bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

You want to run that diagnostic, to see if your hard drive
is healthy or not.

You can do a basic "existence" check in the BIOS. If the drive
is detected and the name string appears in the BIOS setup screen,
that's half the battle. If the drive can't read certain critical
data from the platters, it won't respond to probes, and will
appear dead. So your first hint of serious trouble, is "no drive
listed in the BIOS". Your second hint, is getting a serious failure
message from the diagnostic test software.

Hope you have backups...

In happier times, you can use HDTune and the SMART statistics tab,
to keep track of your drive. A non-zero "Current Pending" value,
is a hint of trouble to come. But this won't help you right now -
this is for when you have a working drive, and you want to
know whether it's getting grubby or not. Windows has to be working,
to run this.

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

Paul

 

[glee]

Windows XP SP3 with automatic updates turned on. Standard XP firewall.
Microsoft Security Essentials. I've run a full scan, no infections.

On booting up the computer, it gets to 'Verifying DMI Pool Data .....'
and then says:

'Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: Failure ...
Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press Enter'

So I put in the XP disk, press Enter, it loads up some files (which
seem to be mostly drivers), and then gives me three options: continue
setup of windows; do a repair install; or press F3 to quit setup
witout installing Widows XP. So I press F3, the computer then boots up
normally, and everything seems to work fine.

As far as I'm aware, the computer used to boot up from the hard disk,
not from the CD, which it now seems to want to. I have never been into
the bios or Setup to change anything. And I haven't installed any new
software or made any hardware changes recently.

My first guess is that the motherboard battery is getting old and
weak, and this has confused the bios. Any other suggestions, or things
to check?

How many physical hard drives are in the machine?
Are they PATA or SATA?
If more than one hard drive, do you have a RAID setup?
If a single SATA hard drive is in use, what SATA port is it connected to
on the motherboard?

Enter BIOS setup and ensure that the hard drive that you are trying to
boot from is the one selected in the boot device order.

 

[pensive hamster]

How many physical hard drives are in the machine?
Are they PATA or SATA?
If more than one hard drive, do you have a RAID setup?
If a single SATA hard drive is in use, what SATA port is it connected to
on the motherboard?

Enter BIOS setup and ensure that the hard drive that you are trying to
boot from is the one selected in the boot device order.

There is just one hard drive in the machine. Its a Western Digital 80
Gb, WDC WD800 BB 00JHC0. Its about 4 years old, though most of the
rest of the machine is about 8 years old. I think it is an IDE
connection. The motherboard manual says: 'Two PCI Master IDE ports
support up to 4 IDE devices. Support ATA 33/66/100.'

 

[glee]

There is just one hard drive in the machine. Its a Western Digital 80
Gb, WDC WD800 BB 00JHC0. Its about 4 years old, though most of the
rest of the machine is about 8 years old. I think it is an IDE
connection. The motherboard manual says: 'Two PCI Master IDE ports
support up to 4 IDE devices. Support ATA 33/66/100.'

Enter the BIOS Setup and check the boot order. Make sure the hard drive
is listed in the boot order, either as the first device, or the second
device with the CD drive as first device. Some systems will show the
actual model number of the boot hard drive when you look at the boot
order....if your does, make sure it is showing the drive you have.

 

[MyNews]

Name of Computer and Model we help if you know it?
Or Motherboard name and Model !

 

[MyNews]

WDC WD800 BB 00JHC0. is in 100 MHz bus speed!

I'm pretty sure that IS an IDE drive. I've got a WD400, and it is IDE.

I'm not sure if the 33/66/100 MHz bus speed thing also applies for SATA
drives. But I'm probably having a senior moment.


I've always wondered if it's better to have the boot order be 1) CD
followed by 2) HD, or vice versa. If it's vice versa (HD then CD),
doesn't that mean you would never boot up from the CD since the HD would
always boot the system (unless you first went to the bootup screen options
and in there selected boot from CD).

