cannot boot. Stops at "Verifying DMI pool data..."

[patchem]

Hi guys,
I have a Pentium 3 733MHz 128 MB.
I had a power failure and then when the electricity came it bursted the power supply. I got a new power supply and then booted the computer. while booting it gets stuck at "Verifying DMI pool data...". The hard disk is perfectly alright as I booted up with the HD in safe mode on another computer and everything on the disk is intack and working. The only thing I suspect is the BIOS having some problem.

Things I tried:
clear the CMOS by removing the battery from the Mother Board and also read the MB Manual to clear the BIOS. Followed this site:

http://www.qdi.nl/support/dmipool.htm

instructions.
The problem is that I want to flash the BIOS as I see that as the last option that may do the trick. BUT the computer wouldn't boot from a Win98 startup disk!!! I also tried resetting the BIOS defaults. Is the motherboard gone??? Does this mean I have to buy a new computer.

tried disabling everything in BIOS and then enabling. Also tried booting from a different boot disk. Same issue. Everytime the FFD's light goes on but it dosn't boot from it. it comes out and detects the HDisk, CDROM, Floppy, RAM, PCI Device listing, everything correctly during POST.
Then its say:

Updating ESCD...
Building DMI Pool...
Verifying Pool Data.....

and halts there.

Do yous think the Mother Board is gone?

thanks
patchem

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there, yes there is a possibility that the powersurge took out the mobo...

but I would firstly check the RAM, in another PC, then I would check the BIOS settings as to what it says about the HD (AUTO) like if it recognizes the drive at all, if not try to replace the CABLE...

Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[patchem]

tried replacing the RAM as well. The only hardware on the MB was the Video card, mouse, KB, RAM and HD. It detects all these devices correctly during POST. The HDD in the BIOS is on Auto. Also tried disconnecting the CDROM and used the CDROM BUS with the HD. The wierd thing is its not booting from the floppy.

going to get another PC now..

thanks

 

[AckNack]

This may or may not help, but it's worth a quick try.

Look in CMOS setup for the setting "Update ESCD" or "Force Update ESCD" and change it to Enables or Yes.

It's in PnP/PCI Configuration on the PC I just checked here, but it may be elsewhere on yours.

Every once in awhile, I've found this to work when the computer gets stuck where you said yours is.

AckNack

http://www.diypctech.com

 

[DragonQ0105]

This happened to me. A motherboard replacement did the job.

 

[Roham]

Don't rule your hard drive out yet! I just had one that gave me this error and ran the Western Digital diagnostics (or whatever your brand is). It found errors that were supposedly correctable. It said that it had corrected them, but really had not when I scanned again. I was able to fdisk the drive and reimage it (I have this luxury since I work at a company with images). In another case, the drive simply wouldn't be fixed by the diagnostics.

You may have fixed your problem by now, but good luck if you are still looking.