Boot error

[techlink]

I recently rebuilt a computer by replacing MOBO, RAM, Processor, and hard drive.Running XP pro. Now I get an occasional boot error that says:
"Verifying DMI Pool Data....
Boot from CD:
Disk boot failure, insert system disk and pres enter"
there is no disk in the drive and I have switched the CD drive and still get the error. Wondering now if the ribbon cable is bad. Sometimes it boots ok and sometimes I get the error, when I get the error I hit Ctlr> Alt> Delete and it starts correctly. Any ideas? maybe bad cable or bad MOBO? Or maybe corrupt OS installation. Everything else seems to be fine.

 

[electronicsfreak]

adjust the settings so it will boot from hard drive first. If it still does it disable floppy drive. I think you had a floppy drive go bad as some systems do that when they go bad.

 

[techlink]

I have already set the hard drive as 1st boot. when you say disable the floppy do you mean just unplug it from MOBO or disable in bios? The floppy drive could be the culprit it is the only thing left from the old machine!

 

[electronicsfreak]

Disable it in bios and remove it. that should help it

 

[edfair]

Suspicion that it is a CD related issue. That for whatever reason the IDE channel it resides on is returning something that indicates there is a CD installed and when the attempt is made to read you get the error.

What type of cable, 40/80, CS or not? Where on the cable is the drive plugged and how is it jumpered? And do you have a longer or shorter cable that you could swap in for test?

Haven't had it on a CD, primarily because I set systems up as HD first, and only go to CD first as needed, but the same sort of problem can occur with hard drives. And generally the solution is cable related. Longer, shorter, type, or using a single position type by chopping the last segment off. You might also try separating the cables for each channel if they happen to be positioned together.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[mainegeek]

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/computer/dmi.html

 

[techlink]

thanks for the info, I will not be able to get to this until next week but I will try all the suggestions and get back here when I find out something.

 

[techlink]

The floppy drive tested good, so I ruled out removal. I changed the cabling as follows: Original setup had HDD on one cable IDE 1 and CDRW on one cable IDE 2. Changed to HDD master and CDRW slave on IDE 1 and removed IDE 2 cable. Haven't heard back yet if it continues to boot correctly, it was OK when I left.