On second thought, maybe that's not such a bad idea, afterall. There may
be times when you forget you've got a bootable CD in the drive.

 

[dadiOH]

I've always wondered if it's better to have the boot order be 1) CD
followed by 2) HD, or vice versa. If it's vice versa (HD then CD),
doesn't that mean you would never boot up from the CD since the HD
would always boot the system (unless you first went to the bootup
screen options and in there selected boot from CD).

On second thought, maybe that's not such a bad idea, afterall. There may
be times when you forget you've got a bootable CD in the
drive.

In which case you'll soon know it

I use CD as first boot device so that I needn't change the BIOS on those
rare occasions when I want to boot a CD.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[MowGreen]

Windows XP SP3 with automatic updates turned on. Standard XP firewall.
Microsoft Security Essentials. I've run a full scan, no infections.

On booting up the computer, it gets to 'Verifying DMI Pool Data .....'
and then says:

'Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: Failure ...
Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press Enter'

So I put in the XP disk, press Enter, it loads up some files (which
seem to be mostly drivers), and then gives me three options: continue
setup of windows; do a repair install; or press F3 to quit setup
witout installing Widows XP. So I press F3, the computer then boots up
normally, and everything seems to work fine.

As far as I'm aware, the computer used to boot up from the hard disk,
not from the CD, which it now seems to want to. I have never been into
the bios or Setup to change anything. And I haven't installed any new
software or made any hardware changes recently.

My first guess is that the motherboard battery is getting old and
weak, and this has confused the bios. Any other suggestions, or things
to check?

With thanks.

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

" Cause:

This issue can be caused by any of the below reasons.

1. Corrupt boot files on the computer.
2. Settings for hard disk drive are not correct.
3. Floppy diskette or CD in computer causing issue.
4. Boot devices not set properly.
5. BIOS corrupt or misc. setting not set properly.
6. Connections loose or disconnected.
7. Bad Hard disk drive or other bad hardware. "

And, add bad capacitors and the TDSS rootkit to the above list.

Running Kaspersky's TDSSKiller will do no harm IF the rootkit is not
present. Be forewarned though ... on *rare occassions, the rootkits
removal can cause the system to be rendered unbootable as it may be
masquerading as atapi.sys.

How to remove malware belonging to the family Rootkit.Win32.TDSS (aka
Tidserv, TDSServ, Alureon)?
http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684


MowGreen
================
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
================

"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked

 

[MyNews]

I would go with D:> 7. Bad Hard disk drive or other bad hardware. "

 

[Tester]

You have received excellent replies to your problem but if none of them
works then I suggest reformat the HD and start all over again. This
would only work if your HD is not completely kaput. Re-installation of
XP gives you a fresh start and also it gives you another way to tell you
whether or not any of your hardware stuff is broken.

You never know, reformat of HD and re-installation of OS will solve your
problem or let you know that there is no point in wasting anymore time
on this clunker!

Merry Christmas.

hth

 

[pensive hamster]

Download the hard drive diagnostic software. Some versions come as
a test floppy, which you can boot. You need to check the brand
of hard drive, to be able to figure out what web site to
get the software from.

Example - Seatools for DOS, available for floppy or CD
           The "DOS" part implies, the disc is self-booting.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=seatooldreg&v....

You want to run that diagnostic, to see if your hard drive
is healthy or not.

You can do a basic "existence" check in the BIOS. If the drive
is detected and the name string appears in the BIOS setup screen,
that's half the battle. If the drive can't read certain critical
data from the platters, it won't respond to probes, and will
appear dead. So your first hint of serious trouble, is "no drive
listed in the BIOS". Your second hint, is getting a serious failure
message from the diagnostic test software.

Hope you have backups...

In happier times, you can use HDTune and the SMART statistics tab,
to keep track of your drive. A non-zero "Current Pending" value,
is a hint of trouble to come. But this won't help you right now -
this is for when you have a working drive, and you want to
know whether it's getting grubby or not. Windows has to be working,
to run this.

