win 95 lockup- Verifying DMI pool data

[MARR]

More often than not when I star my pc it locks up as the bottom of the screen says
"Verifyngs DMI Pool Data" and at times when the start up screen shows. Any ideas, anyone.-
Thanks.

[Robert]

Try to boot up from the StartUp floppy and then from the A:> prompt type in SYS C: and then enter ..pull out the floppy and Reboot with the Ctlr|Alt|Del

[ANTONIO E GUERRA]

In addition, check the boot sequence in your bios. Verify the motherboard is detecting your hard drive.

[eicken]

I had a customer with the same problem. The HDD was going bad.

[MARR]

I have checked the bios and it does recognize my hard and by the way the hard drive is new, about two months old.I also did keep my old hard drive on the pc and changed the jumpers to slave ( both drives are maxtor ). I don't understand what booting from my floppy and typing sys c: and then rebooting does.

[gerbz]

sounds like a bad mobo to me.

[Bleeding Edge]

You don't by chance have two copies of the operating system on the drives do you?

It's not quite clear to us if the new hard drive is the Master and the Slave, as the old hard, has the OS on it?

What?

[Nathan]

It's been my experience that if you get that error message (Desktop Management Interface), I believe it's the msdos.sys file that's corrupted. Using the Boot disk from the A prompt, Sys c: will repair it. Unless the boot sector or part of the hard drive that file is on is damaged.

[MARR]

The new drive is the only one that has win95 and it's jumpers are set so it's the master drive, the old drive I changed the jumpers so it's the slave drive now and I also formated it and only use it for storge.

[Bleeding Edge]

Are you using some program/utility that enhances the Desktop? The Desktop Management Interface could be incompatible or poorly written.

[MARR]

Nope, nothing extra to the desktop, program or utility. Just the normal,a few programs, my broswer and some games, and thats about it.

[Bleeding Edge]

Hmm..

Can you just check to be certain.
Start/Run
Type: msconfig
On the Startup tab,
check for DMIStart or something similar.

[MARR]

I tried runing "msconfig" and got an error can't find file.

[Bleeding Edge]

Shoot. I just noticed that your running Win95. That version of Windows doesn't have Msconfig, I guess. Can't remember.

You might be able to check the system.ini and win.ini files for it.

Since this is a DMI error, you must have a some sort network set up. Yes, no?

[MARR]

Nope, no network or anything like it. Just the modem.

[Nathan]

There are a lot of things I don't understand about these PC's Marr. And I've worked on a few of them in my life. Now if you don't want to do what we suggest, that's fine. But I will mention that are a lot of things I do with these PC's everyday that I don't understand why it's like that. But I do it anyway. Why? Because it works.

Robert is an excellent tech. Like some of the others here. If he suggests it, I would follow it to the letter.

[This message has been edited by Nathan (edited 04-07-99).]

[MARR]

Well Thanks to everyone for your help.
I do apreciate it.
MARR

[Nathan]

So what happened? Is it fixed? If so, what fixed it?

[Bleeding Edge]

Although a shame, it seems we have to be more farsighted with which posts we choose to reply to. We probably let some people who would otherwise appreciate a token of help slip thru -unanswered.

[MARR]

Thanks a lot Edge, I do apreciate your time
with my problem.
P.S. since the problem I'll just live with it.

[This message has been edited by MARR (edited 04-08-99).]

[Nathan]

It's frustrating to say the least. We try to help and they don't show us a little respect and tell us if the problem is solved or not. And if solved, what did it. We get all kinds on the net, don't we B.E.? And then sometimes I can't say I blame the tech support people for not being able to help these types of people either. It would be different if we were paid for this. But seeing we're not, then why bother with it. In the end, they will need help again. And then they'll wonder why people aren't helping them. They point the finger, but forget where the other three are pointing back to.

[Bleeding Edge]

Yes. Nathan.

But what are we to do. Information is needed to help.

Sometimes it's like trying to sqeeze moisture from a rock.

MARR.
One more try.

First. Place the Master drive at the end of the IDE cable.

Second. Set the jumper on the Slave drive to CLS/CS (cable select).

Third. Update your motherboard Bios And your videoboard Bios.

Fourth. Do what Robert suggested. It recreates the C:\IO.SYS file. Then reset your CMOS information.

Fifth. Hop over to Maxtor's site to see what harddrive utilities/drivers are available.

[MARR]

I tried everything you suggested, execpt I wasn't able to get the bios update, keep getting file not foound. But now it seems to be working okay, no hangs.Thanks a lot for your time and help.

[Bleeding Edge]

We'll still help.

[Gorx]

I REM my DMI out of my Autoexec.bat
And then finally Deleted the Folder.
My Computer works fine.

TheGorx
http://pages.hotbot.com/arts/gorx/index.html

[Jin Vitas]

DMI is desktop management interface.. it is becoming a standard..I noticed some compaq systems are shipping with it installed (u might see a DMI icon near systray). if you are not in a major networking environment u will probably not need it..it is like a SNMP agent. but management for desktops. if you want to fix this problem do what gorx said.. if it is not in autoexec.bat then look in hkey local machine/software/microsoft/windows/current version/run and runservices... and delete it..

[This message has been edited by Jin Vitas (edited 04-15-99).]

[Nathan]

I thought you get that DMI error message before it gets to the config.sys file? Everytime you do a sys c: from a boot disk, it always solved the problem for me. Is there something else I'm missing?

[Bleeding Edge]

I think what MARR is saying (five posts up) is everthing seems to be okay now but he is having a problem finding/openig a file for the flash Bios upgrade, no?

