computer wont boot up all the way

[garebo]

Error message on booting:
updating escd
building dmi pool

THAT COMES ON BOOTUP AND BOOTUP WONT FINISH

My friend brought his box over, thinking I could help him, so far no luck. He is clueless so I set it up in the first place. Worked fine for him for a few months,win98se, then one day the monitor got knocked about and he turned on the computer and gets this:
updating escd
building dmi pool

and it stays right there.

sometimes I get a checksum error and the odd time a keyboard error and it says to press f1 and then
I get the "building dmi error again"

It is an older p 166, mobo is Tekram. I checked the ram, vid and sound card, hard drive, floppy, etc, they are all plugged in properly.
I have installed my own monitor, keyboard and mouse on it and disconnected the floppy and cdrom but the prob remains.

After trying to get this unit going, I set the bios to its original settings but that hasnt helped.

I flashed the bios for him at the time I installed win98se

AWARD BIOS V4.51 PG
TRMP5T30B4 V1.08
AWARD 1.0A

I have tried another video card and get the same error message.

I have reduced the system to just the mobo, power supply, vid card, cpu/hs/fan, i stick ram
and still get the same error message.
Also, there is no set of 3 pins so that I can clear the bios. Instead I have taken the
battery out overnight. I have looked at tekram.com for info on clearing the bios and
so far have found nothing. Except that there is mention of "reset configuration data" in the
bios. I set it to enable and then f10 to save and exit. It does that and then hangs
and when I turn the computer off and an again, I am back at the same error message
as above.

Any help appreciated by both of us.
thanks

 

[gargouille]

Here's a link to a coherent step-by-step troubleshooting routine with 3 options: (at least one of them calls for format/reinstall)

http://makeashorterlink.com/?B63022842

I'll be surprised if one of them doesn't work.

 

[mainegeek]

When I have encountered this problem it has been from
a low/dead cmos battery, bad/corrupt master boot record
or failing hard drive.

Check or replace the cmos battery.

If you can get it to boot from a boot disk (which I doubt)
A:\Fisk/mbr

If that doesn't fix it try another hard drive.

 

[garebo]

To Gargouille
Thanks, will give them a try. But I cant format re-install as I cant even boot!! I just read the whole thing. Have already done all that. I save it in the bios and f10 to save and exit. But instead of rebooting the screen just goes blank. I have to turn the power off and then back on, and then I get the error message again.

To Maingeek
I dont even have the h drive hooked up. But will replace the battery. Should have tested it!! Thanks
The battery was very low. I replaced it but still get the same error messages.
This computer was used quite a bit and wasnt sitting around, but the monitor fell. Not the computer, just the monitor fell. But I am using my own monitor and have replaced the vid card as well.

 

[mainegeek]

Re-attach the hard drive. Enter the cmos setup.
Under standard cmos setting, make sure that both
primaries and both secondaries are set to NONE.
Save and exit. Let it POST all the way through.
Then go back into cmos setup, leave them set to NONE and
run the IDE Auto Detection. Save and exit.

 

[garebo]

Did as you suggested, no luck, will try a few more times.

 

[mainegeek]

Did the IDE auto detection at least detect the presence
of a hard drive with the following options?

NORMAL
LARGE
LBA

 

[garebo]

yes, it did, it came up with either normal or large, i forget which. I am looking up the parameters of the hard drive right now. I prolly have them somewhere.

 

[garebo]

Looks like I didnt save the hard drive parameters. Will have to check the h drive and go from there.

 

[garebo]

hard drive now recognized in bios.
Still same error message.

 

[gargouille]

Tried turning off PNP in the BIOS?
ESCD has to do with this...
Any legacy(=old) devices aboard?
Might be problem with them...
tried leaning on the Insert key when in the POST?

And of course a link or 2 with things to try/thinkabout

http://www.techadvice.com/tech/E/ESCD.htm

http://www.techadvice.com/tech/D/DMI.htm

 

[garebo]

I believe I have tried turning off pnp, actually sure it was off many times, but will try again.
As for legacy, the whole computer is legacy, lol, but, yes I have an idea what you mean. I took out the sound card til i get this prob resolved. I also changed vid cards as mentioned above, since it was the monitor that fell, so now I have an isa vid card, but vid works fine at this point.
I recently hooked up the hard drive, before that all I had was the cpu hs/fan, power supply, vid card, minimum ram, mouse, keyboard. The mouse is ps/2.
Will do the "pnp" thing again to make sure and will check the links you gave me.
Thanks

 

[garebo]

I have already done suggestions in those 2 links except for this one:

For M-technology motherboards you might have to set the bios jumpers to program mode (or 5V Flash mode).

I am looking in the manual to see if there is any reference to this.