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

    Paul

I went to the Western Digital website, as you suggested, found my
model of HDD, and downloaded their 'Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for
Windows'. They offer versions for DOS (CD) and DOS (Floppy) as well.
It says:

'... The Quick Test can determine with a high level of confidence that
a drive is defect-free in a short amount of time. For maximum
confidence, the Extended Test is recommended. ... For most computers
the DLGDIAG Extended Test takes 30 minutes to hours to test one
drive. ...'

So I just ran the Quick Test for now, it passed - ten or so aspects
tested, all with a green tick. So that's good news so far, I may run
the Extended Test later, just to be more confident.

I do have backups on CDR, well, most of my important personal data
anyway ...

I also downloaded HDTune, but I haven't run that yet. I think my next
step is to think about the Floppy Drive issue - see my other post in
reply to glee/Glen Ventura

Thanks for your help, I will post on any further developments.

 

[pensive hamster]

Enter the BIOS Setup and check the boot order.  Make sure the hard drive
is listed in the boot order, either as the first device, or the second
device with the CD drive as first device.  Some systems will show the
actual model number of the boot hard drive when you look at the boot
order....if your does, make sure it is showing the drive you have.

I went into the BIOS Setup. It correctly identifies the make and
model of hard drive in its hardware listing, but only says HDD in the
boot order. But there is only one HDD in the machine, so that should
be OK.

The boot order is: 1. Floppy; 2. HDD; 3. CD. However ...

The floppy drive doesn't work, never has. This is an oldish computer
given to me by a friend. His kids had broken the CD player, so he took
out the HDD, which had his data and accounts on it, and gave the rest
to me. I think he just wanted an excuse to get a new computer, really.

So I bought a new HDD and CD/DVD writer, fitted them, and installed
XP. I put a partition in the HDD for my data, but both the C drve and
the E drive still have plenty of free space (the CD grabbed D).
Everything seemed to work fine, except for the floppy drive. But
floppies aren't much used nowadays, so I wasn't really bothered.

I did buy and fit a new floppy drive, but that doesn't work either. I
wondered if my friend might have damaged something when he took out
the original HDD, but I've had a close look and can't see any signs of
physical damage. He says the floppy drive used to work fine when he
had the machine. Device manager says 'This device [floppy drive] is
working properly.' The little green light on the front of the floppy
drive is constantly on, even when there is no disk in it, so that's a
bad sign. It will accept disks OK, but won't read them. It just keeps
saying 'Please insert disk in drive A', even when I just have. So I am
a bit flummoxed what to do about the floppy drive.

The machine has booted fine for the last 4 years, despite the non-
functioning floppy. The problem outlined in my original post has only
just started. Currently I just leave the XP disk in the CD, and when
booting up the machine hesitates briefly when it gets to 'Verifying
DMI Pool Data .....' and then continues to boot normally.

I'm thinking my next step is probably to run a full Extended
diagnosticTest on the HDD, if it passes that, try moving the Floppy to
3 in the boot order. But the post from MowGreen below about 'See -
Computer stops at verifying dmi pool data http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm
has given me a couple of things to think about as well.

Thanks, and Seasons Greetings to all who have responded.

 

[pensive hamster]

Name of Computer and Model we help if you know it?
Or  Motherboard name and Model !

It just says SCL on the front of the computer. I can't find them on
the Web, I guess they are/were a small shop here in the UK, one step
up from a home builder. There is an OEM sticker and code on the top of
the computer, so I think they are legit.

The motherboard is a QDI PlatiniX 2.

Merry Christmas!

[...]

 

[glee]

Enter the BIOS Setup and check the boot order. Make sure the hard
drive
is listed in the boot order, either as the first device, or the
second
device with the CD drive as first device. Some systems will show the
actual model number of the boot hard drive when you look at the boot
order....if your does, make sure it is showing the drive you have.