[GPo]

Same problem here. Would not post at first.Tried to install bus master driver from Abit disk ( BH6 ) and lost my CDRom. First problem is with no CDRom I can't re install any drivers from a CD.All ports in HDD controllers are yellow flagged as conflicted now.Try the ideatapi.mpd driver this may bring back the IDE ports. Also win95A has been known to be very unstable with the BH6, so I've been told. Had to del tree windows and re install. Always posted after that. No problems now.
Thanks GPo

[This message has been edited by GPo (edited 04-15-99).]

[Jin Vitas]

sys c: will only replace dos system files.. DMI is an agent that runs under windows..

GpO u screwed up.. remove in device manager your harddisk controllers.. primary and secondary and busmaster all together..

NOTE system will become unstable and possibly hang.. make sure u do a POWER DOWN.. not a restart.

after windows detects everything make sure there are no other ! marks or any thing in other devices before u install the bus master drivers.. as well check your config.sys and autoexec.bat and rem out any lines referring to your cd rom..

as well as check for a virus.. normally ! marks on hdd controllers is caused by either conflicts or viruses.

[Nathan]

Now I'm confussed. That message "Verifying DMI Pool Data" comes up before the config.sys file. Oh well!

[clockedout]

Hard drive being new means nothing, I just bought a maxtor and it went bad within days

[Jin Vitas]

This is the boot sequence of win 9x.

- Io.sys

[starting windows 9x]

- Msdos.sys
- Config.sys
- Autoexec.bat
- Winboot.ini (if exist, used for progs that modify boot sequence. usually deleted after done loading)
- Windows\Winstart.bat (if exist, usually for TSRs)

[Splash Screen]

- Windows\System.ini
- Windows\Win.ini
- Windows\Wininit.ini
- Windows\System.dat <-where DMI is loading, most likely in http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
and\or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\RunServices

- Windows\User.dat
- (depends on which book win.ini)




[This message has been edited by Jin Vitas (edited 04-15-99).]

[Nathan]

Hi Jin.

I knew that sequence. I was just wondering what Windows had to do with that error message because you get it before Windows starts to load. But thanks for all the typing.

[Bleeding Edge]

Hey Nathan.

The following C&P may give you an better idea Or make you more bewildered.

If you go back over the posts here, you'll see that I first thought it was the drives. Then I thought it was a third party utility or a network related problem because of the DMI reference. But it couldn't be because of the exact reason you point out. So it was back to the drives again.

So with a little help..

Tech1-(paraphrased)
"DMI (Desktop Management Interface) info is gathered at boot time and stored in CMOS. Switching drives or messing with CMOS may reset this data. Removing an HD, booting with a different HD and then reinstalling the original one will even cause this error. I believe it's an Award BIOS bug (Even Ghost doesn't get around the problem).
You may try two things:
1) Boot to a system floppy with an OS corresponding to the boot HD's. Use the SYS command to recreate the C:\IO.SYS file. Then reboot to C:.
2) Reset CMOS and replace former settings. Using a CMOS save program is a good idea."

Tech2-
You are on the right track. The dmi pool is the pnp information. The system goes through a standard process as per the bios/chipset routine for post and then loads the operating system. I typically run into this problem when a user has installed a new 2nd hard drive and did not jumper it out as a master or slave as needed. It can also occur if for a variety of other reasons including drives installed in an order that the system can not work with such as a new fast drive in slave position and old slow drive in master position."

Hence the post dated 04/09.

[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 04-15-99).]

[Nathan]

Ok. My brains a little fried tonight. I'll think on this one. I never got that error message when I installed a new or second hard drive in a system. But this situation is different from the stand point of not knowing what the user is doing or how. I'll try to play around with the two hard drive setup and see if I can get that same error message to come up.

Thanks for the info. I'll be sleeping on it.

[Jin Vitas]

Here is a way to clear it up nathan... (verifying dmi pool data error)..
1. boot to the boot menu F8, if it is in the BIOS.. u WILL already have gotten the error...

2. Now choose command prompt only...(if it is in IO.sys or msdos.sys u will get the error here)..

3. okay reboot.. Hit F8 boot menu again..

4. Choose safe mode.. (see if u get the error here.. if u do its the registry.. if u dont.. its one of the startup files.. and registry..[either way registry])

5. Okay reboot go to windows.. u will get the error.. therefore in registry..

*In the reg key.. I pointed out..

DMI can be used to gather info about desktop and REMOTE management.. therefore it has to be an agent in windows.. not msdos.sys or io.sys.. (both dont make sense.. because no networking involved with those two files). i believe IBM and Intel are trying to incorporate DMI into the ROM chips.. but this is a pretty brand new standard..only up to DMI ver 2.0.. So if it is in BIOS it would be in the pentium II boards.. and later


[This message has been edited by Jin Vitas (edited 04-16-99).]

[Nathan]

Thanks. The only time I've ever seen it is when it starts to boot to the hard drive. I have never seen it in any other situation. Maybe I need to work on the second thousand systems so maybe I can get that message in a different situation. But sys c: always corrected it unless there was hard drive damage to that area of the drive (which produces different error message). So which is why I don't understand either about the need to have them in both windows and dos. I'm just wondering if there is some coralation between dos and windows for this problem? There must be. Now this is getting out of my area. I just want to continue to learn how to keep them running.

Ok. What changes in the BIOS that would cause that error message? If the drive is not detected properly or does not have the proper manual settings in CMOS, you can get many types of error messages like;

1. Missing operating system

2. DISK BOOT FAILURE...

3. Or the system will just hang and the cursor will sit there and blink.

If the drive is not formatted properly w/o the /s command, that's a different error message too.

Just goes to show, you can learn something new everyday.