computer stops when "varifying DMI pool data"

[modelX]

I had my computer put together for me at a computer shop and had win2000 put on it. Win2000 was too slow so I formatted the HD and put win98SE (from a russian CD with a bunch of other versions of windows on it--this could be the problem). I have an aureal vortex1 sound card and a diamond viper 770 non ultra video card.
My screen is greenish. It was greenish on win2000 and I hooked a different screen up to my computer on this ruski win98 and the color was okay but it made my computer freeze right after windows discoverd the new screen and loaded a new driver for it.
I have reason to believe that my sound card is the culprit because the computer sometimes freezes when there's sound going on. I've loaded the latest driver for my soundcard and it still is bad.
The worst problem is that my computer stops doing anything when starting up right after it checks the memory and says verifying DMI pool data. I have to pray to make it work. Then it works.
I have a shuttle spacewalker AV64 mainboard. I've tried loading "fail safe defaults" and then "optimized defaults" in BIOS or CMOS-whatever it is. And it still has this problem with getting stuck on "verifying DMI pool data".
There is no yellow exclamation point on any of my peripherals in the device manager under system properties, so they are supposed to be acting okay.
Help, please

 

[butchrecon]

Remove the Sound Card then try it. Does the lock up continue. Your next problem is the Bad (Illegal) version of Windows. I am assuming it is copied. If so, those things should not be trusted for they can hold viruses that can kill your system. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

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[Guest_imported]

I had a similiar problem, turned out to be a bad HDD, had two in a row from a store, they even admitted it.

 

[modelX]

Thank you for you responses, I found out it was a bad ribbon cable. It works fine now.

 

[Guest_imported]

the old snake under the nose, thing. Always check the obvious first.