I went into the BIOS Setup. It correctly identifies the make and
model of hard drive in its hardware listing, but only says HDD in the
boot order. But there is only one HDD in the machine, so that should
be OK.

The boot order is: 1. Floppy; 2. HDD; 3. CD. However ...

The floppy drive doesn't work, never has. This is an oldish computer
given to me by a friend. His kids had broken the CD player, so he took
out the HDD, which had his data and accounts on it, and gave the rest
to me. I think he just wanted an excuse to get a new computer, really.

So I bought a new HDD and CD/DVD writer, fitted them, and installed
XP. I put a partition in the HDD for my data, but both the C drve and
the E drive still have plenty of free space (the CD grabbed D).
Everything seemed to work fine, except for the floppy drive. But
floppies aren't much used nowadays, so I wasn't really bothered.

I did buy and fit a new floppy drive, but that doesn't work either. I
wondered if my friend might have damaged something when he took out
the original HDD, but I've had a close look and can't see any signs of
physical damage. He says the floppy drive used to work fine when he
had the machine. Device manager says 'This device [floppy drive] is
working properly.' The little green light on the front of the floppy
drive is constantly on, even when there is no disk in it, so that's a
bad sign. It will accept disks OK, but won't read them. It just keeps
saying 'Please insert disk in drive A', even when I just have. So I am
a bit flummoxed what to do about the floppy drive.

The machine has booted fine for the last 4 years, despite the non-
functioning floppy. The problem outlined in my original post has only
just started. Currently I just leave the XP disk in the CD, and when
booting up the machine hesitates briefly when it gets to 'Verifying
DMI Pool Data .....' and then continues to boot normally.

I'm thinking my next step is probably to run a full Extended
diagnosticTest on the HDD, if it passes that, try moving the Floppy to
3 in the boot order. But the post from MowGreen below about 'See -
Computer stops at verifying dmi pool data
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm
has given me a couple of things to think about as well.

When the green light is continually lit on the floppy drive, it almost
always means the data cable (the flat ribbon cable) to the floppy drive
is oriented wrong. Usually means the cable is inserted upside down into
the floppy drive. The cable could also be installed backwards....the
drive end mistakenly connected to the motherboard and the motherboard
end inserted into the drive.

The floppy data cable has a split in it at one end, and the split end
goes to the drive. Generally, the red stripe on the cable edge for the
#1 pin, will be furthest away from the power connector on the back of
the drive (but not always). Some older floppy cables have three
connectors...one for the motherboard and two for floppy drives. In a
system with one floppy drive (which would be A, the end connector is
used on a 3-connector cable.

Floppy cable:
http://www.nullmodem.com/Floppy.htm

Occasionally a bad floppy drive or cable will cause the light to stay
on.

If you are not going to use the floppy drive at all, disconnect the
power cable and remove the data cable, disable the floppy drive in the
BIOS setup, and remove the floppy drive from the boot order altogether.

 

[Jose]

Name of Computer and Model we help if you know it?
Or  Motherboard name and Model !

It just says SCL on the front of the computer. I can't find them on
the Web, I guess they are/were a small shop here in the UK, one step
up from a home builder. There is an OEM sticker and code on the top of
the computer, so I think they are legit.

The motherboard is a QDI PlatiniX 2.

Merry Christmas!

[...]

Here is a way to relay a good deal of your system information with
just a few keystrokes and mouse clicks:

Please provide additional information about your system:

Click Start, Run and in the box enter:

msinfo32

Click OK, and when the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select
All, Copy and then paste the information back here.

For video driver information, expand the Components, click Display,
click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information back here.

For audio driver information, expand the Components, click Sound
Device, click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information
back here.

There will be some personal information (like System Name and User
Name), and whatever appears to be private information to you, just
delete it from the pasted information.

This will minimize back and forth Q&A and eliminate guesswork.